What is balance in natural horsemanship and what did Tom Dorrance mean by it?

Balance in Tom Dorrance's framework referred to something broader than the physical balance of the rider in the saddle, encompassing the quality of equilibrium between horse and human in the training interaction — the state in which neither is dominating, overwhelming, or undermining the other, and in which the communication between them is genuinely two-way rather than one-directional pressure from trainer to horse. Dorrance used balance to describe the quality of the relationship in which the human is present enough to guide and support without being so heavy or demanding that the horse cannot find its own way, and in which the horse is responsive enough to follow the human's direction without losing its own self-carriage and natural movement. The physical dimension of balance — the rider's position and weight distribution — was important to Dorrance because a rider who is physically out of balance is constantly asking the horse to compensate for their imbalance rather than being free to respond to training cues, which means physical balance is the prerequisite for the lighter, more feel-based communication that natural horsemanship aspires to. But the broader conceptual balance Dorrance described was about the quality of the interaction itself — the sense of being in genuine dialogue with the horse rather than imposing on it or being ignored by it. The related concept of the horse finding its own balance — developing the self-carriage that allows it to carry the rider without constant management from the reins — was also part of what Dorrance meant by balance, reflecting his concern with the horse's ability to function from its own understanding rather than being held together by the rider's constant physical management.