Where did Taiji Horsemanship come from?

When coming back from canada in March Tommie bought me a little necklace with the yin and yang symbol on it.  I looked yin and yang up on the internet.  I had been trying to come up with a way to explain how I approach training my animals.  The philosophies of "Taiji" provided me a great way to think through training a skill.  Taijitu is the name of the yin yang symbol, which comes from Taiji mean "supreme ultimate" resulting when a state of perfect balance and harmony has been achieved.

                       Read more about the Birth of Taiji Horsemanship
                                            Read about Yin and Yang
                                            Read about Taiji or Taijitu

                                Veiw Principles of Taiji Horsemanship
                                      Read about Taiji Training DVDs
                                     Read about the Teaching of Taiji

 Development of Taiji Horsemanship

I am only 11 years old.  I love to ride and am proud of what I have accomplished.  Almost all of my animals ride and jump bridleless, but there is much, much more I want to do and hope to learn. My parents can't afford to buy me made animals.  In addition, my mom says that I will get much more out of the riding, if I embrace the journey, which means I am involved with their care, training, etc.  I have a wonderful, athletic string of horses, but they are all young (ie some are really young and not even broke yet).  Most of them were bred by my family.  I want to ride the in the Medal McClay, Pony Finals, International Hunter Futurity, paraolympics  and continue performing in Night of Amazing Horses, so I have to learn how to teach them to do everything I want them to do.  To be a top notch equitation rider, I have to have a very well broke horse and be a great technician.     My family can not buy me a top equitation horse, so I will have to train one.  Luckily, my parents, Tommie and Elizabeth are right there to help me.  In a way, my mom is right, it is really rewarding when one of your horses finally learns something you have been working on teaching them.  It makes you feel really good to have accomplished something.  As I "embrace the journey", I hope I can use my Taiji Horsemanship to help others to learn how to do this stuff as well.    

Lizzy