The Importance of Trust

       A wise man once told me "It is not important that you trust the horse, but that the horse trusts you". That wise guy happened to be a great thoroughbred trainer buddy of mine, and "once" was yesterday, but that's not the point. The point is that the single most important thing to ANY relationship, whether it's a human-human or human-animal, is trust. Without trust, your relationship will never, ever succeed. It's as simple as that.
     The best way to earn your horse's trust is by being a good leader. Stay confident, even when you're scared to death. I know, that sounds a little impossible, but you have to keep in mind that your horse can sense how you are feeling. If you are tense and scared, he'll be tense and scared. If you're relaxed, he'll know that he can relax. You can't "ride scared" and expect for your horse to be cool calm and collected.
     It may just be the crazy teenager in me, but very few things scare me. "My" horse, Drover, knows that, and that's why we work so well together. He has absolute faith that if something pops out in front of him on the trail, and I don't freak out about it then there's no reason for him to freak out about it.
     The younger you start working with a horse, the better your relationship will be. The perfect example of this is my friend's Rocky Mountain filly. By the time she was 5 minutes old, we had already had our hands all over her. This is a picture of the same filly at four months old.

There is nothing more beautiful than a horse that will let you enter her stall while she's napping, and just let you lay down beside her. The only thing more amazing than this is her allowing someone to actually sit on her. 

When your horses trust you, there is nothing that you can't do with them.