I have heard it said that horses don't like horse trainers. Buck Brannaman has mentioned this at a couple of his clinics that I have attended. At first I laughed at the thought of this. Part of it made sense to me. The other half, of putting this to practice, eluded me for years. I struggled with the idea of not training horses while I continued to do just that, train.?!

It seemed to me a matter of styles. Maybe one could train nicely and stay in right relation? Surely there was a grey area here. You couldn't just get a horse to the level Buck rides at without training them. Could you?

It has been recently, and with a few other perspectives that I have come to fully understand the extent of not training a horse. By changing one's thinking we can view a horse as already knowing how to do all the things we would like them to do. They walk, trot, lope, spin, jump, turn, and slide to a stop. All with relative ease. Thinking that we need to train them to do all of this is silly.

What it comes down to is that, in working with horses we are actually building a relationship. First we have to show a horse that we are trustworthy and nothing to be afraid of. This is where most issues stem from. One cannot tell a horse "keep calm, don't be afraid" while spurring them in the guts or whipping them into submission. Rather, we need to display integrity and a sense of impeccable leadership.

By first and foremost having a horse willing to trust us we can begin to teach them our language. This happens in the form of; when I do this, with my hand, my leg, my hip, I would like you (the horse) to do this. We set this up time and again and wait for a horse's understanding to come. By always rewarding the correct movement we develop a way to communicate clearly.

A horse will figure this out pretty quickly. They are masters at finding the easiest way to do something. If we as riders, through proper timing and feel, have the ability to teach a horse to understand our cues, we can then sync up with a horse in no time at all. It really comes down to the human learning to become a better communicator. By clearly conveying our intent to a horse one gains an ability to ride a wide variety of horses.

This goes a long way in advancing one's riding. The other important factor is the ability to go with a horse. When a horse does something that we deem undesirable we can either reprimand them or redirect it into something else. We learn to "redirect" instead of "correct" a horse's behavior. Thereby always allowing a horse to find a way out under pressure. This is calming to a horse and helps us to avoid the tendency of nagging. The nagging is where training begins. This is where a horse begins to tune out and go into survival mode. In this state learning no longer takes place.

If one works towards building a strong relationship between horse and rider a horse is free to stay sharp. Most of what makes them a horse remains in place. We take nothing away from them. We learn to lead and encourage them to have a willingness to follow. By approaching riding horses from this standpoint a horse's spirit will remain strong. We in essence begin to contain the wind.

Keep 'em wild.

Eric

Easton Horsemanship