Natural horsemanship combines both ancient and new ideas and is used by horse trainers and clinicians around the world to enforce the desired behavior of horses. Logic and understanding of the horse's functional intelligence and social systems are the base upon which natural horsemanship must be built. A horse has a highly developed communication system primarily through body language, and therefore is receptive to the body language of a trainer. A trainer must understand a horse's natural instincts as well as its communication system, and be able to utilize these concepts in order to teach the horse.

Natural horsemanship works on the premise of positive and negative reinforcement, making wrong things hard and right things easy. Although many of today's modern trainers utilize some form of natural horsemanship in their training techniques, certain talented and unique trainers and clinicians specialize in this form of training, and have come renowned for their wisdom in dealing with equines.