What is stockmanship and why does Martin Black emphasize it?

Stockmanship, as Martin Black uses the term, refers to the understanding of cattle behavior and the skill of working cattle in ways that are low-stress, effective, and respectful of the animals' nature — a parallel discipline to natural horsemanship that applies similar principles of working with the animal's nature rather than against it to the handling and movement of cattle. Black emphasizes stockmanship because his horsemanship is rooted in the working ranch context where horses and cattle are inseparable — a horse that is good at its job on a working ranch must be able to work cattle effectively, which requires the rider to understand cattle behavior well enough to position the horse correctly and to ask the horse to do things that make sense in the cattle-handling context rather than things that confuse or stress the cattle unnecessarily. The principles of good stockmanship — understanding the flight zone and point of balance of cattle, moving cattle at a pace they can sustain, reading the herd's behavior to predict movement, and positioning riders and horses to direct rather than scatter cattle — are analogous in important ways to the principles of natural horsemanship. Just as natural horsemanship works with the horse's natural behavioral tendencies rather than fighting them, good stockmanship works with the cattle's natural behavioral tendencies rather than forcing movement through overwhelming pressure. Black sees the two disciplines as expressions of the same underlying respect for animals' nature, and his integration of both in his teaching reflects his conviction that genuine working ranch horsemanship requires competence in both dimensions — knowing how to work with your horse and knowing how to work the cattle effectively through good horsemanship.