Is it science, or is it art?
We need to blend the science with the art when it comes to horsemanship and working with horses.
My current Farrier is a good Farrier. He has a lot of knowledge and experience and he's helped a lot of horses. He's an old school cowboy and he's a good man. One of the things that always had me sold on this Farrier was he was the only man my heart horse King would let catch.
In the early days of owning King, the Farrier I employed at the time HATED King. He refused to do work on him without me (a 14 year old girl) holding him. King always looked at him wide eyed, looking for an escape route. One wrong step would result in a wallop from the rasp. He was also an old school cowboy.
My Farrier now took it as a badge of honor from King the day he let him catch him.
Anybody that could catch King had my trust. It takes handling a broken horse to understand who to trust and, just as importantly, who not to trust.
So he is old school and he’s getting on in age, but he's a good man. So much will be lost with him. He's memories, his experiences, his life lessons and horse lessons.
A breaker he's working with at a racehorse stud told him it's not the breakers job to have the horse picking their feet up, it's the Farrier’s. A poorly handled thoroughbred landed on him. Put a dent in his head and gave him a concussion. He's starting to not remember things now.
This industry is hard to work. Experiences are tough and cut you to the quick. The life lessons are hard because they are life and death lessons. It makes them so much more real. So much experience will be lost with this man. And even though some of the things are "scientifically" inaccurate, a lot of science has come forward that confirms things he had already learnt through his work with the horses. Because all this time, he listened to the horse he had on the day!
It's one thing to be a Farrier. It's something all together different to be a Farrier and a horseman.
This mini rant is really about one thing. Blending the science and the art of connected horsemanship is difficult when you have lost your confidence, or just don’t know where to start because you are constantly told very different things by different people. It’s why we have put together the free Building Connection Training, so you can start understanding how and why to listen to your horse.