Book Review: The Essence Of Good Horsemanship - Ross Jacobs
I haven't written one of these in a while, but this is an important book so I'll share my opinions of it here as well:
One of the problems with most of the great horse trainers and clinicians is that although they are brilliant at working with horses or explaining what is happening with the horse in front of them, they are not always as good at teaching humans as they are at teaching horses and - at the next layer of remove - the number of definitive books on horsemanship can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Ross Jacobs is a clinician, a trainer and a writer and in all of those settings he stands out for his excellent communication skills, with people as well as horses.
In this book, Ross sets out to explore what lies at the very heart of horsemanship. Unlike many books in the field, it isn't tied to any particular discipline or style of riding but instead seeks to draw out what lies in common across disciplines and of course at the heart of them all is the horse. There are many books on how to train horses to peak fitness, how to improve your performance over fences or in the dressage arena but none of them really go into any depth on how to work with a horse's mind although that is usually the single most powerful governing factor in both the performance of the horse and the relationship between horse and rider. The Essence Of Good Horsemanship fills that gap.
The book explores three central pillars of working with the horse - Focus, Clarity and Softness and considers how to develop all three and how each one affects the other two. It is broken up into short chapters, each separating out an important idea and exploring it in detail. The writing is clear and easy to follow, combining expertise, personal experience and scientific evidence to shine light on topics that are traditionally difficult to grasp but become accessible through Ross' writing.
One of the problems with most of the great horse trainers and clinicians is that although they are brilliant at working with horses or explaining what is happening with the horse in front of them, they are not always as good at teaching humans as they are at teaching horses and - at the next layer of remove - the number of definitive books on horsemanship can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Ross Jacobs is a clinician, a trainer and a writer and in all of those settings he stands out for his excellent communication skills, with people as well as horses.
In this book, Ross sets out to explore what lies at the very heart of horsemanship. Unlike many books in the field, it isn't tied to any particular discipline or style of riding but instead seeks to draw out what lies in common across disciplines and of course at the heart of them all is the horse. There are many books on how to train horses to peak fitness, how to improve your performance over fences or in the dressage arena but none of them really go into any depth on how to work with a horse's mind although that is usually the single most powerful governing factor in both the performance of the horse and the relationship between horse and rider. The Essence Of Good Horsemanship fills that gap.
The book explores three central pillars of working with the horse - Focus, Clarity and Softness and considers how to develop all three and how each one affects the other two. It is broken up into short chapters, each separating out an important idea and exploring it in detail. The writing is clear and easy to follow, combining expertise, personal experience and scientific evidence to shine light on topics that are traditionally difficult to grasp but become accessible through Ross' writing.