Online and in the grandstands- all we hear are lamentations of the lack of horsemanship in today's horse community. Really, what were we to expect. Rated horse shows reward the expensive, beautiful horses. In the struggle to be competitive, families are forking large sums of money into their child's equitation mount and with crossed fingers traveling from show to show to get enough points for indoors. Timid adult beginners seek out big-eyed, well-bred young imports for their walk-trot lessons simply so they can hold their own in the battle of the beautiful in the cross-ties. As the amateur horses are becoming more and more expensive of course professionals and parents don't want their youngsters to handle them. The inexperienced cannot be trusted to hand-walk, to wrap, or to lunge their horses for the deathly fear of making mistakes and ultimately ruining a valuable horse. How are horsemanship skills to flourish?