07/09/2024
Here are some common horseback riding sayings and phrases often used by riders and trainers:
"No hoof, no horse." - Emphasizes the importance of horse care, particularly hoof health.
"Ride the horse you have, not the horse you want." - A reminder to work with the horse's abilities rather than wishing for a different one.
"The outside rein controls the speed, the inside rein controls the direction." - A principle in riding that highlights the role of reins in guiding the horse.
"A good rider can hear his horse speak to him. A great rider can hear his horse whisper." - Suggests the importance of understanding a horse's subtle cues.
"You don't stop riding when you get old; you get old when you stop riding." - A celebration of the lifelong passion for riding.
"There is no such thing as a bad horse, only a bad rider." - Encourages riders to reflect on their own skills and training rather than blaming the horse.
"Horses are made to be ridden." - Highlights the natural relationship between horses and riders.
"Every ride is a lesson." - Reminds riders that each experience with a horse contributes to their learning and development.
“There is nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse. ~John Lubbock, "Recreation," The Use of Life, 1894
Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. ~W.C. Fields
Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground. ~Author Unknown
It is not enough for a man to know how to ride; he must know how to fall. ~Mexican Proverb
The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, the horse never. ~Yiddish Proverb
Many people have sighed for the 'good old days' and regretted the 'passing of the horse,' but today, when only those who like horses own them, it is a far better time for horses. ~C.W. Anderson
No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. ~Winston Churchill
People on horses look better than they are. People in cars look worse than they are. ~Marya Mannes
Horses and children, I often think, have a lot of the good sense there is in the world. ~Josephine Demott Robinson
It's always been and always will be the same in the world: The horse does the work and the coachman is tipped. ~Author Unknown
Heaven is high and earth wide. If you ride three feet higher above the ground than other men, you will know what that means. ~Rudolf C. Binding
He knows when you're happy
He knows when you're comfortable
He knows when you're confident
And he always knows when you have carrots.
~Author Unknown
The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears. ~Arabian Proverb
Ah, steeds, steeds, what steeds! Has the whirlwind a home in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear, alert as a flame, in your every fiber? Hearing the familiar song from above, all in one accord you strain your bronze chests and, hooves barely touching the ground, turn into straight lines cleaving the air, and all inspired by God it rushes on! ~Nikolai V. Gogol, Dead Souls, 1842, translated from Russian (above is combination of translations by Bernard Guildert Guerney, Richard Peaver, and Larisa Voloklonsky)
To ride a horse is to ride the sky. ~Author Unknown
There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse. ~Robert Smith Surtees, "Chapter ###: Bolting the Badger," Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour, 1853
A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open. ~Gerald Raferty
I bless the hoss from hoof to head -
From head to hoof, and tail to mane! -
I bless the hoss, as I have said,
From head to hoof, and back again!
~James Whitcomb Riley
Horses are uncomfortable in the middle and dangerous at both ends. ~Attributed to both Christopher Stone and Ian Fleming
It's a lot like nuts and bolts - if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts! ~Nicholas Evans
A lovely horse is always an experience.... It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words. ~Beryl Markham
I can always tell which is the front end of a horse, but beyond that my art is not above the ordinary. ~Mark Twain
The horses paw and prance and neigh,
Fillies and colts like kittens play,
And dance and toss their rippled manes
Shining and soft as silken skeins;...
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
..I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh as that was! My very heart leaped with delight at the sound. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Chimæra," A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, 1852 (about Pegasus)
A thousand horse and none to ride! -
With flowing tail, and flying mane,
Wide nostrils never stretched by pain,
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,
And feet that iron never shod,
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod,
A thousand horse, the wild, the free,
Like waves that follow o'er the sea,
Came thickly thundering on,...
~Lord Byron, XVII, Mazeppa, 1818
A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence. ~Pam Brown
The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire. ~Sharon Ralls Lemon
All I pay my psychiatrist is the cost of feed and hay, and he'll listen to me any day. ~Author Unknown
When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V
A Hibernian sage once wrote that there are three things a man never forgets: The girl of his early youth, a devoted teacher, and a great horse. ~C.J.J. Mullen
A canter is a cure for every evil. ~Benjamin Disraeli
If the world was truly a rational place, men would ride sidesaddle. ~Rita Mae Brown
A man on a horse is spiritually as well as physically bigger than a man on foot. ~John Steinbeck
“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
"The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man" Ronald Reagan
"As you get older, the horses get taller and the ground gets harder" Unknown
"Art ends when violence begins" Saying painted in gold over the entry to the Swedish Cavalry Riding School indoor ring.
"There ain't a cowboy that can't be throwed, nor a horse that can't be rode!"
Will Rogers (perhaps).
“Ride with the posture of a queen, hands of lady, hips of a whore” will always be my favourite
Then there’s the classic truth “You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink”.
Another classic is that there's no point to locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen.
A modern one is “Mares are from Venus; stallions are from Mars; geldings are from heaven”.
Another oldie but goody is “If your butt hurts after riding, your stirrups are too long. If your knees hurt, they’re too short. If everything hurts, they’re just right!”
“A horse is easiest to ride in the direction it was already going” applies to a lot more than riding.
“heels down, eyes up”
My own quote “Good energy, makes a good horse” -Chanoah Orr
