“The journey you share with your horse is unique to you, and no-one can give you all the answers. I believe human teachers such as myself can help guide you along the way, but there can be no replacing the true teachers – the horses.” – Perry Wood.

Perry Wood has written several very good horse books and I especially like his common sense, down-to-earth approach, anchored in a deep understanding of the classical principles of horsemanship.

His book, How to create the perfect riding horse, reviewed for a second time in this edition of SA Horseman, deals with the elements that constitute a perfect riding horse, and the way in which he approaches the subject has impressed me tremendously – in fact, I consider this book to be one of my all-time favourites.

The perfect horse

Reading it again, I was reminded of a piece I wrote a few years ago about the perfect horse, which was inspired by this book. The conclusion I came to then, was that any horse has only one job and that is to make its owner happy.
But we as riders have an equally important job – to empower our horses so that they can indeed be perfect for us. They only reflect what we put into them; it is up to us to make them perfect.

It is possible, says Wood, to spend a lot of time and money in pursuit of the ‘perfect horse’, but it does not always pay off – even the greatest looking, well-bred horses can fall short of the mark. There are three key ingredients to the perfect riding horse, he believes: conformation, temperament and time.

Conformation and temperament, he then explains, are certainly key ingredients, but what makes the ultimate difference is what you actually do with the horse and how much time you put in.

“You could have,” he stresses, “the best-made, kindest tempered horse in the world, but if you don’t train it or do very much with it, it still won’t be a great riding horse. You may not consider yourself a horse trainer but in reality, every time you sit on a horse you are training it, either to go better or to go worse!”

Another horseman I respect very much, once told me a very simple but profound truth: Set your horse up for success, not for failure. Make it possible for it to be successful in doing what you ask by not asking too much and by stopping while it is doing it well. Allow it to be successful!

Izak Hofmeyr