New to Horses? Welcome! How to Evaluate Horse Training Programs
Here In The Beyond: Spiritis
locate and use in your efforts to learn more about them. You
should also be able to evaluate those resources effectively.
What should one do to learn about horses? How does one
make certain that what one is learning is optimal? Which
methods are best for putting this information to work?
The best approaches aren't found in any one form of
equestrianism per se, although some approaches are
more notorious for undesireable practices than others.
One needs actual time observing and participating in the
handling and working of horses, supplemented by getting
advice on this from books, magazines, videos, classes,
clinics, lectures and other presentations, including the
careful observation of publicly-exhibited livestock.
Such animals should be well-conditioned, kept in
comfort, worked gently and yet effectively.
It's best to avoid actual horse ownership, especially at first,
unless the animal is selected very carefully, can be kept in
training and boarded with competent horsefolk, and the
owner(s)/rider(s) kept in appropriate lesson program(s)
entirely complementary to the training. Anything less
means eventual small or large-scale disaster(s), for
human(s), or worse yet, horse(s), etc. Note that the
learning experience can be optimized more easily by
the avoidance or at least postponement of horse
ownership, allowing for the student to have access to
far more horses. Riding only one horse, because it is
owned, tends to prevent one from gaining as much
experience as possible with diverse individuals.
How is the person new to horses best able to acquire and
use the proper wisdom needed to work horses responsibly?
Carelessness in the management of large livestock such
as horses can have drastic consequences. Small amounts
of prevention may in fact preclude huge amounts of cure.
Evaluation of horses, boarding situations, training
techniques, and instruction programs can be done
best by performing research on these things.
The study of horse management starts with the horse. The
animal who is brought, gently, to ripe age in functional condition
through long years of productive work is the example to be sought.
The types of work are many and varied, every type of equestrian
activity from farm traction to competition at any level, but the horse
who can do the job well enough for the longest time represents
the best, wisest use on the part of its handlers.
Certain principles help to ensure that horses can be worked
well for extended useful lives. These are characteristics of
training programs which indicate optimal efficiency:
1) The horse is understood and provided with sustenance
and habitat as appropriate to optimized health.
2) The horse is protected from unsafe conditions and given
the reassurance of herd-hierarchy-based security.
3) The horse is allowed to remain rested, calm, relaxed, and
free of fear, tension, or fatigue in being initiated to work.
4) The horse is carefully set up to succeed in specific ways
and systematically rewarded for those successes.
5) The horse is encouraged to progress into and remain in
productive work for an extended period.
Should any of these elements be absent, the training is not as
beneficial to the horse - and thereby the human- as it ought to
be. It is worthwhile to locate appropriate training facilities even
if they're not as conveniently situated, as this is an inherently
risky sport and poor training only increases that risk. Good
handling methods make for added safety, enjoyment, and
success for those who make a point of learning them.
You deserve the best experience possible, and need
not settle for anything less.
Sheila Green, enjoying safe success, in Freedom
"Never strain the attention or tax the strength of the horse.
Require no position, attitude, or movement which in itself
causes the horse apprehension, discomfort, or pain."
~"Horsemanship and Horsemastership Volume I Part Two
Education of the Horse", Academic Division, The Cavalry
School, Fort Riley, Kansas 1935