The publication summarizes current scientific knowledge about the behaviour of horses and biological principles of learning. This knowledge is crucial for training and working with horses. The aim was to present the actual scientific knowledge and translate it to the Czech language, in a form accessible to both professionals and also to a general equestrian society. A new field of science emerged in the past 10-15 years, the equitation science. It has been constituted with the main focus on the use of knowledge from key disciplines such as training and management of horses according to the horse biology and welfare, with an emphasis to achieve the desired „happy athlete“ and increase the safety of human work with such large animals. It is not always possible to avoid adverse effects on horses, so the publication also includes recommendation on how to minimize these effects and compensate them by positive experience. The publication is not a riding manual, nor a „cookbook“ for working with horses. It merely processes basic biological knowledge, on which riding manuals and methodological texts should be based on.