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My Book
My book is the first of a series of books on training, special issues and make overs.
The first volume covers the basics with special advise given all throughout the book. I concentrate on how I advise people with regards to working with their horses. How to find that special bond. How to address special issues.
Here are same teasers from the book:
...Reading a horse’s body language or comprehend what goes through his mind at any particular time is simply not enough protection. Horses have developed to what they are today by millions of years. They are instinctive and will react panicky to any situation that scares them to a flight. And horses, may I add, always run first and think second. When that happens we should clear they way. The first thing we should all teach our horses is “remember where I am”. Young horses sometimes “forget” that and when they are spooked by a ranking member of the herd, can easily cause very close calls. Always look out for young horses’ reaction and watch where the ranking members are to avoid any serious accident. This doesn’t mean that we can’t ever feel safe in the presence of horses. It simply means that we always have to remember “where I am”...
...Interestingly enough horses are happy to follow a leader. They are perfectly jolly good when they have no responsibility and only have to obey. Leading members in a herd are exposed to danger and will do their duty to protect others even by placing themselves in harm’s way. The leader is assuming all responsibility. He who leads is making the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good of the herd. It is not an easy job. It can be a very short lived assignment when the herd is attacked by predators or facing another herd with a grit to take over leadership and incorporate one herd in another. On the other hand this position is not without rewards! The leaders have first right to food and mares.
No matter what we do as trainers we have to keep in mind which way is easiest to persuade the horse to work with us. Even a very dominant horse can become a follower when we establish our leadership. I do that with problem stallions. Of course I use the word “problem” in a very general and misleading way. There are no “problem” horses only normal horses with problematic owners who interpret the horses mixed and sometimes confusing or straight out scary behavior as a problem. Whenever we experience a horse behaving in a strange way or straight out dangerous we can be assured that we overlooked something crucial when we started interacting with that particular animal. No horse will ever try to take the leading position to our expense unless we invite him to test our weaknesses, what he can of course instinctively sense right away. Remember what I said earlier? Whether we like it or not horses will learn much faster and much more about us than we will ever learn about them!...
No matter what we do as trainers we have to keep in mind which way is easiest to persuade the horse to work with us. Even a very dominant horse can become a follower when we establish our leadership. I do that with problem stallions. Of course I use the word “problem” in a very general and misleading way. There are no “problem” horses only normal horses with problematic owners who interpret the horses mixed and sometimes confusing or straight out scary behavior as a problem. Whenever we experience a horse behaving in a strange way or straight out dangerous we can be assured that we overlooked something crucial when we started interacting with that particular animal. No horse will ever try to take the leading position to our expense unless we invite him to test our weaknesses, what he can of course instinctively sense right away. Remember what I said earlier? Whether we like it or not horses will learn much faster and much more about us than we will ever learn about them!...
...Brushing a horse (although this undoubtedly builds personal bond between horse and owner) is not exactly personal for the horse. When we watch horses grooming each other we often notice how the ranking member will initiate it or allow it. So first of all we have to make sure that we are pulling rank on our horse before we even pick up the brush. We might think of it as a nice gesture but that doesn’t mean the horse will look at it the same. They grow to like it and they seem to go along with it with joy but owners who only concentrate on brushing those dirty spots and disregard the horse’s body language actually miss an important lesson. The horse should pay attention to us with each and every interaction. Even during leisure time. Even when we just brushing them.
A horse is a highly evolved social animal with a very decisive education from other members of the herd. So they are instinctively trying to push their rank on anyone they come in contact with. Whether another horse, dog, a goat, a cow or a man. They will use every opportunity they get to enlarge the scope of their influence and step up the ladder in the chain of command. They do that to us every time too. They only pay attention and pay respect to higher ranking horses. So when a horse pays no attention to us he actually doesn’t pay respect either...
...Falling in love with a horse and ending up buying it doesn’t necessarily mean that this particular horse will be “the horse for us”. It is also his choice as much as it is our. When we pick a horse we should do that without expectations of any sort. If we purchase a horse and treat it as what our expectation of it is we might be for a rude awakening. We don’t buy a breed we buy one individual of it. And it could be that he doesn’t happen to like us very much at all. Then what? ...
...So the question presents itself: should we talk to our horses at all? We can if we want. It doesn’t seem to bother the horses but in my experience it does nothing for them either. They don’t actually need it. Horses are animals of open grasslands where they can see and follow each other without developing a "vocabulary"!
So many people are totally convinced that their horses understand them. The simple truth is that they are intelligent and therefore able to connect certain words they hear all the time with certain action. But telling horses voice commands in the hope that they will listen to them “walk, trot, gallop, stop, back off, come here” and of course the stuff we tell them as if they were dogs “good boy, very well done” is utter non-sense in my opinion. I have worked with hundreds of horses and found some to be extremely different and very extraordinary. I can see how some of you might have such horse and you can argue that your horse is responding to verbal commands. I believe you. However, I am writing about training horses in general and not a very few extraordinary talents in the kingdom of horses. Even with a precious few horses out there with this sort of capability, I am about principals and not about making a rule based on rare horse talents...
...Training of a horse starts with studying him for a while. And by that I mean for days on end. Always make sure that you have a thorough understanding of the character of this particular horse under your care. Your training must be tailored and it cannot be just a routine, a mindless repetition of what you believe will work. Never assume you know how to train this particular horse. Never assume that the same stuff will work on this one too. Never assume that you can force your training on just any horse. If this is your way, you will be up to a rude awakening...
...When leading a horse you have to know where you are going. You have to be confident as a leader should always be. The captain knows what to do. The horse should keep a safe distance of 2-3 feet behind you. Now he has someone to follow and has time and space to react if anything sudden should happen. (Don’t forget that if anything happens with a horse that will happen in a fraction of a split second). He knows exactly where you are and he will spook around you not over you. When he gets use to this he will follow the same way free without a lead or halter. He will always position himself behind you and not beside you. When a leading mare walks the herd off to another pasture, no other horse will run in front of her or even beside her. They will trail behind her with respect and trust. With her speed, stop when she does and just follow without any dispute or second thought...
...This one subject seems fairly simple but actually it is far from it. As usual, everything simple is also complicated in a way. The basics are different for a green but otherwise nice horse, it is different again for a problem horse with preconceptions already embedded in his mind and it is entirely different for a wild horse that has never been in an enclosure with a human or has everbeen touched. So the mistake is that the horses are living through this experience in different ways but we will, almost without exception, force the same approach...The basics also include one crucial element: we have to teach our horse to think for himself and use his intelligence to find his own answers...
...Stallions are an interesting bunch. Sometimes they behave just like any other horses under your watch but some are very different. Especially the ones that have very strong stud behaviour. They tend to be distracted, focus on mares and often on other stallions, they are irritable and driven by superior instincts. They easily look at anything as a challenge to their status quo and sometimes straight-out aggressive and prone to attack...
...Sometimes, no matter how experienced we are, some horses will test our capabilities and patience. When that happens, I immediately stop working with the horse, set it free and watch. I always think that I obviously have to learn about this particular animal and the best way to observe them is when they are free. Some might argue, as I quoted before that it is a straight line to being trained by the horse instead of us training him. I strongly disagree. Horses need a careful approach and sometimes less is more. When given consideration as a cost-benefit-ratio of their training it is always easy-does-it. There is nothing wrong with accepting the simple fact that horses can teach us as much as we teach them. Observe, understand and adjust! When we deal with highly sensitive horses we always have to listen to them instead of pushing our own agenda and let our ego grow over us!...
...When we suffer from sleep deprivation we are agitated, act strange, we are irritable and just generally unpredictable. We have a much shorter attention span and cannot concentrate or comprehend. It takes much longer to compute and we are very inefficient. So are horses. When they miss their daily deep sleep, they start acting up and sometimes we can misinterpret their behaviour as uncooperative. It is not at all. They are simply cannot work with us when they are not in shape...
...The reason for a horse to give us a hard time is always our doing...or somebody else's doing before us!...
...Never train a horse as a human. Always do it as a horse!...