Horsemanships

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The skills and knowledge required for riding, handling, and caring for horses
2. The practice of training and performing activities with horses, demonstrating both control and partnership
3. A discipline encompassing various techniques in the management and training of equines for work or competition

Etymology: Horsemanship is a plain compound, and its two halves tell the story. "Horse" descends from Proto-Germanic "hrussa" and reached Old English as "hors," a word that, despite its modern association with the animal, was once used of horses in general. "Man" comes from a much older root shared with many European languages, where it originally meant a human being regardless of sex, and it was only later narrowed in English to the male sense. Attached to "horse," "man" yields "horseman," a rider or someone skilled with horses, which in Middle English was "horsman." The suffix "-ship" has a more abstract history. It descends from a Germanic root meaning "shape" or "creation," the same root that gives English "shape" itself, and in Old English "-sċiepe" marked a state, condition, or quality. Words such as "friendship" and "lordship" follow the same pattern, so "horsemanship" means the skill, condition, or art of being a horseman. The plural "horsemanships" is the plural of "horsemanship," used when referring to distinct skills or styles of horsemanship, as in different disciplines or traditions of working with horses.

Synonyms: riding skills, equestrian skills, horse riding, riding ability, equestrianism

Antonyms: inexperience, clumsiness, ineptitude, awkwardness, unskillfulness