Americas Epidemic: Horsemanship Deficiency

70% of the horse industry is made up of trail riders, which I find awesome! Almost 3/4 of the industry is involved with horses solely because they LOVE horses! But even in today’s day and age with an information superhighway at our fingertips there is a true lack of true horsemanship. Horsemanship is so much more than meeting the basic needs of a horse and having a horse that doesn’t buck you off. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve spent in a saddle, if you never learned past the basics of turn, stop and go you haven’t advanced beyond a beginner (no matter how fast you can turn, stop and go either.) The most common problems hobbyist riders encounter are horses that won’t load, hard to catch, buddy sour, won’t stand tied, and won’t stand for a farrier. These are all green horse problems that should be over with by the time the horse has had 90 days training on them. So why are people having these problems with their 10+ year old horses?