Some Things Never Change

Xenophon's birth date is uncertain, but most scholars agree that he was born around 431 BC near the city of Athens. He is often cited as being the original "horse whisperer", having advocated sympathetic horsemanship in his "Xenophon On Horsemanship." He quotes some guy named Simon as being better then he was with horses, so his technique wasn’t new even then.
Since I’m neglecting you guys so terribly I thought the least I could do is share some of my research I’m doping at the paper.

These are quotes from “Xenophon On Horsemanship” which resonated with me.
I’m going to compare them to Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance’s books….kinda fun huh?
I conveniently ignored the part that said to put a cobblestone floor in your stall to toughen your horses feet and a few other horse keeping techniques which are real head scratchers.
Here’s some of the highlights…..proof positive saying none of us trainer types thought this stuff up. Not even Xenophon.

Xenophon says – “A good deal can be done by touching, stroking, patting those parts of the body which the creature likes to have so handled. These are the hairiest parts, or where, if there is anything annoying him, the horse can least of all apply relief himself.

“-if he knows how to let the animal connect hunger and thirst and the annoyance of flies with solitude, whilst associating food and drink and escape from sources of irritation with the presence of man. As the result of this treatment, necessarily the young horse will acquire--not fondness merely, but an absolute craving for human beings.

“The one best precept--the golden rule--in dealing with a horse is never to approach him angrily. Anger is so devoid of forethought that it will often drive a man to do things which in a calmer mood he willregret.

“This principle, though capable of being stated in a few words, is one which holds good throughout the whole of horsemanship. As, for instance, a horse will more readily take the bit, if each time he accepts it some good befalls him; or, again, he will leap ditches and spring up embankments and perform all the other feats incumbent on him, if he be led to associate obedience to the word of command with relaxation.

“To quote a dictum of Simon, what a horse does under compulsion he does blindly, and his performance is no more beautiful than would be that of a ballet-dancer taught by whip and goad. The performances of horse or man so treated would seem to be displays of clumsy gestures rather than of grace and beauty.

On the contrary, let the horse be taught to be ridden on a loose bridle, and to hold his head high and arch his neck, and you will practically be making him perform the very acts which he himself delights or rather exults in…

“For ourselves, however, far the best method of instruction, as we keep repeating, is to let the horse feel that whatever he does in obedience to the rider's wishes will be followed by some rest and relaxation.

“Whatever the kind of bit may be, the rider must carry out precisely the same rules in using it, as follows, if he wishes to turn out a horse with the qualities described. The horse's mouth is not to be pulled back too harshly so as to make him toss his head aside, nor yet so gently that he will not feel the pressure. But the instant he raises his neck in answer to the pull, give him the bit at once; and so throughout, as we never cease repeating, at every response to your wishes, whenever and wherever the animal performs his service well reward and humor him.”