Buckaroo Texan Blog

In the horse world you will hear people talking about “presence”.  This is something every human and every horse has.   To portray a positive “presence” that is confident and at peace with oneself, is not always easy.  

How do I portray a good “presence’?   A person who believes in himself, and his   abilities, is humble, is confident, is at peace with himself and the world around him, will have this good presence just flow off of him.   This is usually gained through lots of experience.  Experience can not be taught, it is lived. Experience is all the times that things went right and when things went wrong.   The combination of all these experiences helps you build confidence in many situations and to be able to make the split second decisions that help the moment turn out good.  Presence is something you earn as you learn.  Presence develops overtime and is a combination of your life experiences, not just the time around horses.   You need to be open to observe, remember and compare. 

Horses will react good and bad to your presence.   The better your presence portrays leadership, authority, respect and humility, the better a horse will respond to you, in other words, the horse will have a good presence.   Your presence must be an ability to adjust your actions and outlook to fit a given situation.  Now we are back to looking at your experiences.   To develop your relationship with your horse or any horse you are around you need to gather lots of experience and it does take effort on your part to observe, remember and compare. 

Study books and videos of riders you admire and get a sense of their presence and how it flows to the horses they work with. Also, study the presence of the horses you see and how their presence changes.  Go to as many events that you can to observe the masters in their fields of horsemanship, to get the presence of their relationships in person.  Now compare  your presence, the presence of your horse and the presence of your friends and acquaintances you come in contact with.   You can get an idea of how your presence influences your horses for good or bad and see where you need to make changes to improve your flow.  Getting lessons, participating in clinics and asking questions about presence will help you see yourself as you are now and help you adjust at a faster rate to make all your relationships with horses grow into a calm, healthy, self confident ability.

My training is in the Buckaroo Way and I offer consultation services to those who believe in partnership of horse and rider.                    Jeannie