09/11/2026
Good article!
Here is my problem with natural horsemanship. It is step one of a horse training program that somehow got marketed as the whole damn education.
It is basically horse training for dummies. Move the feet, yield the hip, back up, lick and chew, and walk circles around somebody wearing enough turquoise to interfere with air traffic. There is nothing wrong with starting there, but quit pretending the horse has a university degree because it passed kindergarten.
If every problem gets answered by tipping the nose and disengaging the hindquarters, you are not fixing the problem. You are taking the horse’s power away until it physically cannot continue doing what it was doing.That is not the same as teaching it. The hindquarters are the engine of the horse. The stop, turnaround, lead departure, lead change, forward drive, and nearly every athletic movement come from the hip.Then the natural horsemanship crowd spends every day disconnecting that engine and acting surprised when the truck will not pull a trailer.
When you disengage a horse, the inside hind foot steps across or behind the other hind foot. The hip swings away, the horse loses its power, and more weight falls onto the front end.Try it yourself. Put your left foot behind your right foot and try to walk forward with any speed. You will either have to straighten yourself out or trip over your own feet. If you fall down, just lick your lips. Apparently that means you learned something.
So you take all the power away from the horse’s hip, then expect it to stop hard, turn correctly, change leads, and perform athletically. When it stumbles, falls onto its shoulders, leans in the stop, bottle spins in the turnaround, or changes leads late behind, everybody blames the horse. Well no s**t. You spent months teaching it to throw its ass away every time it felt pressure. Now you want it to stay straight, keep its hip underneath itself, and drive forward.
You taught the wrong answer and now you are mad because the horse remembers it.
The bucking argument is just as stupid. People are taught that if a horse bucks, pull its head around and disengage it. Go watch a good bronc rider. A horse bucking straight can often be ridden because the motion is still predictable. What usually launches somebody is when the horse changes direction, jumps sideways, ducks through a shoulder, swaps leads, or throws its hip out.
So why would you take a horse that is already bucking and purposely pull it farther out of balance? Now the head is going one way, the shoulders are going another, the hip is swinging out, and the hind feet are crossing. The rider gets thrown to the outside, falls behind, gets launched over the hip, and possibly hangs a foot in a stirrup. That is where those dreaded spur marks dragged across the top of the saddle come from. But do not worry. Somebody standing safely on the ground will explain how you lacked connection.
Disengagement does have a purpose. It can establish basic control, redirect a young horse, or prevent trouble before it gets started.But it is one tool. A hammer is useful too, but if you use it to fix everything, eventually you are just the idiot beating on a washing machine.
Natural horsemanship has taught plenty of people how to perform exercises without teaching them what those exercises actually do.
They know how to move the hip, but not where the feet are going. They know how to bend the neck, but don’t know how to direct the shoulders or what is happening through the body.
They know how to make a horse look quiet, but not whether it is balanced, connected, confused, or mentally checked out.
Funny how every “liberty horse” has its ears pinned and its tail spinning like a helicopter blade.
A horse licking its lips does not mean it is trained. A horse following you does not mean it is broke. A horse walking circles around you does not make you a horseman. Sometimes it just means you both got your steps in for the day.
Can the horse stay straight? Can it carry itself? Can it drive from behind? Can it stay between your hands and legs? Can it handle pressure without falling apart? Can it still perform when things get fast, loud and hard?
That is where you find out what you have. The clock does not care about your groundwork philosophy. The judge does not score licking and chewing. The steer does not slow down because your horse followed you around without a lead rope.
At some point, the horse has to go do an actual job.
Natural horsemanship teaches the ABCs, and there is nothing wrong with that. Everyone has to begin somewhere. Just quit pretending you wrote the whole damn book because your horse can spell its name!
Written by Dusty Harvey
