I had the pleasure of watching Leslie Desmond as a demonstrator during Vaquero Days last October at Descanso Hay and Feed. It made listening to her audio book, Horse Handling and Riding Through Feel, a real treat. Anyone who listens to audio books on tape or CD knows how rare it is for an author to record their own. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never met Leslie or seen one of her clinics, by the end of her audio book you will feel as though you know her personally.
Leslie has a wonderful way of mixing practical advice with her own unique humor and inspiring stories. Much of her advice and heartfelt tales come from her experience as an apprentice to the late, legendary horseman Bill Dorrance with whom she wrote True Horsemanship Through Feel. Leslie pulls the listener into her world by sharing her well-developed philosophies and explaining the nuances of each theory so that riders of all levels can fully understand her reasoning.



I particularly like her reference to time. She points out that many riders, and people in general today, are in a race against the clock. Leslie explains that sometimes the best way to learn feel is to go a lot more slowly. There really is no big rush, but the pressure we are under and that we keep our horses under should not be underestimated. 
“What it turned out to be for me, was that the quickest way to advance, was to go more slowly. I found out by working with a number of people who were better with horses than I was, that to learn feel required tons more time than I had any clue it would or that I thought I had available. Once I was clear on that, I realized time is all we have. That came as something of a surprise to me; because if we come to terms with that - we were born so we are here, one day we won’t be here, and in between now and then is only time. Time is all we have...the question then becomes how are you going to spend it? If horses are your thing and you want to achieve a greater level of harmony, more peacefulness, more productively and better results for time spent, then you are going to have to look at time differently.”
She teaches people to improve their communication with horses in their own language, which is “feel.” Sitting in my truck listening to Horse Handling and Riding Through Feel I could visualize what Leslie was describing and found myself comparing her examples and tales to my own experiences with horses. She stresses how much our state of mind affects our horses and she does an astonishingly good job at walking that delicate line of being firm, while still being kind. When you are dissatisfied with your horse, look at yourself. Are you setting the horse up for success? She urges people to look at things from a horse’s point of view.
“When I see a horse that is being made to do something; I often think to myself, can’t that rider see the horse is trying to do what they’re asking? If they would only would ask and then wait for the horse to do it ... set them up to succeed ... so much of what I see when horses are being made to do something looks like the final rounds of a battle.”
Not every lesson or example is applicable to each horse and rider. Leslie says that there is no recipe for every horse because each is different. I love that. She doesn’t try to put all horses in the same box – do this, and you get this result, end of story.
Leslie’s honest belief that anyone who truly wants to learn can, comes across in every aspect of her tapes. Configured in a question-answer format, Horse Handling and Riding Through Feel is an A-to-Z guide which covers 100 topics from lightness to overcoming fear. Actually, it is somewhat amazing how much information Leslie has been able to pack in her audio books and yet it is unexpectedly very easy to lose yourself in her books.  
Broken down into chapters that fit perfectly into driving times, Leslie’s 10-CD audio book is a great way to mentally prepare yourself on the way to a show or just help you put aside your daily hassles so you can get into the right zone on your way to the barn after work. Whether you’re an eventer, a reiner or a hunter, Leslie’s audio book is something any horseman can appreciate.
For more information on Horse Handling and Riding Through Feel and Leslie’s Trainer/Instructor Tutorial Program, visit www.lesliedesmond.com.