Excerpts from recent articles and radio:
Imprinting
"... what has ensued from this immediate post-partum handling (known as imprinting) is a foal that would leave its mother to come to me when I called, that had a trusting and confident and respectful curiosity about humans and the human environment, and that learned the basics of leading, tying and float loading by the time he was 3 days of age. There is no doubt that the imprinting process works for benefit of horse and human ..."
Leadership
"... Horses are natural followers, looking for natural leaders. A calm, friendly, fair, decisive and firm leader earns respect in the horse world. And the herd members can only be as brave as their leader. Respect has to be earned, it's not an automatic right. This thinking is very helpful to humans who aspire to have their horse's respect ..."
Fear
"... all the undesirable physical behaviours such as bolting, running off scared into solid objects, bucking, lashing out with feet or teeth ... are signs of fear, insecurity or confusion. In an instant a horse can turn terrified, his primeval instincts pointing him in one direction - to survive at any cost. This explains a lot ... and can teach us plenty ...."