People have an obsession with forcing horses to come to them. When a horse is hard to catch, trainers say you must make the horse come to you. They say you must be the alpha and the horse must submit. They say the horse must be lower in the pecking order. In other words, the … Read more
Recently I watched a famous trainer harassing a horse with a tarp. The horse was snorting and ‘taking fright’ of the tarp and was obviously very worried. ‘I’ve been doing this for a few months now,’ the trainer said. ‘I’ll keep at him until he gives up. I may wear out a few tarps but … Read more
At every level of training, every horse has a threshold where his flight or fight response overrules his logical thinking process. Your horse may jump when he hears a noise or he may shy when he sees something. A badly handled horse will rush away at the slightest distraction and be constantly nervous and worried. … Read more
A common theme doing the rounds at the moment is that you must desensitise certain parts of a horse and sensitise other parts, in order to ride him and control him. Apparently, you must desensitise his girth area so he won’t buck and you must sensitise his mouth so he stops. You must desensitise his … Read more
When you ride your horse, many trainers would have you believe that the biggest problems to overcome are plastic bags blowing in the wind, umbrellas suddenly opening and a world covered in plastic tarps. The first thing these trainers do is frighten young horses with plastic bags, flags, tarps, umbrellas and goodness knows what else. … Read more
There’s a big debate in the horse training world about whether you should be the ‘alpha’ mare, the ‘lead’ mare, the ‘boss’ stallion or the ‘submissive’ horse. Trainers have allegedly camped out in the bush for months on end to study the behaviour of wild horse herds. They say that observing horses in their natural … Read more
My wife Christine always spent lots of time rubbing and scratching her horses. Our grey horse ‘Kip’ soon learned to come to her and present the spot that he wanted rubbed or scratched. Sometimes it was his rump, sometimes his ribs, withers, neck or head. He’d back up to Chris to have his tail scratched. … Read more
A fellow rang the other day to buy a copy of my book. ‘I need it straight away because I’m breaking-in my horse and tomorrow I have to tie him up and put the bit on for the first time. Everyone says I have to tie him up before I ride him. Is the book … Read more
I watched a TV show the other night where a film crew followed rodeo contestants through a season of competition. The programme featured bull riders, saddle bronc riders, bareback riders and two barrel racing ladies. One of these ladies had a problem. About half way through the season, her horse started knocking over the second … Read more
I watched a horse starting competition on video the other day. One of the trainers left his saddle in the round yard with the horse, explaining that this allowed the horse to look at the saddle and get ‘used to’ it. When the horse walked over and sniffed the saddle, the crowd clapped as though … Read more