Greetings from Nose to The Ground; the beagle-inspired newsletter bringing you the latest from Your-Guide-To-Gifts-For-Horse-Lovers.com.

Happy Holidays! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Winter is a little slow in coming here to NW Montana. The ski resorts opened on Thanksgiving but we have only had a little snowfall in the valleys. As far as the horses are concerned we would rather have snow than cold rainy weather but they are doing just fine so far. At least we've gotten the supply of hay in while our road still permits deliveries. Baby beagle "Clancy" is adjusting to the household fine and has been introduced to the "big beagles" - the horses.

We've added a new page to the site which, if you have any horse-lovin' kids on your list you might want to visit. We've planned a Children's Gift Page for some time but other priorities seemd to always get in the way. The holiday season spurred us to action. Most of what you'll find there is offerred by Back in The Saddle, but they have a truly great selection of gift ideas for the Young Rider. You'll find it all on our Gifts for Kids page.

Another new page just sort of happened. While looking through our list of Cool Gift Ideas it occurred to us that of the somewhat out-of-the-ordinary gift ideas, the most obvious was missing, the gift of a horse! So, we put a page together on buying a horse and as we come across breeders and sellers of horses that we think might be of interest to our readers we'll add them to this page, which is primarily a links page. We'll see where that ends up - you never know. We don't plan to get into the horse selling business - at least we won't be selling any of our own!

I was hoping to get our articles on Saddles incorporated into the web site by now but it hasn't happened. I don't want to put out something that is incomplete plus, as far as buying saddles over the Internet is concerned, we want to give out the best information we can. Getting the proper fit for the horse is critical and we want to be sure we are addressing the issue appropriately and correctly.

Horse Books: Xenophon Had It Right

Xenophon was a Greek cavalry officer and military hero, student of Socrates, historian, author, and expert on horsemanship - obviously a man of many talents. His horsemanship writings addressed the proper care of the horse, how to choose a horse, and the training of the war horse. While I don't propose that his writings on horsemanship be required reading for the horse lover, you'll find many nuggests of solid and fundamental advice therein. We can relate more closely with what Pat Parelli, John Lyons, Mark Rashid, Buck Brannamen, Ray Hunt or other contemporary trainers have to say. But Parelli, Lyons and the others will certainly give a tip of their hats to Xenophon and acknowledge the debt owed to him by all who have followed him.

A fundamental principle of his teaching is "never show anger to the horse". If we can keep that in mind we avoid many of the problems with horses which we in reality often bring upon ourselves.

Our youngest Fjord gelding, Lars, is a wonderful animal who has a stubborn streak (Norwegian background I guess). I find myself smiling at him through clenched teeth on occasion and have learned that anger on my part either produces zero results or simply makes a touchy situation worse. Anger does not work, nor does force. Xenophon taught that horses, like people, respond poorly to force.

We will do things when forced, but not necessarily do those things well - at best enough to "get by". A horse doing something under force does so without understanding and it is fundamental in teaching the horse that the horse understands.

The use of force is almost always counterproductive when the horse is in a situation in which it is afraid of something. If the horse is afraid of an object, such as a mailbox by the side of a road ( been through that one), you need to either avoid the object or slowly work the horse in closer proximity to it. Anger, force or punishment will only reinforce the horse's fear. It now associates the bad things you're doing with the object, compounding its fear. We learn this when first placing a bridle on a horse. Trying to force it on the horse only makes it that much more difficult to do the next time.

Trust and Care - Xenophon insists that a horse be well cared for including food, grooming, proper and clean quarters, and attention. While it was the custom back then that training be done by a groom, Xenophon insisted that the owner visit the horse daily to ensure it's welfare and as a means of building trust for later when owner and horse will become "partners". My favorite riding horse comes to me instead of running away when she sees the halter in my hand. She associates the halter with grooming, a bit of grain, or exercise and perhaps a good ride. I don't have to chase her around the pasture which would be the case I'm sure if she received rough treatment. Even Lars comes to the halter, which means I have done a good job with anger management when he experiences a stubborn streak. We are indeed "partners".

Riding - Xenophon taught that the horse should be mounted slowly and the rider should be able to do so from either side. The horse should be encouraged to carry it's head properly and once that is accomplished to proceed with a loose rein.

To quote from Xenophon:

Now Xenophon was primarily introducing novice horsemen to the purchase, care and training of the war horse. But with the exception of some "battlefield" training exercises, nearly everything in

The Art of Horsemanship applies to our relationship with horses in this day and age. Xenophon assumed zero experience on the part of his audience and, like a good teacher will do, heavily stressed the fundamentals.

If you are looking for a book, video or DVD on some aspect of horsemanship or training and have the luxury of being able to review the item in advance, try to see where the author is setting the foundation of his or her work. Is there an underlying theme based upon a few basic principles or beliefs. You will certainly find this in anything published by Parelli, Lyons, or Hempfling to name three.

If you wish to explore the world of Xenophon further, several sources are -