„On my horses I am continually fixing and releasing. You can’t hold them in the center. I have been teaching clinics for 20 years, so my observations are based on fact; the least centered horses that I come into contact with are dressage horses. (Now don’t think for a minute that I am bad-mouthing dressage, because when it is done correctly by a good hand, it’s beautiful, it doesn’t get any better.) I am talking about the rider who does not let their horse find center and choose to be there; I am talking about the one who over confines the horse and tries to hold him in the right spot. Their horses blow right through the front line, and if it’s an oppressive enough rider, they go right through the line in back and get their horse dull to the leg. It can happen with any horse in any type of gear with an oppressive rider.
Where riders get into trouble is that they don’t give their horse enough room to find the center. They are going to make him do it, by being oppressive in the way that they ride. They think they can force the horse to the center and then hold him there. But the horse has to hunt it, you can’t make him be there. It doesn’t matter how you dress a horse up, it’s all the same. Getting a horse organized and on the spot is the same no matter what you are doing.“
– Buck Brannaman
From an article written by Buck titled ‚Centering Your Horse‘ which appeared in the ‚Eclectic Horseman Magazine‘ issue number 7 – https://
