Books I Love: Think Like a Horse by Grant Golliher
Ok, I have to preface this by saying, I am not a horse person. Not that I don’t think horses are awesome…I do. I was just never one of those kids that grew up wanting a pony (or watching polo at the local club, as one does in CT).
Which is why I wonder what compelled me to pull this book off the shelf. No matter the reason, I’m sure am glad I did.
To give you some idea of what the book about, I would describe it as a folksy cowboy version of How to Win Friends and Influence People. It’s chock full of great stories that illustrate not only principles of horse training, but also that of human relationships. These stories are woven together from Grant Golliher’s years of giving demonstrations in his training ring at Diamond Cross Ranch.
Golliher grew up around horses and witnessed many of the harsh techniques used to “break” or train feral horses. After many years of working with some of these traditional techniques, he discovered a different way of approaching the animals.
As Grant began to implement “natural horsemanship” (aka “horse whispering”), he realized that he had to internally shift his own perspective. Instead of forcing the animal to behave in a certain way, natural horsemanship requires the human trainer to understand the horse’ tendencies and evolutionary inclinations.
Horses are sensitive. They have the capacity to intuit intention, no matter a person’s external posture. And they react to that.
Because of this trait, Golliher began to notice that horses have an “extraordinary ability to reveal people to themselves.” Basically, a person can lie to themselves, but they can’t lie to a horse. So, when training a horse, it becomes critical to maintain not just a relaxed outer demeanor, but an inner sense of calm.
Grant shares the principles for working with feral or abused horses, and how those same principles run parallel to human relationships. The many people he features in his stories are those who were greatly impacted by watching him train these horses during events at his ranch.
Grant shares a lot of very simple and memorable principles he’s learned during his years of training. One of my favorites, that he repeats again and again, is this: Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult.
When he demonstrates how to train a new horse, often the horse will want to stay as far away from the audience as possible. But Grant wants to get the horse comfortable with being near people. He creates a situation that makes it easy for the horse to choose to do the right thing.
Grant will divide the round training ring into two halves. As long as the horse stays in the half that’s far away from the audience, he asks the audience to make noise. This places pressure on the horse because they’re sensitive to the noise.
As soon as the horse enters into the half of the ring closest to the audience, they are to remain quiet, giving the horse some relief. He makes the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult.
This principle and many of the others in the book can be easily applied to human relations and personal development.
Each story about a horse has a beautiful parallel with a human story. I found every vignette to be memorable and touching. The accounts of human change every bit as triumphant as those of the animals.
In telling these stories, Grant demonstrates his mastery at a meta level, making it easy to remember, and difficult to forget, all of the principles he’s shared.
What I liked most of all is the hopeful feeling I was left with. Grant shows us our own value in showing us the value of even the most difficult cases- human or horse- he’s come across.
His simple cowboy philosophy feels like the gentle guidance he uses for horse training rather than a preachy sermon. There is a lot of good stuff in this book; I found a treasure trove of valuable information as it pertains to the concepts of freedom and happiness.
