Trainer Profile: Rick Weinberg

 

Like most of us who live with horses, I have a deep love of equines and a strong desire to have them in my life. I have been searching for a way to be with horses that meets my needs to honor them as equal sentient inhabitants of the earth, serves the life in them as well as my own, and meets all of our (horses and humans) needs for safety, mutual education, enjoyment, and good health. I started with horses later in my life. When I got my first horse, Rocky, he only wanted to run really fast. I was fortunate to figure out that he needed to know that that I could ride as fast as he could run. Only then did he slow down. This experience lead me to seek out more knowledge about what a horse might need from a human. I was lucky to have the opportunity to ride with some great clinicians. I was learning a lot, but an important piece of my personal horsemanship ideal was still missing. When I first met Leslie in 1999 and began to practice horsemanship through Feel, I began to relate with horses in a way that finally felt comfortable to me and to the horses I was working with. I am grateful to Leslie for all the help and guidance she has offered me.

In Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, Gulliver lands in a place where horses rule. One observation he makes about the horse culture is “they have no Word in their Language to express Lying or Falsehood. ……. because Doubting, or not believing, are so little known in this Country, that the Inhabitants {the horses} cannot tell how to behave themselves under such Circumstances”. I appreciate this honesty in horses and I try to offer them the consistent, meaningful communications that they need to feel secure and comfortable with me.

Feel is the language of the horse. As my fluency in Feel improves, the horses I meet let me know when they understand “what I mean by what I do”. Two ways of asking a horse for movement or non- movement (stop) have been particularly effective for me. One is a properly timed release that can communicate to a horse my intention to move or place it’s feet in a specific way, without applying pressure. The other is defining for the horse the boundaries of my personal space. A horse naturally wants to leave an area that I have claimed for myself. This area could be as small as the space under one hoof, or as large as an entire pasture. I have found that horses will respond to my releases and definitions of space with life energy equal to the life energy of my request. When I make my intentions clear to a horse with softness, using release without pressure, clear definition of my personal space, and careful use of my life energy, the response from the horse is usually immensely satisfying for both of us. Small successes motivate continuing efforts.

The small note that Bill requested be inserted in the first printing of “True Horsemanship Through Feel” says “True Horsemanship Through Feel is handed down from one friend to another” Leslie has always shared her knowledge and skills with a spirit of friendship. My hope is that through coaching I can help others to experience the willing cooperation, and closeness that horses have available to humans with Feel.