He\'s not saying herd dynamics replace talent.
He\'s saying that for some horses, they need certain things to go their way during the race in order to run their best effort. Having a strong herd mentality doesn\'t automatically make you faster, its just that some horses can overcome certain situations better than others, making it more likely you will get their best effort.
I also don\'t feel that having a rider and a bit in their mouth changes anything having to do with their natural instincts.
This ^^^^
Horses have personalities, and horses are all about pecking order and body language: some are brave, some fold when another attempts to dominate them, some like a fight, some are comfortable in a crowd, some need to be safe in the herd, some are comfortable passing and being out front alone.
All the guy is doing is trying to identify characteristics that, usually, the trainer and exercise rider already know the horse possesses. It\'s another part of the puzzle, and yes, their personalities still matter with a rider on their back, in the heat of a race - their basic temperment tendencies come more to the forefront when stressed.
If you have three horses running together with 3/16 to go, don\'t you want to know which one is tough? Which one relishes the fight? Which one folds to dominance? That\'s all the \"herd whisperer\" is talking about - basic horse behaviour.
It\'s the same thing John Lyons, etc. all talk about with training horses. It\'s what all trainers, and most people, used to know 100 years ago, but most are too busy to notice nowadays: how animals act, and why.
If you haven\'t extensively ridden horses, I can see where it seems completely foreign to some. Riding a horse is a very subtle, emotional connection, where you have to know what they are thinking before they think it.
But this is just the same basic behavioral horsemanship all good trainers and riders are aware of, and utilize daily.
