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| A soft touch. Known worldwide for his gentle horse-training techniques, Ed Dabney lives in Monroe. |
The Gentle Horseman
Under his calm direction, riders and horses alike work in harmony.
By Christi Grace, Newnan, Georgia
At first glance, Ed Dabney looks like the stereotypical horseman. His long, lean build, Western attire and slightly weathered features capture the essence of a true cowboy. He is quick to display a warm grin, his eyes are kind, and he has a compassionate soul.
But there’s more to Ed than meets the eye. He’s created a method of horsemanship that uses a gentle approach and results in better relationships between riders and their horses. And I know from personal experience that his method works.
Ed’s dad had a low-key way with horses, following the convictions of his heart as he worked with them. This gave Ed the foundation for what has become his life’s work.
“He was natural in his approach,” Ed says. “He didn’t have a system. He just knew what worked.” Ed took his dad’s method and expanded it.
Harmonious Riding
Much of Ed’s horsemanship philosophy, which he calls The Six Keys to Harmony, comes from his study of wild horses in Wyoming’s open range, where he observed the animals’ complicated social structures, instinctive behavior and communication among the herd.
“This observation gave me the insight to understand the horse in a truly natural and compassionate way,” Ed says. “We humans get into trouble sometimes when we try to force a horse to do something that’s against his nature or instincts.”
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| Ed trains horses for movies and leads clinics worldwide. |
Instead, Ed tries to incorporate the horse’s view of the world into what he wants to teach him, breaking down the task into elements the horse can understand.
“Horses are living beings with thoughts and feelings,” he says. “God has given us dominion, but also responsibility.”
When Ed works with a horse, you can see this philosophy work almost immediately. The nervous horse becomes calm, the willful horse becomes submissive, and the distracted horse becomes attentive. Ed is patient and deliberate as he takes a horse through the Six Keys exercises. He never shows frustration or impatience or uses brute force—only concise, step-by-step techniques that help the horse learn at its own pace.
Ed combines classical equitation from the European riding schools of the 16th to 18th centuries with his own training methods, so horses respond to a light touch.
“When a fly lights on a horse, they shake their skin,” Ed says. “If a horse is that sensitive, they don’t need me bumping on them, using big gestures or loud noises. That causes a horse to shut down.”
Sharing the Good News
Riders and horses across the world benefit from Ed’s training techniques. He holds clinics in the United States and Europe and also offers a DVD that clearly demonstrates each step of the Six Keys method.
Ed’s diverse resume includes training horses on cattle ranches, competing on the rodeo circuit, working as a wilderness guide, and training horses for movies, including The Patriot, Geronimo, Gettysburg and The Postman. He even appeared on-screen in some of those films’ mounted action scenes.
He fondly reminisces about his favorite horse, “Boone,” who rode with him in every movie.
“One day while filming The Patriot, they asked if anyone had a horse that could jump over an exploding bomb, and I immediately raised my hand.” Ed told the director that Boone would do anything asked of him. Ed and Boone safely made the jump. Ed has since trained horses and supervised the riding scenes for We Shall Remain, a new PBS docudrama about the plight of the Cherokee people as they were moved off their land in Georgia and Tennessee.
Ed and his wife, Colleen, have four daughters, who all share his love for horses. The youngest, Elizabeth and Madeline, still live on the family’s farm in Monroe, Georgia. Elizabeth conducts youth clinics and trains horses, and Madeline helps out when Ed travels to Europe. “She’s my CFO,” he says.
But Ed has no plans to retire. “I want to be like my great-grandfather—87 years old and still training horses,” he says, smiling. “I hope I can be that lucky.”
Photos by Colleen Dabney
Making Peace with ‘Milo’
I met Ed Dabney when our horse “Milo” wouldn’t load into the trailer. We tried everything—we even bought three different trailers. Nothing worked.
On our last trip to the trailer lot, the salesman told us about Ed. My only question was: “Is he gentle and kind?” The salesman said Ed was the kindest, most patient horse trainer he’d ever met.
That night, I called Ed. He spoke to me for over an hour, trying to help us out. I thought, Wow. This guy doesn’t even know me, and he’s willing to help me over the phone and not push me into setting up expensive training time.
I did set up a training session. When Ed arrived, the first thing I noticed was how patient he was. He really lives and breathes the philosophy he teaches.
Milo settled down immediately. I never thought he would get on the trailer in that 2-hour session, but he did! Horses seem to automatically trust Ed as their leader and respond.
Ed taught me how to work with Milo on my own. I learned that the smallest gesture, something that may mean nothing to us humans, means everything to a horse.
Over the next several weeks, my husband and I worked diligently with Milo. Before long, he was jumping up on the trailer all by himself.
—Christi Grace
