There’s an old British cavalry joke that asks, “How do you catch a loose horse?” The answer is “You make a noise like a carrot.”

There’s a lot of wisdom in that line of thinking. In fact, if we’re honest, plenty of us have crunched a carrot, hoping the horse we were trying to catch would become interested and mosey over to us.

Carrots figure prominently as we think about horsemanship. It’s not just that they are loaded with vitamin A. It’s that when we use them wisely — or at least the positive training they symbolize — our horses get a A on performance, and we do, too.

One of the major challenges in life is to operate as if we had only a carrot, and not a stick. So, as we ride through life and horsemanship in this blog, we'll be sure to keep plenty of carrots in our back pocket. And from time to time, we’ll stop and munch on one ...just to enjoy the moment, to make sure we're on the right track, or to encourage ourselves and others to keep thinking in a carrot-worthy mode.

About Maureen:
It's been said that, "Maureen Gallatin is like a life coach through the grid of horsemanship."  She is a writer, speaker, and consultant, and she teaches frequently on the topic of developing confidence. She’s known for her brand of practical wisdom and insights with an inspirational bent. (In fact, it's been quipped that when she's old and in the nursing home, she'll be using stick horses to teach people about life and relationships.)

Maureen was the editor for Perfect Horse magazine for 10 years, and is the founder of Inspired By Horses (www.inspiredbyhorses.com). She can be reached at inspiredbyhorses@gmail.com.