They used to take your horse and if they were caught they got hung for it. Now if they take your car and if they are caught, it's a miracle.
Will Rogers

It takes a great deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask and take it as required.
Stephen Leacock, "Reflections on Riding".

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

When I looked at life from the saddle, it was as near to heaven as it was possible to be.
Frances, Countess of Warwick

The horses of Achilles stood apart from their battle weeping, because they had learned that their charioteer had fallen in the dust by the hand of man-slaying Hector. When Zeus saw how they grieved, he took pity on them. "Poor creatures, why did I give you to King Peleus, a mortal destined to die…you who are immortal."
Homer, The Iliad

Thou shall be for Man a source of happiness and wealth; thy back shall be a seat of honor, and thy belly of riches; every grain of barley given thee shall purchase indulgence for the sinner. All the treasures of this earth lie between thine eyes. Thou shall cast Mine enemies beneath thy hooves…. This shall be the seat from whence prayers rise unto me.
The Koran

Show me a man who has no pity on his horse, and I will show you one who is a cruel husband, if he is married, and a tyrannical parent, if he has children; a man that would be Nero if he had power. He is a coward by nature and a fiend by practice.
George Eliot

Wherever thrumming hoofbeats drum
As galloping riders go or come;
Wherever a saddle is still a throne
And dust of hoofs by wind is blown;
Wherever are horsemen, young or old,
The pacing Mustang's tale is told.
Anonymous, "The White Mustang"

People, then, are not friend to horses unless their horses love them in return.
Plato, Lysis

There will never be a time when the old horse is not superior to any auto ever made.
Will Rogers

Horse, thou art truly a creature without equal, for thou fliest without wings and conquerest without a sword.
The Koran

Then there was the bridle. Billy explained how to use a stick of licorice for a bit until Galiban was used to having something in his mouth. Billy explained, "Of course we could force him to everything, but he wouldn't be as good a horse if we did. He'd always be a bit afraid, and he wouldn't mind because he wanted to."
John Steinbeck, The Red Pony

A bad-tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse.
Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

Where in this world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy, beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with muscle, and strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent; there is nothing so quick, nothing more patient. England's past has been borne on his back. All our history is his industry; we are his heirs, he is our inheritance. Ladies and Gentlemen: The HORSE!
Robert Duncan's "Tribute to the Horse" Read at the conclusion of every Horse of the Year show in London

Some people think horses are dumb. Ability and intelligence are in all horses, regardless of breed. Their so-called stupidity stems from our poor communication. Training a horse is like drawing a picture. The better I draw the picture, the better the communication. If I'm drawing a horse in pencil, I've communicated something. If I add crayon to my drawing, you can then tell that the horse I've drawn is a Palomino. Does that mean that you've gotten smarter? No. It means that I've become a better communicator.
John Lyons

What is it that makes horses give their rider everything? It can only be a reaction based on mutual trust. Once a horse trusts his partner, he develops and grows; and once a rider has found trust in his horse's abilities, he can develop the confidence needed to achieve special accomplishments.
Elizabeth Furst

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, The Horses Mind

I don't help people with horse problems, I help horses with people problems.
Nicolas Evans, The Horse Whisperer

The one best precept…the golden rule in dealing with a horse---is never to approach him angrily. Anger is so devoid of forethought that it will often drive a man to do things which in a calmer mood he will regret.
Xenophon, On Horsemanship

It's a lot like nuts and bolts…if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts!
Nicolas Evans, The Horse Whisperer

You can not 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 is such a nice feeling when you and your horse are still friends.
Dr. Reiner Klimke, Olympic Dressage Gold Medalist

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, Give Your Horse A Chance

The wise horseman studies all he can regarding different methods of training, teaching, and riding, provided they are in accord with the fundamental principles followed by all good horsemen. Then he applies them according to the type of horse he is riding and the circumstances.
Margaret Cabell Self

Furthermore, in a successful partnership, the rider has to know when he has to back off. He has to realize to what degree he can tolerate a horse's idiosyncrasies. He has to have a feeling for when he should enforce his own style onto the horse and when he has to accept the horse's.
Elizabeth Fust

A horseman is one who not only rides (although some fine horseman do not ride at all) but also seeks to know the horse-it's nature, needs and management--and feels a deep responsibility for his horse's, the care they get, and the life they lead.
Susan Harris

A man that don't love a horse there is something the matter with him. If he has no sympathy for the man that does love horses then there is something worse the matter with him.
Will Rogers

The spirit of the wild horse is the same after years of riding as it was before he ever felt a rope, and there's no human in the world wants to preserve that spirit in the horse like the cowboy does; he's the one what knows better than anybody else that a horse with a broken spirit is not horse at all.
Will James

Look back on our struggle for freedom, trace our present day's strength to its source; and you'll find that man's pathway is strewn with the bones of a horse.
Anonymous

A lovely horse is always an experience….It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words.
Beryl Markam

There are friends and faces that may be forgotten, but there are horse that never will be.
Cindy Adams

A rider has to be able to judge whether a horse is physically and mentally strong enough to carry out what has been asked for. In this way a horse will never get into a stressful situation. It is so important to ask oneself: "If the horse could talk and I was to ask it whether it actually knows what I want from it, would it reply, "no idea!" or "yes, of course I do. I'm just not quite strong enough yet."
Arthur Kottas-Heldenberg

A perfect book on riding could be written only by a horse!
Vladimir S. Littauer

He was a picture to make any cowboy miss a few heartbeats as he sometimes raced across the prairie sod and with head up showed off the qualities that struck out at his every move.
Will James, Smoky the Cowhorse

Practice sharpens, but overschooling blunts the edge. If your horse isn't doing right, the first place to look is yourself.
Joe Heim

No matter how hungry he may be, (the cowman) takes care of his horse before looking after his own comfort.
Ramon Adams

Halted in animated expectancy or running in abandoned freedom, the Mustang was the most beautiful, the most spirited and the most inspiring creature ever to print foot on the grasses of America.
J. Frank Dobie, The Mustangs

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

Want to end up with a million bucks in the horse business? Start out with five million.
Anonymous

And God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse.
Bedouin legend

God forbid that I should go to any heaven in which there are no horses.
R.B. Cunninghame-Graham in a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.
Sir Winston Churchill

Nothing on four legs is quicker than a horse heading back to the barn.
Pamela C. Biddle and Joel E. Fishman

The ears never lie.
Don Burt

Horses leave hoofprints on your heart.
Anonymous

God first made man. He thought better of it and made Woman. When He got time He made the Horse, which has the courage and spirit of the Man and the beauty and the grace of a woman.
Brazilian saying

We gaze upon their quiet beauty, their natural elegance, and we are captivated. They see us softly, in gentle light….rewarding human companionship with strength, grace and intelligence. As they run through arenas and open fields, past mountains and seas, moving like the wind toward heaven, we travel with them, if only in our hearts.
Anonymous

Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization, we find the hoofprint of a horse beside it.
John Trotwood Moore

My horses are my friends, not my slaves.
Dr. Reiner Klimke

Of all creatures God made at the creation, there is none except man more excellent, or so much to be respected as a Horse.
Bedouin legend

Don't ride the high horse. The fall when it comes, is hard.
American proverb

Horse are karmic and they come to us in our lives karmically, when it is time for us truly to learn.
Dominique Barbier

When I hear somebody talking about a horse being stupid, I figure it's a sure sign that it has outfoxed them.
Tom Dorance