At 21:39:22 on 02.09.10, Em28 wrote:
Okay a video I have just watched on here posted by Johnthecob got me thinking about this one. In the video Rick Gore basically believes men are more successful as they are more aggressive and don't tolerate unwanted behaviour. He suggests men don't give empty threats and have more confidence around horses. Not sure what I think on this one, I have seen plenty of women being aggressive to horses. One reason why men have traditionally been more successful is that they have been the breadwinners the one with the power and the money, not having a succession of babies! Also, as Flicka mentioned I do think men involved in horses tend to do it as their livelihood. Therefore they get good at it! I suppose going to watch the footy is more interesting than going for a hack in the countryside. Not sure what anyone else thinks? Are men really any more successful? I would like to think it is the individual and their own personality and nature that makes them successful around horses.

At 20:02:34 on 08.09.10, Sefra in South Texas wrote:
I agree that it is the individual and the personality that creates success. I think it also has to do with the individual preference of the horse. I new a filly once, who was just a few weeks old and behaved much better for women than for men. I'm sure there are other instances where it's the exact opposite. I know that I would gladly make working with horses my livelihood, and I hope to do that one day (as of now, I'm in my teens). I don't think that necessarily being aggresive has much to do with it. I think that men do tend to be more dominant and that may have something to do with it. I do know, however that I can go toe-to-toe with a 1,000 pound wild mustang and come out "winner".... and I'm a young woman. I think it depends on the individual, not gender.

At 14:11:54 on 13.09.10, Flicka wrote:
Ha ha this guy really makes you go grrrr but he makes some interesting points amongst the rubbish!! Yeah Em I've certainly seen my fair share of aggressive women around horses!! I don't think aggression has anything to do with being a good horseman or woman anyway. I do think confidence does though and as Mark Smith said in the troton blog (see link) he finds that very often men are low on skills but high on confidence whereas women are high in skills but low in confidence:( And yes Em28 I do think men tend to keep horses to do a job and by that I mean a sport or hunting or working sheep/cattle. Personally I think that can be good for a horse. I agree with what he says about fussing a horse right at the beginning and not letting it be a horse. But I agree with Sefra-it's all about the individual, not gender and the people I look up to are all horsewomen!!
http://blog.trotontv.com/2010/06/bitless-not-brainless.html

At 15:40:15 on 13.09.10, kibby wrote:
Sefra we had the same with my polocrosse horse.. I had a hugely successful campaign on him and we meshed so well, while at boarding school one of the guys in our local club needed a horse for the practise day. Mum lent him Monty, he came brought monty back at the end of the day and said "how can you put your daughter on this thing?" Flicka on the confidence note, i think that has a huge role in it. Men are more confident usually, I have a close friend who jumps too. I would say we are probably the same skill level, but he was able to say at the end of year 10 (the earliest stage you can leave school) well I'm done, I am going to make a career out of this jumping. I on the other hand said, well I would love to but what if i don't make it, I am probably not good enough anyway, I should go to uni, then i know i will have a job.. Not that i am upset at starting uni, the field i am going into i have an enormous amount of passion for (agriculture, more so, sustainable agriculture) but i know i didn't have that same confidence as he did. Got a long way to go before i can say well its too late now, so i may just make my riding a career yet ;)

At 13:32:52 on 23.09.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
i am sorry but all the horsey and non horsey men i know are never wanting to ride the thoroughbreds or hard to handle horses and would rather stick to their safe horses, nothing wrong with that but i would say us girls have more confidence in general than men, every individual is different, horses and people vary no matter what gender!

At 15:41:47 on 23.09.10, farasi wrote:
I wouldn't say men are more sucessful than women, but they are a lot better at just getting on with it and no making up excuses for their horses. They also don't tend to pander to their "unecessary" needs. Giving the impression they are more sucessful, as a lot of women are still pussy footing about make up some lame excuse for why their horse does this or does that. I'm not saying you need to bully, you just need to be top dog and ride your horse and get on with it a lot more than the majority does. This will make women on a more even footing with men. When more adopt a just get on and do it attitude, women will outshine the men as we ask rather than tell and will get better results.

At 18:43:31 on 28.09.10, Dazzle wrote:
Are men more successful than women with horses, well I don't know but I do know that the video is 15 minutes long and after 4 mins 32 seconds he still hadn't told me anything. He was merely walking and giggling. I got bored and decided that the next 10 minutes would be better spend with my horses.

At 21:34:35 on 04.10.10, TheGlambertRider wrote:
I think it is all about your prsonality. not gender. some horses like men more. some horses perfer women... you get what i mean?

At 02:12:18 on 17.10.10, Horsesarelife1001 wrote:
I watched and read the comments from the utube URL - one comment said "I completely agree, I was once in a class and there was this girl who was too afraid to even kick the horse to go because she thought it would hurt him. My trainer that I have now says that if a horse does something naughty to you, you do it right back to them. If they kick you, you kick them back." I must say that this is compleatly incorrect. If a horse kicks you, yes, u gotta tell him that what he did was wrong, BUT that does not mean to be just as stupid and "wrong" as the horse was and kick him back. I think that women are better with horses (and NO i'm not just saying this because i'm a women) because while men would do exactly what the quote said- a women would go and try to find why the horse did that. Im sorry, but this guy thinks he knows EVERYTHING about horses, (really, just go on him utube profile) but many of this things are wrong.

At 20:11:03 on 19.10.10, KyleMyPony wrote:
who needs anger or agression when you can use natural methods! and if you are using agressive methods who says men are better than woman?? not me! were equal