This painting is of Nanning, a Friesian stallion with such stature, he stands out in a crowd -- even a crowd of Friesians!

Friesians seem to be such willing horses, always willing to do the right thing. Not all horses are like that (and probably not all Friesians are really like that either!), but after having just read Mark Rashid's new book, Whole Horse, Whole Heart, I wonder how much of bad horse behavoir is a result of bad (or wrong) human behavior.

Mark writes that horses are looking for a leader, so they can relax and follow. If we do the right thing, the horse seems to do the right thing too. Developing a focus, and keeping your mind on the right behavior you desire from your horse seems to magically produce the right behavior in the horse. I've tried it with Sorpresa with very good results!

And yesterday I read about an amazingly brilliant scientific study that proves human behavior has a direct effect on horse behavior. Here's a link to a short summary of the study: Nervous Humans=Nervous Horses.

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