“For the Love of the Horse”

Answer 1 of 3 questions

Do you like to read a book you can’t put down?

Are you interested in animal or human behavior?

Are you a “horse person” wanting to expand your knowledge of horses?

And you’ll enjoy a great book

If you answered yes to any of the above three, you’ll very much enjoy the book “For the Love of the Horse”, by Mark Rashid

I know nothing about horses -

I’ll readily admit, I am not a horse person. I know nothing about horses and have had very little experience with them.

The little that I have had, I think the horse fully understood I knew nothing.

However, and perhaps because of that experience, I do enjoy reading about horse behavior. And that leads to me this book.

Years ago I visited a horse training facility to observe a little of their training. That didn’t quite happen for different reasons, though I did receive some training tapes to watch.

As I remember, part of the training incorporated the use of a long flexible stick (my term, not the correct term). Again, knowing nothing about horses, I thought a horse probably doesn’t like that. And it certainly wasn’t a concept I could transfer to anything I was involved with.

I consequently tossed the tapes and quit reading about horse training - until.

My curiosity was piqued -

I first met Mark a few years ago while attending an evening Cowboy Brad sing-along performance in Estes Park, Colorado one summer evening, Brad and Mark are both professional musicians (singer/songwriter, recording artists), performing in Bond Park a few nights each week for the tourists.

Somewhat by accident, I found out his day job was horse training, and not just locally. Mark has traveled extensively the world over providing horse clinics and sharing his lifelong knowledge of horsemanship. From this discussion, I learned he had written a number of books on the subject.

My interest in horse behavior was once again piqued. I quickly purchased and read three of his books.

Considering the Horse

Mark’s philosophy and methods of training horses was exactly what I envisioned it should be. He considers the horse (which is coincidentally his company name as well).

• What is going on with the horse, physically and emotionally?

• How does the rider interact with the horse, and vice versa?

• What does simple observation reveal, and understanding bring?

I’ve just made his training sound rather simplistic, and I can assure you it is not.

However, it was this type of observation and “ecological” approach (my term, not Mark’s) - that most interested me.

He takes the entirety of the horse’s physical, mental, emotional state into consideration, and understands that each is interconnected,

It was far better - in my non-horse mind - than using a flexible stick. Mark’s methods and philosophy was (and are) transferable.

“For the Love of the Horse”

Thirty years after writing his first book, Mark has published his 12th which is titled “For the Love of the Horse”.

Have you ever picked up a book you just wanted to keep reading? Looked forward to the opportunity to do so each night?

This is one such book.

In fact, I found it so enjoyable that one evening we lost power during a storm. From 7pm on, we were dark. By the beam of the flashlight, I continued to read well into the night.

Mark shares his life experiences as he developed and honed his philosophy with horses. It has been an interesting journey, not without setbacks and then with diamonds.

I think we can all relate to many of his life experiences in our own work, even if it is not with horses.

Equally, Mark shares what he has learned from the horses, as well other experts in the field of horsemanship. This broad category includes dentistry, healthcare, and even physiological and psychological attributes of the horse.

For me, it is written so well that it invites the reader - without saying as such - to expand their own knowledge into these and other areas of horsemanship.

Three Areas Stood Out

As I was reading “For the Love of the Horse”, three areas stood out for me. If you are a horse person, you’ll no doubt find so many others.

As a non- horse person, these three really showed the strength of this book, and no doubt the reason why Mark is so successful with his horse training clinics.

The First - Stimulus - Pause - Response

As a youngster, Mark was learning about horses through his neighbor.

Walter, as we come to know him, was an older, wiser horseman who would answer a question only after giving it some thought.

At the same time, it was apparently not uncommon for him to first take a cigarette out of a pack, place it his mouth, light it, then provide the answer.

Mark mentioned he has picked up this trait (though without the cigarette) of pausing to reflect on the answer before responding.

This immediately brought to mind the same Stimulus-Pause-Response that I had read some years back in Steven Covey’s book, “Seven Habits for Highly Successful People”. In each case, the concept is about creating a future with thought, rather than merely a reaction.

The Second - Connection

Within the book, Mark also shares how he sees the rider becoming “connected” to the horse, and vice versa.

It was through his own personal training of Aikido where this thought of connectedness developed.

Once again, this brought to mind another book I had read, “The Magic of Conflict” by Thomas Crum. In this book, the author shares how we can all utilize the concepts taught within Aikido to better manage our own relationships, to become centered within ourselves, and connected with those around us.

In a totally different book, in a totally different environment, the same concepts of Aikido apply.

The Third - Lifelong Learning

Graduation from any school (grade school, high school, trade school, college, etc.) is just the starting point of our education, never the end point.

Our experience, background and education provide the foundation for life-learning, regardless of endeavor.

Late in the book, Mark was talking about this topic.

People “choose to discontinue their learning. As a result, their knowledge and skill development, having reached a specific level, has effectively come to an end”. “The maximum level of response available to them is limited to the last thing they learned on the day they discontinued their education.”

As our interests change over time, we will naturally shift our learning from one subject to the next. It’s an opportunity to learn and experience new things.

How sad it would be if one were to just quit learning anything.

Regardless of subject, in any aspect of one’s life, the individual would terminate all future understanding, ideas, creativity and potential. One would instantly become “limited to the last thing they learned on the day they discontinued their education.”

. I think Mark hit the nail on the head when he wrote the response “ is limited to the last thing they learned on the day they discontinued their education”.

That’s why I’m a firm believer of life-long learning.

To Get Your Copy - and Start Highlighting

There is so much more in this book available to the reader.

Each of us will “highlight” different sections.

Yes, it’s a habit I picked up in college. To this day I read every book with a highlighter. I can say many sections in this book are in yellow!

To get your own personal copy - and one for a friend - go direct to Mark’s website Books – Mark Rashid It’s the first one, top left. (Also available on Amazon)