What Is Frank Bell's 7-Step Safety System?

Frank Bell's 7-Step Safety System is a sequential natural horsemanship training method described on horsewhisperer.com. It is designed to work with any horse, regardless of age or behavioral issue, and it begins not with riding but with touch: giving to the horse through contact at spots most horses find soothing, such as the V under the jaw, the dock of the tail, and the withers. Once the horse relaxes and begins to trust again, the handler moves through a logical progression of exercises that ends with riding a willing, trusting partner.

Who it comes from

The system was developed by Frank Bell, a professional horse trainer and founder of the company Dances With Horses. According to the site, his focus has been the difficult cases—horses that "have fallen through the cracks and have confounded other seasoned trainers." Bell describes spending several decades working with these animals and says that, almost without fail, he was able to turn them around using a simple, straightforward approach rooted in touch and relaxation.

That repeated success led him to formalize the sequence into a teachable program. The site states that thousands of people worldwide now use the 7-Step Safety System "with every single horse every single time regardless of age or issue."

What the method actually involves

The published description breaks the approach into two broad phases:

1. Indulging the horse through touch. The handler seeks out the "secret spots" that most horses love—the V under the jaw, the dock of the tail, and the withers are the examples given. The purpose is to help the horse relax and re-establish trust in humans.
2. Working through the exercise sequence. Once relaxation and trust return, the handler progresses through Bell's structured program, which culminates in riding.

The site frames the whole system around safety. Bell calls safety "my obsession" and specifically emphasizes that for anyone with children riding horses, safety "must be number 1."

Where the full system is documented

The website points to two primary sources for the complete method:

A documentary, A Day in the Life of a Horsewhisperer, is also referenced on the site as a way to explore the approach.

What to keep in mind

The site presents the 7-Step Safety System as a general training philosophy rather than a set of steps spelled out in full on the homepage. The specific exercises within the sequence are described as living in the foundation video and the Gentle Solutions book, so anyone wanting to apply the method step by step should expect to go through those materials rather than rely on the website summary alone.

The underlying claim—that the approach works on virtually any horse regardless of age or issue—is the trainer's own characterization based on his experience. It is worth treating as the method's stated premise rather than an independently verified guarantee, and evaluating it against your own horse and circumstances.