...The tips you gave me are working wonders with my mare. I never have to use my legs anymore and she responds great to my verbal cues. I now have her giving to my legs (without spurs) and she is now sidepassing beautifully. I let her off with breeding mares yesterday as i am in school and sadly haven't got time to work with her except for weekends. When I have her in the yard again I will take some pictures of her progress and upload them on Face Book. Thank you again for the day and the knowledge you have given me. I hope to talk to you again soon.Mike Bermingham

"...We forget at times that we are predators and very impatient animals, where as the horse is prey and much more patient and persistent than we are. Recently in Coolmine Equestrian Centre I went (at very short notice) to see Franklin Levinson, a real cowboy, and more importantly a real Horseman. As with all great horseman he had a calm and relaxed demeanor that is one and the same as the traditional Irish Farmers. Nothing should or can be rushed, “sure, where are we rushin to” ...

READ FULL ARTICLE Duchess Diaries - Posted Oct '09

...thank you so much, for one of the best learning experiences I've ever encountered. It was a great day and you are a great teacher. Everything now fits into place beautifully. Again, thank you. (saol fada chugat agus go mbeannai dia duit ) Long life to you and may God Bless You.

Michael

If it could only be yesterday again!!! I thought I’d send you a personal email to thank you so much for an incredible day.

I honestly feel the luckiest person on earth to have a full 1 on 1 day with you. You are probably going to laugh but the moment I stepped into the bus taking me home I started writing down each second and moment which happened, trying to not get frustrated saying to myself what did he say here what did he show me here! If I only had a tape re-winder to rewind the day and play it over and over like it never finished :)

READ FULL TESTIMONIAL

Thanks for a marvelous day Franklin, In sharing your horsemanship and philosophy you have given a wonderful introduction to western riding to our friends and supporters. An outstanding performance!! Best wishes for your visit to the UK and we hope to see you again at Bunnageddy very soon. Please pass on our gratitude to your team who made everything run so smoothly and professionally.  Well done Guys!!!

Bunnageddy Equestrian Center

Hi Franklin,

I really enjoyed your demonstrations last night in Coolmine Equestrian Centre, it was really interesting and very informative. I have to admit my friend and I were very happy to see you do a slide stop, this is something that I have found fascinating, and unfortunately we don't get a whole lot of opportunities to see this in Ireland.

Avril F.

Reflections on Franklin Levinson’s
Horsemanship Seminar at Drumcoura Lake Resort,
Ireland 2008

“Over the past few days, people here at Drumcoura have been speaking about the way you teach and your calm manner and patience. Many have learned a completely different way of working with their horse. The one on one presentation on Saturday as well as the open day on Sunday for all to watch was a great addition to the Drumcoura Equestrian Centre.

Perhaps the greatest compliment came from Helen Birtwhistle who runs the equestrian programme here. As you know she teaches European riding but has now said that she would like to learn a lot more about ‘Western Inspired Natural Horsemanship’ and will try to introduce some classes for Juniors in the near future. After you left, I have not seen anyone trying to pet the nose of the horses but many are stroking their necks. We now have a few ‘leaders of the dance’ and others are learning the difference between a boss and a leader.

Well done and hope to see you next year.”

Franklin Levinson; an appreciation.
by John Cully

It could be said that the connexion between an eighteenth century philosopher/statesman captured in bronze effigy in the forecourt of Trinity College in Dublin, and the activities of a gentleman somewhat misleadingly dubbed a “horse whisperer” (sic) in the covered arena at Drumcoura Lake Resort in County Leitrim in the first decade of the twenty first century may seem a distant one at best, but stay with this for the moment.

In a hard to get and laboriously titled treatise, “An enquiry into our perceptions of the beautiful and the sublime in art and in nature” this outstanding man (Burke) drew an intriguing distinction between the sexes. Women are Beautiful; Men are not. This does not in any sense mean that men are ugly, for such is not at all meant or implied. Men, says Burke, are Sublime. This is how the genders differ; Women are Beautiful, Men are Sublime...

Dear Franklin,

We heave received your DVD today and are delighted with it. It is great to be able to watch it and get refreshed on what we learned while you were in Ireland. I have been using your methods on our two year old gelding and its working really well. We were total novices (and still are) with any form of horsemanship and only started when we bought a pony for our two children, Now the whole family are enjoying the time spent with horses.

After your trip to Ireland we sent you an email about the problem our 14 year old mare had while in an arena with other horses, she would kick out at any horse that came near her, well since that we have taken her to a number of competitions and she has improved but can be a bit unpredictable. We feel that alot of her problems could be from when she was used as a brood mare before we got her, it would be great if you could give us any advice on how to overcome this.

The two year gelding is coming on really well, We have got him walking, stopping, backing up and I even managed to get him loaded onto a horse trailer, all using your methods, all without any force, just a really good positive and calm attitude. I had problems lunging ( I was running around trying to get at his back end while he was turning around in the centre) but since I tied a plastic bag to the end of the wand he does the running now while I stay in the centre.

We hope you are enjoying you're time back at home and once again thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Franklin building humanity. Humans and animals needs love and warmth. I understood the mistakes I made and I hope I can restore it with more understanding to my horse.

I just wanted to send you a quick note and thank you for your wonderful seminar at Christina's premises. I did love horses in the past but after your seminar, I have come to love them more and even want to get involved with them, time permitting. I truly believe that you deserve the title "Horse Whisperer" but not as a "label", on the contrary, really! You have a terrific relationship with horses which derives from your true knowledge of them. Your seminar was insipiring. I fully support humane training methods and I am glad that this method works on all animals. Apart from dogs, i feel fortunate to have attended seminars on horses with you and on other "wild" species.