A Journey to Softness

Book excerpt: Mark Rashid shares personal stories about events in his life that helped him on his journey to softness, as well as the stumbling blocks along the way. The narrative includes a section in which Mark passes on the experiences of others from a wide variety of walks of life and occupations, all sharing their views on how feel, connection and softness apply to their respective professions. Those interviewed for this special section include a musician who has written and performed several number one country music hits, a highly decorated helicopter pilot, a movie actor, a college professor, a master carpenter, an artists and numerous others. What the reader learns by example is how to develop feel, relaxation, connection, and softness in both horse and rider. The methods and techniques Mark demonstrated have been gleaned from decades of work with horses and horse people, as well as while he trained with world-class martial artists whose lives have been dedicated to developing softness and connection with a partner through feel.