The Horse Training Problem Solver: Your questions answered about gaits, ground work, and attitude, in the arena and on the trail
416
The Horse Training Problem Solver: Your questions answered about gaits, ground work, and attitude, in the arena and on the trail
416eBook
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Overview
Training a horse can be a frustrating experience for rider and animal alike. From dealing with a horse that won’t listen to rectifying erratic behavior, this guide covers hundreds of common training challenges and offers proven solutions to your most pressing issues. Stressing effective communication, realistic goals, and the importance of an enjoyable atmosphere, Jessica Jahiel helps you get the most out of your training sessions by pinpointing what’s causing the problem and providing strategies to help both rider and horse stay engaged and focused.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781612122762 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Storey Publishing, LLC |
| Publication date: | 04/22/2015 |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 416 |
| File size: | 17 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Cherry Hill is an internationally known instructor and horse trainer and has written numerous books, including 101 Arena Exercises for Horse & Rider, Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage, How to Think Like a Horse, What Every Horse Should Know, and Horse Care for Kids. Visit her at www.horsekeeping.com, where you can find information on her books, DVDs, and horsekeeping knowledge.
Jessica Jahiel is an internationally renowned lecturer, clinician, and award-winning author who answers equine-related questions in her online newsletter, Horse-Sense. She also responds to questions about horse behavior, riding matters, and anything else readers want to discuss in Horse & Rider, Equus, and Dressage Today, as well as in her best-selling books The Horse Behavior Problem Solver and The Rider's Problem Solver. Jahiel lives in Illinois.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Thoughts on Training
Training your own horse is one of the most enjoyable projects you can ever undertake. Dealing with the problems that arise is just part of the training process. No training program is ever going to proceed in a perfectly smooth, linear fashion, but by thinking clearly about your horse, your training methods, and your goals, you can achieve steady progress.
There will be times when your horse will not be sure that he can do something, and you will need to insist, pleasantly and politely. Most of the time, the magic words in training are "please" and "thank you"; occasionally the magic words are "now" and "thank you." If you are understanding, honest, fair, and appreciative, your horse will enjoy being trained by you.
Timetables, Watches, and Egos
Q You once gave a lecture at a conference called "Egos and Watches" or "No Time for Egos" or something like that. I've been asked to give a presentation on horse training at our local junior college, and I would love to borrow some of your material. That was the best lecture I ever heard on horse training, and I know these students could learn a lot from the ideas you presented.
A The lecture was called "Timetables, Watches, and Egos," but I must say that I like your "No Time for Egos" title just as much. Timetables, watches, and egos are three things that trainers must leave outside the stable door. The trainer's focus must be on the horse and in the moment, with total awareness of the "now" — but with perception, not with pressure. Good trainers understand that there are no shortcuts, that training is not a formula, a trick, or magic. It's not instant — it's a process that requires knowledge, understanding, patience, persistence, and time.
Good trainers know that things take time. If you take the time to train correctly, you won't need to invest additional time and money and effort later to correct your mistakes and fill the holes in the horse's training. Every horseman's motto should be festina lente — "make haste slowly." If you go slowly, you get there faster. More importantly, if you go slowly, you get there. If you're in a hurry, you won't get there at all.
Here are the keys to good training: The better the trainer, the easier the training process will be, and the less training time will be wasted on misunderstandings and miscommunications.
A good trainer has long-term training goals in mind, understands how the short-term goals fit into the overall training plan, breaks down the short-term goals into tiny steps, and ensures that the horse masters each step before being asked to take the next one.
* Self-discipline before discipline: Good trainers use appropriate equipment for training; they don't use equipment to substitute for training. They know that riding and training effectively require hard work and self-discipline on the part of the human.
* Horses reflect their riders and even more so their trainers. If you want to change something about your horse, look closely at yourself and make the change in yourself first. Often, that's all you will have to do — the horse will reflect that change.
* Good trainers are always learning, always improving, and always aware that they don't (and can't) know it all.
A good trainer's goals for a horse must encompass more than a specific level of performance. If a trainer is exclusively preoccupied with developing a horse's obedience and mechanical skills, the horse will never become all that he could be. Goal setting must depend on the individual trainer and horse. If the horse is lucky, the trainer will have realistic expectations and the horse will not be hurt, frightened, or confused as he makes continual progress toward the trainer's goals.
Certain ongoing goals should shape and inform every training session and every trainer-horse interaction. One such goal is for a horse in training to develop and maintain a cheerful, enthusiastic attitude toward training and riding. Another ongoing goal is the improvement of the horse's appearance — over the course of training, a horse should become steadily more beautiful as his body develops correctly. The horse should also become steadily more enthusiastic and confident as his mind and understanding and trust develop correctly.
Trainers need to know their horses — not just what they see in front of them in the arena, but everything about their horses. If someone asks you to longe an unfamiliar horse, the horse's appearance and demeanor will give you some information about his conformation, condition, fitness, and training. His responses to your signals will give you much more information. But to be really effective, you need to know still more. Where does this horse live? Is he alone or does he have companions? Does he spend his time in a stall or a dirt enclosure or a field? How large is the field, what is the terrain like, how is the footing? How is he fed, what sort of hoof care does he receive, what sort of attention do his teeth receive? What has his life been up until now? What sort of work is he being asked to do? Can he do it? Will he be able to make progress at it? Does he enjoy it?
Good trainers realize that they, like the horses they train, are forever works in progress. They work hard to develop their powers of observation and analysis and their communication skills. They read and learn, watch others and learn, work and learn, study horses and learn, and strive to become the best trainers they can be.
Could I Train My Own Horse?
Q I am trying to decide whether it is feasible for me to keep a five-year-old gelding or if it would be better to find him a new home. I am very fond of him and want to do what is best for him as well as what is realistic for me. I am 43 years old, work fulltime, and have all the usual family, work, and social life commitments. I am a green rider living in a sparsely populated area. As far as I know, the closest trainer is several hours away. The horse has had 30 days of basic training. I also took several lessons on him in an indoor arena.
In my estimation, as well as that of the trainer and my riding instructor, he is basically a good horse with potential but is still green, a bit spirited though not really hot, curious (and easily bored at times), can be willing and cooperative but needs a firm hand. He has bucked four people off, including me. I don't know the circumstances in the other cases; in my case I felt that it was a combination of his desperately not wanting to leave his pasture mate and my inexperience. It has taken me several months to come to terms with that incident. After looking into many options, I have come down to these:
A. Search diligently for a good home where he will get lots of time and attention and not be mistreated. I am willing to lose money if I could find the right person who is happy to bring along a green horse. The advantages are more time for me; less expense; less responsibility. The disadvantages are missing the horse and possibly missing out on the experience of solving the problem.
B. Take him back to the boarding facility with the indoor arena and keep him there for a few months, take more lessons on him, and hope that we gain confidence in each other. That situation was okay before, though I was a bit bored with going around and around the arena. Also, the facility is about 45 minutes away. Advantage: experienced people helping me every step of the way. Disadvantages: heavy cost in both time and money; somewhat boring after awhile; horse gains no experience on the trail where I plan to do most of my riding.
C. Keep him at home and try to work with him myself. I would have to have some major work done to create a riding arena. I would have to try to educate myself on horse training through books and videos. Advantages: a riding arena for future use; easier to spend time with him both in training and in just hanging out; could be a richly rewarding experience. Disadvantages: cost in time and money; my lack of experience could make everything worse; could be a horribly demoralizing experience.
Can you help me paint a realistic picture of training him myself? In your opinion, is it even possible for a green rider to do such a thing? I tend to believe that I need experts to do everything for me, whether it is building a rock wall or making a dress. Maybe that is not necessarily true. After all, people have been training their horses for hundreds of years without professional trainers; surely they couldn't have all been disasters?
If you could comment on the joys and frustrations of the training process, including the time involved, and give your opinion on inexperienced people attempting this — also if there are particular qualities that you see in people who are good with training — I would be most appreciative.
A You've obviously put a lot of thought into this question. I hope you will not be disappointed that my advice is to go with your first scenario, in which you find a suitable home for this horse and look for the sort of horse you need now: a quiet, kind horse that enjoys trails and can help a novice rider learn in comfort and safety. You've described a horse that might possibly be a good second horse for you, and would probably be a good third horse, but is not a suitable first horse. Let me take your points one by one:
1. You want what's best for him: that would be consistent handling and training. This gelding is only five and has had very little training. Your instructor and the trainer say that he needs a "firm hand," and with only 30 days of training, he has already learned to buck people off. Assuming that this horse is a sound animal that is comfortable in his tack, this behavior indicates he has been pushed too hard and handled inconsistently. Bucking ought not to be part of the training process.
2. You want what's realistic for you: that would be an experienced, well-trained, kind, comfortable trail horse, probably 8 to 15 years old. You are a green rider with many demands on your time. You're in an isolated area without easy access to regular help. None of this will interfere much with your enjoyment of an older, quieter, well-trained horse, but all of it will interfere with your enjoyment, your progress, and your safety if you are trying to work alone with a young and green animal in your spare time.
3. When you were bucked off, you were shaken by the experience and needed several months to come to terms with it. That's nothing to be ashamed of — you're a novice, after all — but it means that you really do need to acquire that mileage before you take on a young horse.
4. Although you are a beginning rider, you were bored by what you were doing and thought that your horse was bored, too. This is usually a warning sign of poor instruction. Even if your entire lesson takes place at a walk, it should be interesting to both you and the horse, and it should be a pleasant experience for both of you. You need to know more than what to do, you need to know how, and why, and when, and for how long, and how to reward the horse.
5. Learning to ride is complicated and time-consuming enough; focus on that for a while, without adding the host of complications that arise when you also try to train a horse. Learn to ride, and learn about horses. And realize that many very competent, experienced riders never do "start" a young horse — it's not for everyone.
6. Good help matters. Even when you have an experienced horse, you will need some assistance and guidance. A green rider working alone with a green horse is a burning formula for disaster. Even when the horse and human are both goodhearted, misunderstanding will pile upon misunderstanding until utter mutual frustration sets in or until an injury occurs to one or both of the individuals.
7. Training a horse is like educating a child, requiring experience, knowledge, and skill. Because horses are large and powerful, and also surprisingly delicate in some ways, you have to factor in the physical risks to both student and teacher.
The trial-and-error method isn't appropriate for horse training. A key difference between horse training and making that rock wall (or dress) is that mistakes in horse training will make the horse suffer and can put you in real danger. Such results are far less likely when you are dealing with inert substances such as rocks or fabric. If you become horribly frustrated with your work-in-progress wall or your dress, you can scream at it and then abandon it for several days or a week or a month — it will be there, in the same condition and utterly unaffected by your outburst, when you return. That's not true of a horse. Horses are large and reactive and remember everything, and they will react to your behavior, not to your own belief in your good intentions.
Horses have reasons for the things they do. Once you understand horses thoroughly, you'll know what is natural for them, why they react as they do, what causes them to react, and how to encourage or discourage particular actions and reactions. Just as you can't evaluate a horse's illness or injury without understanding what would be normal for the horse, you can't evaluate a horse's reactions or actions unless you know which behaviors and reactions are normal.
It's not entirely true that people have been training horses without professional help for hundreds of years. There have been professional horse trainers for thousands of years. The goals of training may have been different (transportation, warfare, and agriculture rather than recreation and competition), and the equipment has changed over the centuries, but there have always been people who trained horses professionally, and the best trainers were in great demand. You're correct that many people have trained their own horses, but not without help. Right now, you need to focus on your own education. You can be involved with horses for the rest of your life, and that gives you quite a lot of time to learn and to develop experience and even expertise.
Good communication skills will help you. So will sensitivity and sympathy: You'll need both when you work with horses. These qualities are essential for trainers, but they must be accompanied by a good knowledge base. Horses must be dealt with as horses. Patience is vital — imagination perhaps less so, because unless you understand the nature of horses, your imagination may interfere rather than assist. Many kind, sensitive, imaginative humans are disasters as horse trainers, because they simply don't know enough about horses. They deal with horses according to their imaginations rather than according to horse nature, horse behavior, and horse logic.
A sane, sound, well-brought-up young horse of four or five, just beginning his formal training under saddle, should be able to become a nice riding horse after two years of consistent, competent training. It might take longer. It might not take as long. In either case, the horse would not be a fully trained, experienced animal at the end of that time — he would be ready for more training. A horse that does not get the best early training will take much longer to train correctly, because those all-important early years create a pattern of learning and a set of expectations in that horse, for good or for ill. If you were to attempt to train a young horse through the trial-and-error method, then even if you both survived intact, you would need to spend a couple of years retraining him later, with help. Horses started by novices usually require a great deal of retraining and time. It's better all around if you learn more before you begin.
Learn Your Horse, Then Train Your Horse
Q A friend of mine took her new mare to one of your clinics and you told her that she should learn her horse before she could train her horse. I loved that idea, and I have had it in the back of my head since then. Now I have a new horse that my instructor bought at an auction, and we don't know anything about him except that his conformation is good and he seems to have fairly good movement. We're basing this on watching him run in the arena, since nobody has yet been on his back.
My veterinarian thinks he is about eight years old. He was very thin at first, but now that he has been here for two months and gained a lot of weight, he still seems to have a nice quiet personality. My instructor thinks that he will be a good training project for me, and I am thrilled that she trusts me enough to let me try, but I know I need help. Given that we have just about no information about this horse, how can I "learn" him well enough to train him?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Horse Training Problem Solver"
by .
Copyright © 2007 Jessica Jahiel.
Excerpted by permission of Storey Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Cherry Hill
Preface
Part I: Basic Training
1 Thoughts on Training
2 Training from the Ground
3 Training from the Saddle: Whoa and Go
4 Training at the Walk
5 Training at the Trot
6 Training at the Canter
7 Training over Fences
Part II: Inside and Outside the Arena
8 Working on Transitions
9 Lateral Work: Suppling and Softening
10 The Great Outdoors
11 Connection, Roundness, and Collection
Part III: Training Tools
12 The Rider's Brain
13 Training Equipment: Metal and Leather
14 Longeing, Warm-ups, and Your Horse's Training
Part IV: Training and Retraining at All Ages
15 Age-Appropriate Training
16 Retraining the Abused or Confused Horse
17 Retraining the Ex-Racehorse
18 Specific Situations
Glossary
Recommended Reading
Appendix
Index