Real Horse Training

Before I want to talk about training, I want to talk about the HORSE and YOU and RIDING. Kind of a strange approach, isn’t it. I follow some horse forums / sites and I read a lot about “I love horses” or “This is my baby” and lines like that. Combined with the problems described it sometime gives me the creeps. Horses are my live – but here is a question:

Do you still "love" them?

This is a rhetorical question – because it does not really matter. This was a zero degree morning with lots of ice picking. If I do not get out there and feed and clear the water these horses might not make it. And as a breeder I sure cannot afford that.

The HORSE. It is one of the oldest companions of mankind. It has helped win wars, plough fields, clear woods and has provided a lot of pleasure. Probably the most famous saying is “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man”.

BUT, our horses now are at the best pastured, often penned and at the worst end just stabled. Their well-being totally depends on US. In these hard times here in AZ people turn their horses loose. These horses will not survive – they have never learned to find feed.  

Our horses might be mostly pleasure horses, but they are not toys! If you want a toy, buy an ATV.

YOU. You “love” horses? Look at the picture again. If you are not into ranching or breeding your horse is a very expensive hobby. Don’t get me wrong – worth every penny you can scrape up. But no horse deserves to be bought and sold – because it did not work out. Next to marriage and kids a horse is a long-term commitment.

RIDING. I have met people who told me they had been “riding all their life”. But actually they were just “sitting on a horse”. “Riding” entails more than that. It is a lifelong learning process. If you are really riding you never will quit learning – nor will your horse.

If you cannot agree with these statements, you might not want to read on. My approach to horse training is based on these statements.

Now lets look at horse training. And let me get two things out of the way real quick.

First, we do not “train” a horse to walk, trot, canter or stop. Every little foal knows how to do that. What we really do is to teach the horse to do it on command. You will find much more about that.

Second, “training” is a very short span of everything we do with a horse. After that it is “practice” – or much more important “behavioral management”. Every time you interact with your horse you shape your horses behavior – one way or the other, if you are aware of it or not.

So let’s get down and dirty about “training” and “behavioral management”.

Behavioral science has determined how we all “tick”. You and me, your horse and dog, the dolphin at Sea World. the tiger at the circus – just darn all of us. And this is not any different from the laws of physics.

To take an example – you can pick up a rock and let it drop. No matter what you do or claim, the darn rock will just fall to the ground – straight down at a defined speed.

What that has to do with horse training? If you “reward” your horses “bad behavior” – if you know it or not – things will just get worse. And if you do not “reward” your horses’ progress in training – you will be just wasting your time and be going nowhere.

Are you still with me? You are a tough cookie.

But then, you might really benefit from the information on this site.

You think I am taking my mouth pretty full? Maybe. But I have trained a lot of horses and turned around a lot of so-called “problem horses” – and their owners. And it might have something to do with the fact that I have a masters degree in psychology – and was paid the big bucks as an international consultant.

Hope you will stay with me!

CONTACT:
Wolfgang Maass
Pine Creek Ranch
PO Box 1194
Seligman. AZ 86337
wolfganggc@gmail.com

May you always enjoy your horse(s)!