When Allah created the horse, he said to the wind, "I will that a creature proceed from thee.  Condense thyself."  And the wind condensed itself, and the result was the horse.
Marguerite Henry
 
 

Then we began to ride.  My soul smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll freshening and fluttering in the wind...
Robert Browning
 
 

You and your horse.  His strength and beauty.  Your knowledge and patience and determination.  And understanding.  And love.  That's what fuses the two of you into this marvelous partnership that makes you wonderful, what can Heaven offer any better than what you have here on earth?
Monica Dickens
 
 

Many persons have sighed for the "good old days" and regretted the "passing of the horse," but today, when only those who like horses own them, is a far better time for the horses.
C.W. Anderson
 
 

... animals go by the spirit of their owners...  If one has a bond with animals they want to join in one's life as much as they can, and they learn to pick up on one's moods.  Tommy knew all mine, I know.  I have laughed with him, rejoiced with him over successes I have had, and I have cried into his mane over some unhappiness that only he would understand.  There are so many things we can tell our animals that we cannot confide to human beings for fear of being sneered at or simply not believed.
Barbara Woodhouse
 
 

"When did they last do any work?" I asked. 
"Oh, about twelve years ago, I reckon."
I stared at John.  "Twelve years!  And have they been down here all that time?"
"Aye, just lakin' about down here, retired like.  They've earned it an' all."
For a few moments he stood silent, shoulders hunched, hands deep in the pockets of his coat, then he spoke quietly as if to himself.  "They were two slaves when I was a slave."  I read in the pale blue eyes something of the agony and struggle he had shared with the animals...  Yet what made him trail down that hillside every day in all weathers?  Why had he filled the last years of those two old horses with peace and beauty?  Why had he given them a final ease and comfort which he had withheld from himself?  It could only be love.
James Herriot
 
 

A horse turned out in a field is very different from a horse that is being led or ridden.  Take him out on a cold day -- there's hardly time to slip off the halter or unsnap the rope before he's off.  He gallops, stops, spins round, stares, arches his neck to shake his head and gallop off again.  How beautifully supple and balanced he is!  He can gallop from a standstill, stop dead, flick round a tight turn, slip, recover gracefully, swerve, change legs three times in three strides, this horse who has never managed a flying change with you.  He charges down from the top corner and stops with four feet together, head high, snorting, tail up like a stallion.  One eye is on the gate to make sure he is admired, and he snorts into the wind like a dragon, then trots out, sailing, this horse you can't pursued into more than an apology for an extended trot.
Monica Dickens
 
 

All horses sometimes like to put on an act.  They sham lame at the start of a ride.  They snort in terror at a white stone going away from home, but hardly give it a glance on the way back.  They clench their teeth and refuse to take the bit.  They swing their head up high if you are a short person with a bridle, but if you are tall with long arms, they don't bother.  They won't let you pick up a foot.  If you have a back foot in your lap to clean it, they rest their weight on you as if they couldn't stand a moment longer on three legs.
Monica Dickens
 
 

If a car passes me when I'm on a horse, I always think:  "If I were in that car and saw me, I would wish I was me.  Wistful children's faces, staring out of the back window, agree."
Monica Dickens
 
 

Other horses may prick their ears at our approach, but not, perhaps, in quite the same way as those were pricked; other horses may lift their heads in a whinny, and yet with a different lift; another horse may have a small white patch in the center of its head, and yet not of that essentially individual pattern that we loved so well; other horses may nuzzle up to us, and yet not with the same, well remembered caprice or affection.  That head, whether or not we possess its recorded image in our most treasured album of photographs, will be a picture whose endearing characteristics will stay with us, not merely while the joy of the saddle is ours, but as long as we have memory of green fields and hedges, and the music which comes from the clump of horses' hoofs.
Frank Crew
 
 

Be not elated at any excellence that is not your own.  If the horse, in his elation were to say, "I am beautiful," it could be endured; but when you say in your elation, "I have a beautiful horse," rest assured that you are elated at something good that belongs to a horse.
Epictetus, Discourses
 
 

A good horse should be seldom spurred.
Thomas Fuller, M.D., Gnomolgoia
 
 

The Horse's Prayer --
I'm only a horse, dear Master, but my heart is warm and true,
And I'm ready to work my hardest, for the pleasure of pleasing you.
Good corn, and hay, and water, are all that I wish to ask.
And a warm dry bed to rest on, when I've finished my daily task.
Don't strike me in needless anger if I'm slow to understand,
But encourage my drooping spirits with a gentle voice and hand.
Finally, O my master!  When my health and strength are gone,
When I'm getting old and feeble, and my long life's work is done,
Don't sell me to cruel owners, to be slaved to my latest breath,
But grant me the untold blessing of a quick and painless death;
That, as you have always found me a patient and loyal friend,
The years of my faithful service may be crowned by a peaceful end.
I plead in the name of the Savior, Who cares when the sparrows fall.
Who was born in a lowly stable, and knows and loves us all!
Anonymous
 
 

Mares, she said, had not been altered, in them the blood flowed freely, their life cycles had not been tampered with, their natures were completely their own.  The mares usually had more energy than the geldings, could be as temperamental as the stallion and was, in fact, its superior.
John Hawkes, Whistlejacket
 
 

Spur not an unbroken horse.
Sir Walter Scott, The Monastery
 
 

Love animals.  God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.  Do not trouble their joy, do not harass them, do not deprive them of their happiness, do not work against God's intention.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamozov
 
 

Men ar generally more careful of the breeding of their horses and dogs than of their children.
William Penn
 
 

My beautiful! my beautiful!
That standeth meekly by
With thy proudly arch'd and glossy neck,
And dark and fiery eye;
The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,
Thy master hath his gold;
Fleet limbed and beautiful, farewell;
Thou'rt sold, my steed, thou'rt sold.
Caroline Elizabeth Sharidan Norton,
"The Arab's Farewell to His Steed"
 
 

One of the earliest religious  disappointmentsin a young girl's life devolves upon her unanswered prayer for a horse.
Anonymous
 
 

What does it take to train a horse?  More time than the horse has.
Larry Mahan
 
 

Most persons do not ride; they are conveyed.
M.F. McTaggart 
 
 

Riding is a partnership.  The horse lends you his strength, speed and grace, which are greater than yours.  For your part, you give him your guidance, intelligence, and understanding, which are greater than his.  Together you can achieve a richness that alone neither can.
Lucy Rees
 
 

I got a horse for my cowboy....best trade I ever made!!" 
Anonymous
 
 

Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.
Julius & Augustus Hare
 
 

The horse you get off is not the same as the horse you got on; it is your job as a rider to ensure that as often as possible the change is for the better.
Anonymous
 
 

Whatever your purpose in riding, be sure that it includes the elements of fun and appreciation of your horse.  Then you will be well on your way to becoming a true horseman.
Sheila Wall Hundt  / Ashley Hundt Ventrone
 
 

If a rider's heart is in the right place, his seat will be independent of his hands.
Piero Santini
 
 

You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.
Dagobert D. Runes
 
 

When your horse has reached his potential, leave it.  It's such a nice feeling when you and your horses are still friends.
Dr. Reiner Klimke
 
 

The rider, being the senior partner, has to make all efforts to learn the language of the horse, and to speak to him by means of that dialect.
Lt. Col. A. L. d'Endrody
 
 

Be considerate of your horse.  He is not a machine -- and even machines run better with good driving.
Sheila Wall Hundt  / Ashley Hundt Ventrone
 
 

Bounce Once If You Believe In Diagonals.
Suggestion for a Bumper Sticker
 
 

Fear almost always arises -- in horses as well as in people -- from concern about what might happen, and much more rarely from what IS happening.
Mary Wanless
 
 

To be loved by a horse, or by any animal, should fill us with awe -- for we have not deserved it.
Marion Garretty
 
 

There are times when you can trust a horse, times when you can't, and times when you have to.
Anonymous
 
 

Here lies the body of my good horse, The General.  For years he bore me around the circuit of my practice and all that time he never made a blunder.  Would that his master could say the same.
President John Tyler's Epitaph for His Horse
 
 

The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears.
Arabian proverb
 
 

I saw a child who couldn't walk, sit on a horse and laugh and talk... I saw a child who could only crawl, mount a horse and sit up tall..... I saw a child born into strife, take up and hold the reins of life... And that same child was heard to say, thank you God for showing me the way. 
John Anthony Davis 
 
 

Show me your horse and I will tell you who you are.
English saying
 
 

Don't be the rider who gallops all night and never sees the horse that is beneath him
Jelaluddin Rumi 
 
 

A canter is the cure for every evil.
Benjamin Disrael 
 
 

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.
Winston Churchill 
 
 

. . . Some people, who as soon as they have got upon a young horse. . . fancy that by beating and spurring they will make his a dress'd [trained] horse in one morning only. I would fain ask such stupid people, whether, by beating a boy, they could teach him to read, without first showing him his alphabet. 
William Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle
 
 

A good horse and rider are only so in mutual trust. 
H.M.E. 
 
 

A good trainer can hear her horse speak, but a great trainer can hear her horse whisper.
Anonymous
 
 

The rhythm of the ride carried them on and on, and she knew that the horse was as eager as she, as much in love with the speed and air and freedom. 
Georgess McHargue 
 
 

There are many wonderful places in the world, but one of my favorite places is on the back of my horse.
Connie Kerr
 
 

A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart, and wins with his character.
Tesio 
 
 

For one to fly you need only take the reins.
Anonymous
 
 

The horse. Here is nobility without conceit; friendship without envy; beauty without vanity. A willing servant, yet no slave.
Ronald Duncan 
 
 

A horse is worth more than riches.
Spanish Proverb 
 
 

Certain comic effects can be achieved by a brand-new rider, especially a man who dresses like a fashion model and rides like a tailor.
C.J.J. Mullen 
 
 

If your horse says no, you either asked the wrong question, or asked the question wrong.
Pat Parelli 
 
 

The is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse. 
R. S. Surtees 
 
 

A horse is such a thing of beauty... None will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor. 
Xenophon 
 
 

Anything forced and misunderstood can never be beautiful.
Xenophon 
 
 

Riding: The art of keeping a horse between you and the ground. 
Anonymous
 
 

You can tell a gelding, you can ask a mare, but you must discuss it with a stallion. 
Anonymous
 
 

Judge about a stallion during a grading session: "This horse would make a mighty fine gelding." 
Anonymous
 
 

A pony is a childhood dream, A horse is an adulthood treasure. 
Rebecca Carrol
 
 

Four things greater than all things are Women and horses and power and War 
Rudyard Kipling
 
 

Somewhere...Somewhere in time's Own Space 
There must be some sweet pastured place 
Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow 
Some Paradise where horses go, 
For by the love that guides my pen 
I know great horses live again. 
Stanley Harrison 
 
 

Courage, wisdom born of insight and humility, empathy born of compassion and love, all can be bequeathed by a horse to his
rider. 
Charles de Kunffy 
 
 

A good rider on a good horse is as much above himself and others as the world can make him. 
Lord Herbert
 
 

The old mare watched the tractor work 
A thing of rubber and steel, 
Ready to follow the slightest wish 
Of the man who held the wheel. 
She said to herself as it passed by, 
You gave me an awful jolt 
But there's still one thing you cannot do, 
You cannot raise a colt. 
Source unknown
 
 

If riding were only blue ribbons and bright lights, I would have quit long ago. 
George Morris 
 
  

Speak kindly to your little horse, and soothe him when he wheezes. Or he may turn his back on you, and kick you where he pleases! 
Anonymous
 
 

He who loves me must love my horse. 
Anonymous
 
 

DRESSAGE, n.: the passionate pursuit of perfection by the obsessively imperfect
Anonymous
 
 

To judge a horse by it's rider, is to judge a book by it's cover.
Anonymous
 
 

Think of riding as a science, but love it as an art.
George Morris 
 
 

Life's Too Short -- Ride Your Best Horse First!
Anonymous
 
 

Horses, Horses, Horses
There must be some forces
That make my sister love horses
Robin O'Roark-Goolsby (my beautiful sister -- she wrote
this in the 3rd Grade, which she by the way now teaches)

I would rather sit at home and play in the manure than go into the show ring and deal with the bullshit!
Kris Patsolic, Patsolic Pastures

There are more horse's asses in the world than there are horses.
Anonymous (even though my dad has said this a lot, I do not think he coined the phrase!)