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My Story
The first time I had horses around me was during my childhood in Hungary where I was born in 1964. My grandfather had a horse and wagon. So did most everybody in the village. It was obvious from the beginning that I was very fond of these beautiful animals. Even of the huge and heavy cold blooded horses. Much was different in the late 60’s in a middle-European country. There was little use for saddle horses in those days up in the mountainous region and these gentle animals worked hard on the field and pulled the wagons mostly. The first time I saw well-trained riding horses were in the grasslands where the untamed herds of slim, athletic light horses were rumbling in the hundreds and were taken care of by the “csikos” in their traditional blue clothes. Year after year they put on a big show of their skills. It is a kind of Hungarian rodeo. They gallop with ease on their fast horses with just a simple piece of leather without and they stand on the hind of two horses and drive another three in front of them with such speed that it borders insanity. They lay their horses down or make them sit up like a dog. They are cracking their long whips (karikas ostor) from the back of their horses while driving the rumbling herds.
I was dreaming about working with horses, just like that for years. But my time with horse training had to wait almost two decades when I got in close touch with the horsemanship of professional wranglers during my time when I lived in the vast wilderness in Canada. I also met for the first time, wild horses and learned how to tame them and how to work with them.
The North-American Horsemanship, as we know it today, has developed over centuries. The first people who had anything to do with horse training there were the conquering Spanish of course. But it was the Plains Indian nations who developed something truly remarkable later. It was based not on control as much as on personal relationship with one’s horse. I had the fortune of working with a Cree elder Billy Wanyandee, who taught me how to work the horses from their inner nature rather than break their will to fight against its rider. How to make the horse face its fears and learn, through training, teaching them to find their own answers and how safe it is being with a man. He showed me how horses will chose safety over freedom in its traditional sense. And that freedom is really the freedom of choice working with us. The horse’s intelligence, natural curiosity and adaptability make it ideal to comprehend what we want from him. But first and foremost the horse must have a very close relationship with the trainer.
Billy taught me a lot of things about “native american horsemanship” and through our years together he also made me realize the value of the horse and the work we must do together. "My horse is fine without me running wild on the prairie but I am dead without him!" - he always said.
How to listen to the horse and find our capabilities and border together. How to learn from horses instead of just force them to learn from us. How they always learn more about humans than humans will ever be able to learn about them. Unless, of course, we speak “horse” and can listen to them.
I found through my studies how the same principal worked so well in the vast steppes of Asia where the horse nomads developed their own ideas, obviously independent from North American Native indians, yet somehow came to the same conclusion. Their methods and ideas are hauntingly similar to those that I learned in my early career as a wrangler.
Soon I needed to develop my own direction to my own goals with horses and started following my own instincts and feelings about horsemanship. Soon I started teaching others about the significance of relationship and trust between man and beast. More importantly, however is how to achieve it and how to build up a horse from the ground. Today a new trend is being born the Mustang Makeover which is very much based on the same principals I have learned. Namely, man and horse must find a way to build something that is more than what they had before. How a horse can learn the ways of man. How he can find his place next to his man. For it is the horse that has a human. It is the horse that has to adopt and trust. And enjoy working with his human when the foundation is based on the principals of the life in a herd. With, of course, the human touch.
This “human touch” is what I represent. It is a complex understanding of the horse’s core, instincts, intelligence and willingness. It is not a stick against a frightened animal in order to make him do what we want. It is to show the horse what he is capable of doing with our guidance and with no show of force.
Horses are all the same...and they are all different. Their instincts have developed over millions of years so they react much the same regardless of their breed. But they all have their personal character which demands a tailored approach to their training. We must bring out the best of a horse, should always care what he has inside him and help him develop what he naturally does best. Of course during this process we also make him do things he would naturally try to avoid. Some will react favourably and some will protest against it. But they all are going to learn eventually to follow the lead. Given proper training and careful steps to teach him our ways they will feel safe with us. They will develop a keen interest in learning more from us and when we do this right we can bring his personality to the surface, thus have a trained horse instead of an instinctive being that always runs first and thinks second.
My horsemanship is based on this very principal. I follow a rough guideline and training schedule during which I build the horse up step by step but I care little about how we achieve this together. It is up to the horse and only he knows when he is ready for the next step. This is where every horse is different. Some learns faster, some slower, some are easier to handle or shows more willingness and some put up more resistance. Regardless of their nature however, this process is surprisingly fast. If we consider that a colt learns everything he has to know about being a horse from his mother in two weeks time it is not surprising perhaps that their extreme intelligence enables them to catch on our ideas in a few days. In less than a week a totally raw, untrained horse can be saddled or sit on if we take the horse’s character into consideration and follow him as much as we want him to follow us. Likewise we must trust our horse before we ask for trust. The relationship between horse and trainer is way more important than our will to make the horse do something for us. Liberate him, do not break him. Make him face his own destiny rather than a life we want him to have.
A horse with free choices is a good material to develop further. With faulty training methods he will just become a broken spirit and an empty shell.
Make him follow us, make him work well with us and develop a great relationship with us but always let him remain in his heart what he actually is: A HORSE.
I was dreaming about working with horses, just like that for years. But my time with horse training had to wait almost two decades when I got in close touch with the horsemanship of professional wranglers during my time when I lived in the vast wilderness in Canada. I also met for the first time, wild horses and learned how to tame them and how to work with them.
The North-American Horsemanship, as we know it today, has developed over centuries. The first people who had anything to do with horse training there were the conquering Spanish of course. But it was the Plains Indian nations who developed something truly remarkable later. It was based not on control as much as on personal relationship with one’s horse. I had the fortune of working with a Cree elder Billy Wanyandee, who taught me how to work the horses from their inner nature rather than break their will to fight against its rider. How to make the horse face its fears and learn, through training, teaching them to find their own answers and how safe it is being with a man. He showed me how horses will chose safety over freedom in its traditional sense. And that freedom is really the freedom of choice working with us. The horse’s intelligence, natural curiosity and adaptability make it ideal to comprehend what we want from him. But first and foremost the horse must have a very close relationship with the trainer.
Billy taught me a lot of things about “native american horsemanship” and through our years together he also made me realize the value of the horse and the work we must do together. "My horse is fine without me running wild on the prairie but I am dead without him!" - he always said.
How to listen to the horse and find our capabilities and border together. How to learn from horses instead of just force them to learn from us. How they always learn more about humans than humans will ever be able to learn about them. Unless, of course, we speak “horse” and can listen to them.
I found through my studies how the same principal worked so well in the vast steppes of Asia where the horse nomads developed their own ideas, obviously independent from North American Native indians, yet somehow came to the same conclusion. Their methods and ideas are hauntingly similar to those that I learned in my early career as a wrangler.
Soon I needed to develop my own direction to my own goals with horses and started following my own instincts and feelings about horsemanship. Soon I started teaching others about the significance of relationship and trust between man and beast. More importantly, however is how to achieve it and how to build up a horse from the ground. Today a new trend is being born the Mustang Makeover which is very much based on the same principals I have learned. Namely, man and horse must find a way to build something that is more than what they had before. How a horse can learn the ways of man. How he can find his place next to his man. For it is the horse that has a human. It is the horse that has to adopt and trust. And enjoy working with his human when the foundation is based on the principals of the life in a herd. With, of course, the human touch.
This “human touch” is what I represent. It is a complex understanding of the horse’s core, instincts, intelligence and willingness. It is not a stick against a frightened animal in order to make him do what we want. It is to show the horse what he is capable of doing with our guidance and with no show of force.
Horses are all the same...and they are all different. Their instincts have developed over millions of years so they react much the same regardless of their breed. But they all have their personal character which demands a tailored approach to their training. We must bring out the best of a horse, should always care what he has inside him and help him develop what he naturally does best. Of course during this process we also make him do things he would naturally try to avoid. Some will react favourably and some will protest against it. But they all are going to learn eventually to follow the lead. Given proper training and careful steps to teach him our ways they will feel safe with us. They will develop a keen interest in learning more from us and when we do this right we can bring his personality to the surface, thus have a trained horse instead of an instinctive being that always runs first and thinks second.
My horsemanship is based on this very principal. I follow a rough guideline and training schedule during which I build the horse up step by step but I care little about how we achieve this together. It is up to the horse and only he knows when he is ready for the next step. This is where every horse is different. Some learns faster, some slower, some are easier to handle or shows more willingness and some put up more resistance. Regardless of their nature however, this process is surprisingly fast. If we consider that a colt learns everything he has to know about being a horse from his mother in two weeks time it is not surprising perhaps that their extreme intelligence enables them to catch on our ideas in a few days. In less than a week a totally raw, untrained horse can be saddled or sit on if we take the horse’s character into consideration and follow him as much as we want him to follow us. Likewise we must trust our horse before we ask for trust. The relationship between horse and trainer is way more important than our will to make the horse do something for us. Liberate him, do not break him. Make him face his own destiny rather than a life we want him to have.
A horse with free choices is a good material to develop further. With faulty training methods he will just become a broken spirit and an empty shell.
Make him follow us, make him work well with us and develop a great relationship with us but always let him remain in his heart what he actually is: A HORSE.