What is Bill Dorrance's legacy in natural horsemanship?

Bill Dorrance's legacy in natural horsemanship is most visible in the working ranch and vaquero-tradition segment of the movement — the practitioners who value the complete progression from snaffle to bridle horse, who work with cattle in practical ranch contexts, and who see horsemanship as a lifelong development rather than a set of techniques to be learned and applied. His influence is carried most directly through True Horsemanship Through Feel, which remains one of the most practically useful documents in the tradition for its specificity about how feel applies at each stage of the horse's development and what the trainer should be seeking at each step of the progression. Within the broader natural horsemanship movement, Bill's legacy is perhaps less prominent than Tom's partly because his influence flowed through a smaller and more specialized community of practitioners and partly because Tom's influence through Ray Hunt reached a much larger audience through the clinic format. But for the horsemen who were most directly shaped by Bill's teaching — and for those who encounter his ideas through True Horsemanship Through Feel — his contribution is considered equal in depth and importance to Tom's, reflecting a complementary set of emphases that together provide a more complete picture of what the Dorrance approach to horsemanship encompassed than either brother's ideas alone. Bill's connection to the vaquero tradition and his articulation of how feel applied through the specific equipment and developmental stages of that tradition gives his legacy a specific character that distinguishes it from Tom's more philosophical approach and that remains a vital resource for anyone pursuing the finished bridle horse as the expression of horsemanship development.