Horses only do what we ask them to do. Horses do not know our agenda, or what it means to carry us in balance. The horse only reacts to our actions, our weight and our balance.

In the TV reality series "Amazing Race" contestants had to ride horses in Argentina. A woman didn't know how to ride and was swaying all over the place in the saddle. Her horse tried to catch her, moving under her left and right, which of course unseated this woman so badly she started falling, caught her horse with reins, and caused him to rear. The woman fell down and everybody thought that the horse was acting up. This is an extreme case of a horse's reaction to our lack of balance. However, to some extent, this happens to all of us. We lose our balance, we give confusing aids, we use reins to keep us in the saddle and we expect our horses to deal with all that and to figure out what we want. The most amazing thing is that horses do figure out what we ask them to do. Unfortunately for them, they do this very well leaving us to believe that we are in control and know what we are doing.

I don't like the phrase "to sit" when I talk about rider on a horse. To sit is to relax, to give up your weight and balance. This is the last thing you want to do on a horse - to give up your balance, to become loose and floppy. We are not passengers on our horses. We do not relax and follow their movement. In this partnership, we must play a leading role.

	A horse can give us a movement, an energy but we have to shape the movement, we have to direct the energy.