In the past two decades or so, an approach to teaching and riding horses has been tagged as natural horsemanship. Educating humans about how to educate their horses through feel rather than force has become a popular hands-on clinic attraction. The basic premise of the natural approach involves educating horses using behavioral techniques and working with their natural instincts (such as herd dynamics) to mold those instincts into desirable behaviors. The result is a horse that responds out of respect to her handler (her herd leader) rather than fear.

Nicholas Evans's novel The Horse Whisperer and the subsequent movie directed by and starring Robert Redford thrust the natural horsemanship approach into the mainstream. It was heavily commercialized by national clinicians and pitched to the public as if it were some startling new breakthrough discovery about horse behavior.

Unfortunately, the original intent of natural horsemanship has become a bit convoluted by all the hype and marketing. Worst of all, it has misled some people to believe that they can accomplish miracles with their horses with little effort, education, or experience in horse training, which is simply not true. Natural horsemanship requires a great deal of study and accumulated knowledge, but it is a worthwhile pursuit for anyone who is interested in making life better for horses, as well as their personal relationship with them.

If you are willing to spend a lot of time at this rather difficult approach, it can result in a horse that works willingly in a relaxed frame of mind because he's not constantly fearful of punishment. Horses that respect and like their handlers learn to look to their people for support. They are much more apt to tuck some of their natural reactions aside and trust their people to help them through new or scary situations.