There are some approaches to horses and horse training that are not only idiotic, but cruel as well.
I hear and see things every day that make me cringe.
Here are a couple of recent beauties:
From my Facebook page:
“We have a girl in our barn who has been taught to scare her horse, so that she can then calm it down.
She feels that she is teaching it coping skills.
I feel for the horse!!
Any comments?”
From a Youtube video:
A horse was relaxed and standing quietly with a trainer.
Then out of the blue, the trainer produced a plastic bag and proceeded to harass the horse with it.
The horse was startled and reacted by rushing away.
And the trainer said:
“At some point this horse is going to be frightened of something, so I might as well frighten him now, so he’ll get used to it.”
These are two of the more stupid things I’ve seen and heard.
It makes absolutely no sense to frighten a horse that’s relaxed and confident, so you can calm him and make him relaxed and confident again.
Imagine using this approach with a child.
On your child’s first day of school, the teacher says “Now Johnny, one day someone’s going to bully you and we want you to be prepared.
So, we’re going to put you in a room with the school bully every day and he’s going to harass you and frighten you for an hour or so.”
“Now don’t worry.
Every session with the bully will make you less frightened.
You’ll react less each day and eventually you’ll be desensitised.
After a week or so, you’ll be used to being frightened and you won’t react at all!”
This sounds stupid because it is.
Yet when it comes to horses, some trainers say and do exactly the same thing and some people think it’s okay.
You can make up all sorts of stories to justify frightening horses and don’t worry, I’ve heard most of them so please don’t tell me another one.
I don’t want to hear it.
You can see how to handle every horse without frightening him in my Foal Handling Online Clinic.
The idea that a horse’s response will wane when he’s constantly exposed to things that frighten him, is nonsense.
And please don’t tell me it must be right because it’s been done for the last hundred years.
And don’t tell me it must be right because some so-called ‘famous’ trainer does it.
I don’t care how long it’s been done and I don’t care who does it.
However, I do care when I see horses being frightened and stressed.
You don’t have to get any horse used to things that worry or frighten him.
Instead, everything must be introduced to every horse in a manner that he can understand and accept.
Everything must be introduced to every horse without the horse being frightened in the first place.
Always remember, there’s never any need to flap anything around any horse, at any stage of his training. Instead, you must build every horse’s confidence one step at a time, every step of the way.
Learn more now
