Horse Handler
What training would you like to undertake? Would you like to be regarded as a standout horse handler, someone who is respected and recognized as being in control and a leader among horse owners and riders. Pictured is advanced student David Gray of Abilene.
Hearts4Horses
Passion for Truth
Those of you who share my passion will understand, you will instinctively relate to my
relentless questioning of everything to do with horses. I accept nothing as fact until
proven, I challenge everything about how horses are treated.
I will not rest until my understanding is complete, that may never happen in my lifetime. One thing I know, is that many of the revelations I have made, will profoundly affect your understanding and love of our mutual passion.
I will not rest until my understanding is complete, that may never happen in my lifetime. One thing I know, is that many of the revelations I have made, will profoundly affect your understanding and love of our mutual passion.
Articles
What my principles are and why they succeed.
Equine behavioral conditioning
by Dale M Moulton
4/25/01
HORSE CONDITIONING EXCERSISES.
Before you start, some facts you MUST UNDERSTAND
Horses are not super fast learners, they like clear, small chunks of information and lots of repetition. By default, a horses “animal of prey” mindset is most content with each day being the same as the one before. Horses are “Groundhog Day” specialists. Once you start to introduce new concepts to your horse, and he or she starts accepting daily change to routine, the learning capability of your equine will improved measurably. Rewarding the horse for good behavior links the new concepts to pleasure, and, like humans, horses move towards pleasure, and away from pain. It is my experience, that many horses will act as dumb as a fencepost when learning, then all of a sudden they “get it”. It is specifically this trait that brings out the anger in humans attempting to “train” a horse. Expect resistance, expect less than perfection, expect individuality, and reward a try.
While horses are definitely individuals, they are also very predictable, and easy to categorize. A wonderful gauge of a horses capacity to learn quickly is the twitching of the ears. A eminent human psychologist with a love of horses has conducted a lengthy study, it reveals that, inherently, the faster and more a horse twitches its ears the more intelligent it is. In the same context, highly intelligent humans often times are nervy, excitable people. Also revealed was the capability of horses to distinguish color. This color issue has been the subject of debate for years, but controlled testing has confirmed horses are able to discern color variation and will respond differently to identically shaped scary objects that are a different color.
Any action must be asked for with DYNAMIC cues, by that I mean ALWAYS start with minimum cuing and increase the pressure until the desired result is obtained. INSTANTLY REWARD THE CORRECT BEHAVIOR NO MATTER HOW SMALL, then always increase the duration of the behavior in future asks.
It is imperative that a command be continued until the horse tries with the correct response. Giving up before that time allows the horse to believe that the behavior at the “stop the command point” was the correct response. YOU CAN EASILY TEACH EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WANT.
The cue stick is not an extension of your temper, it's an extension of your arm. Training a horse with pain gets results based on fear, if that is what you want, go do what many horseman and horsewomen still do to this day. Harsh bits, big spurs, lots of anger,
SORRY BROKE HORSES.
In the context of small chunks of information, the training exercises break down the horse into manageable pieces, we don't try to control the whole horse from the start, but divide the body up into HEAD, FORE, TORSO, HIND.
The head equals the MOVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.
The fore equals the STEERING SYSTEM.
The torso equals the CHASSIS.
The hind equals the POWERPLANT.
In performing the training and conditioning exercises, balance between sensitizing the horse to stimulus and desensitizing the horse to stimulus is critical to have a well balanced mount. Your horse needs to be sensitive to rider cues both on the ground and in the saddle, and, insensitive to the many and varied negative stimulus the horses environment presents.
Once groundwork begins, the horses disposition and personality will be disclosed. The horse will need either more or less base reflex management, to be a mentally balanced mount. Rarely does a horse appear that is naturally equal in both, when they do, training is a snap. Groundwork needs to be focused on the nature of the horse to balance the disposition. A nervy horse, jumpy and eager to move, but slow to relax, will need much more emotional management in the beginning, but usually learn quickly and well. A friendly, quiet horse that is virtually spookless will need more attention to making it's feet move with energy. In both cases, as you focus on the area needing equaling, the horse will work easier and with less resistance day by day. The progress will amaze you.
Before you start, some facts you MUST UNDERSTAND
Horses are not super fast learners, they like clear, small chunks of information and lots of repetition. By default, a horses “animal of prey” mindset is most content with each day being the same as the one before. Horses are “Groundhog Day” specialists. Once you start to introduce new concepts to your horse, and he or she starts accepting daily change to routine, the learning capability of your equine will improved measurably. Rewarding the horse for good behavior links the new concepts to pleasure, and, like humans, horses move towards pleasure, and away from pain. It is my experience, that many horses will act as dumb as a fencepost when learning, then all of a sudden they “get it”. It is specifically this trait that brings out the anger in humans attempting to “train” a horse. Expect resistance, expect less than perfection, expect individuality, and reward a try.
While horses are definitely individuals, they are also very predictable, and easy to categorize. A wonderful gauge of a horses capacity to learn quickly is the twitching of the ears. A eminent human psychologist with a love of horses has conducted a lengthy study, it reveals that, inherently, the faster and more a horse twitches its ears the more intelligent it is. In the same context, highly intelligent humans often times are nervy, excitable people. Also revealed was the capability of horses to distinguish color. This color issue has been the subject of debate for years, but controlled testing has confirmed horses are able to discern color variation and will respond differently to identically shaped scary objects that are a different color.
Any action must be asked for with DYNAMIC cues, by that I mean ALWAYS start with minimum cuing and increase the pressure until the desired result is obtained. INSTANTLY REWARD THE CORRECT BEHAVIOR NO MATTER HOW SMALL, then always increase the duration of the behavior in future asks.
It is imperative that a command be continued until the horse tries with the correct response. Giving up before that time allows the horse to believe that the behavior at the “stop the command point” was the correct response. YOU CAN EASILY TEACH EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WANT.
The cue stick is not an extension of your temper, it's an extension of your arm. Training a horse with pain gets results based on fear, if that is what you want, go do what many horseman and horsewomen still do to this day. Harsh bits, big spurs, lots of anger,
SORRY BROKE HORSES.
In the context of small chunks of information, the training exercises break down the horse into manageable pieces, we don't try to control the whole horse from the start, but divide the body up into HEAD, FORE, TORSO, HIND.
The head equals the MOVEMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.
The fore equals the STEERING SYSTEM.
The torso equals the CHASSIS.
The hind equals the POWERPLANT.
In performing the training and conditioning exercises, balance between sensitizing the horse to stimulus and desensitizing the horse to stimulus is critical to have a well balanced mount. Your horse needs to be sensitive to rider cues both on the ground and in the saddle, and, insensitive to the many and varied negative stimulus the horses environment presents.
Once groundwork begins, the horses disposition and personality will be disclosed. The horse will need either more or less base reflex management, to be a mentally balanced mount. Rarely does a horse appear that is naturally equal in both, when they do, training is a snap. Groundwork needs to be focused on the nature of the horse to balance the disposition. A nervy horse, jumpy and eager to move, but slow to relax, will need much more emotional management in the beginning, but usually learn quickly and well. A friendly, quiet horse that is virtually spookless will need more attention to making it's feet move with energy. In both cases, as you focus on the area needing equaling, the horse will work easier and with less resistance day by day. The progress will amaze you.