Horse training...dominance, leadership or friendship?

As you know, I have been scanning the horse forum lately. What I notice is that there are basically two camps when it comes to dealing with horse behavior. On one side of the valley you have the dominants. On the other side, you have the leaders. Each espouse their brand of horsemanship as if no other alternatives could possibly exist. Hmmp! 

As a horse trainer, I have studied the pros and cons of both camps and decided that there must be other alternatives. Why? Because neither one completely answers this simple question- How do horses learn? 

When I am faced with a serious behavioral issue I do not want to wade through a murky mess of jargon and neither does the horse. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.  

Reading the replies to a person's request for help with their rearing horse here are a couple of answers that will clearly show what I mean. 

One reply said to take the horse into the round pen after it reared and make it go to work. All the while having "a look on your face like you are going to kill it." Now this is what a person from the dominant camp would say. It may make the person feel good, but does nothing to correct the problem.  

From the leadership camp here is what was offered, "you just need to tell the horse that it's not ok to rear, and that he won't get rid of the work that way." In the leadership camp the horse is almost treated as a human. You never hit or yell, just tell them not to do something and they are supposed to understand. 

In both cases, the advice was minimal if non-existent. I am not saying that the people offering the advice were insincere, just uninformed. So what's the point? Especially knowing that many will never change their approach. Only to contrast a different approach to horses, in the hopes that it will help those who are facing what seems to be insurmountable problems.  

What is the approach? Friendship. I think that most people just want to be friends with their horse and have the favor returned. It is a principled approach starting with understanding how horses learn, not how to dominate them or how to rise to a leadership position.  

Approaching the horse in this manner opens the doors between human and horse that previously were shut. Not because of any mystical or magical notions, but because it puts the human in the frame of mind that best suits the horse; friendly. Instead of fighting with the horse to establish dominance or using techniques that show your leadership prowess,

a friend searches for ways to communicate better, improve their timing, focuses on the little things to keep the big "bad" things from happening and always asks "what can I do to help?" Accepting the responsibly instead of blaming the horse.

One other thing that the friendly approach does that the others cannot. It empowers. By accepting the responsibility for helping the horse, you are in the drivers seat. No longer are you victim of your horse's personality, whims, or moods. By not having to fight or prove anything, your horse is always in a state of learning even when they are having a bad "hair" day. So no matter what the day brings, you can teach your horse something and this is the essence of building and empowering confidence in both horse and human.

So what's best- dominance, leadership or friendship? You decide.