interesting quote
This entry was posted on 9/22/2007 6:54 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
This little quote came from, of all places, the bottom of an email advertisement, but it got me to thinking (is that rare?):
Horses like to be helped...especially when they learn new ways to face the obstacles they face in our world. They also appreciate assistance and encouragement from their riders or handlers.
My basic training philosophy is that the most important thing that a horse can learn -- and therefore the most important thing that the trainer can teach -- is that problems can be solved and that the trainer/rider/person can help the horse solve them. If a horse is looking for the solution to her problem, and has the reward of solving that problem, especially with the aid of the trainer, then the horse will grow in confidence, and in confidence of her trainer.
This lesson must be taught at the earliest levels of training -- halter breaking a foal is the best place to start, but I most often deal with young horses coming in at age 2 to 5 for saddle training. still, my first and foremost goal must be to present every new situation in such a way that panic never happens, that every puzzle that faces the young horse does indeed have a happy solution and that I guide the horse toward that solution. And when she tries it (horses do trial and error ... they offer one solution and then another ....) I must be quick to give the reward, so that the solution is imprinted on the horse's mind.
Now here I devolve into another subject -- what is the reward to a horse? It isn't the same as the reward to a dog. In fact rewarding a horse's intellegence the same as a dog's will often set the trainer back. so, rewards for horses is another subject and for now another blog post <G>
Horses like to be helped...especially when they learn new ways to face the obstacles they face in our world. They also appreciate assistance and encouragement from their riders or handlers.
My basic training philosophy is that the most important thing that a horse can learn -- and therefore the most important thing that the trainer can teach -- is that problems can be solved and that the trainer/rider/person can help the horse solve them. If a horse is looking for the solution to her problem, and has the reward of solving that problem, especially with the aid of the trainer, then the horse will grow in confidence, and in confidence of her trainer.
This lesson must be taught at the earliest levels of training -- halter breaking a foal is the best place to start, but I most often deal with young horses coming in at age 2 to 5 for saddle training. still, my first and foremost goal must be to present every new situation in such a way that panic never happens, that every puzzle that faces the young horse does indeed have a happy solution and that I guide the horse toward that solution. And when she tries it (horses do trial and error ... they offer one solution and then another ....) I must be quick to give the reward, so that the solution is imprinted on the horse's mind.
Now here I devolve into another subject -- what is the reward to a horse? It isn't the same as the reward to a dog. In fact rewarding a horse's intellegence the same as a dog's will often set the trainer back. so, rewards for horses is another subject and for now another blog post <G>