Finesse

By Ralph Galeano

Preview

Full column word count 906

 

     Tiger Woods has it and I’ll bet you’ll have to agree Joe Montana showed finesse when he won a string of Super Bowls.  Joe seems to display a smooth way of moving even when he climbs a fence.  Nothing clumsy about the former NFL player and that includes the way he sits a horse.  We watched Joe at the NCHA Futurity in Fort Worth and it was easy to see his athletic ability in action while he competed in the Super Bowl of cutting horses. 

     Finesse wins Super Bowls and golf tournaments but it also is used to produce some good horses.  Snaffle bit reinsman, the good ones, must display a high degree of finesse to train the outstanding performance horses we see on the ranch and in the arena.  Training horses takes finesse to the highest level.  Those good trainers that display it must use the feel of the animal’s every move to respond with their own moves to coordinate the animal’s body with their own light touch or pressure on one rein or the other, or maybe both,  to send signals that the animal can learn to respond to in certain ways.

 

 

It’s the difference between a light touch and a hard pull and that’s what this column talks about.  This is a look at how good trainers achieve that softness with light moves and patience.  You might find just the right technique for helping your horse be a better partner.

 

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