My Inspiration, And my learning curve in horsemanship.

My journey to where I have arrived in training horses, with positive reinforcement, clicker training, and fun, has not been a straightforward one. I have made many mistakes and stumbled many times before finding something that really seems to work for me. And even now there is so much to learn, every session teaches me something. I'm learning every day, tweaking my methods and still reading and learning from professionals to enable me to build my toolkit. I have taken bits and bobs from all sorts of people over the years in order to build a large collection of training tools and techniques that can be adapted towards any horse.

Over the years the following people have inspired me and added to my toolbox for the following reasons (There are too many to name but three big ones for me are) :


  • Monty Roberts - The king of it for me, not so much his methods as his attitude. He is an incredible man who has come through an incredible past and is an example to us all when it comes to the treatment of both equines, humans and any other living being. He inspired me to get go of any anger I had when working with any animal, a task that can prove difficult but is well worth doing for the best relationships in your life.  Having said that Monty's methods have also proved invaluable to me when working with nervous horses, or horse that won't tolerate me close to them, to begin with. Join up gives them the choice to come to the trainer, through body language that they understand. And the concept of pressure/release, advance/retreat, give/take. Whatever you want to call it. I have found this to be brilliant in gently stretching comfort zones. Coupled with the clicker training this is a brilliant tool, something that the horses can really understand. I would highly recommend having a look at the Monty Roberts website or having a look on youtube, especially if you are starting out. http://www.montyroberts.com


  • Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling - There are a lot of mixed opinions on this man. A lot of people say that he is predatory and don't appreciate him carrying a whip. What I have taken from reading some of his books and watching him is that body language is incredibly important. It can have a profound effect on the horse when you are working with it and if you tune them up to listen to you and appreciate the correct body language then you can end up with a lovely responsive horse. The downside is that a lot of people are not aware of the signals that they give their horse so end up giving false signals or end up punishing the horse for reacting to a signal that they are not aware that they have given. I was reading on of the books written by Klaus whilst studying my British horse society exams. Whilst in my stage three lunging exam I was given a horse that simply did not like to stop. He had fallen several times on the lunge with different people (we lived at the training center so knew the horses well). Anyway, when I received him as my exam horse I immediately abandoned the 'by the book' method that we had been taught, knowing that it just stressed him out. By using body language and a slack rope I ended up lunging him well. and the examiner was impressed despite me not using the conventional method of lunging and I passed. Simply it was the awareness of my own body language on a reactive horse that got me the results that I needed.

  • Ben Hart -  Ben Hart is a more recent inspiration to me, I have always had an interest in clicker training but always struggled with breaking everything down into small enough steps. I stumbled across Ben's website whilst googling clicker training for behavioral problems. I was at my wit's end with my own horse, a beautiful ex-racehorse that now has a new home. Due to work commitments I just couldn't give my gorgeous boy what he needed so after six years I found him another home to go to where he could get the attention he deserved. Needless to say, it was this horse that made me look for alternative training methods. Natural horsemanship methods made him super sensitive and jittery. Traditional training methods seemed to place too much pressure on him and he used to retaliate with bucking, rearing etc as soon as you started to put boundaries in place. Clicker training showed results almost instantly. Whilst searching for more information on the method I found Ben's site. Having now read several of his books I can't fault him. Everything is explained in a way that is easy to understand, therefore making it a brilliant method to take forwards and adapt for individual horses. It is also working wonders on Thimble the hand reared section A, and Stella the nervous Section D. Go and have a Look, you won't regret it!
Over time I have tried to follow one method right the way through and every time I have hit snags where it didn't suit a certain horse for a certain reason. By combining several methods I have learned a number of common 'rules' that crop up in all of them and I have enabled myself to work with a wide variety of horses with a wide variety of issues. I will keep reading, keep learning and hopefully one day I will be on someones inspiration list! 

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