Helping Horses With Humans Is A Challenge

In the 26 years I have been training horses and riders I have found as a rule most horses are much easier to train than their riders. Let me apologize to all you humans out there, but it's true, if horses are handled with kindness combined with firmness when training them they are far more willing to follow you and accept what you are teaching than humans are.

Here is an example if I have a horse who I'm working with who is nervous, not connected, a little bull headed or pushy I will often times us the Monty Robert's Join-Up method.  It's fairly simple - you put the horse in a round pen and you simply ignore him for a few minutes - turning your back on him. After a few moments you send him away by stomping your feet or throwing the lead line out towards him. The horse will usually trot or even lope around you. What you are trying to do is convince the horse you don't want him in your herd - that you are the one in control. After awhile the horse begins to want to be in your herd and will starting asking to come back into the herd - usually by licking their lips and approaching you with a demeanor that says "I want to be with you". After you have chased him away a couple more times to reinforce that you are the herd leader you let him in. Once you have done this you rub his head and make him feel good about being with you and you are friends for life. Okay, I have explained that training method to humans and expected them to learn as quickly as the horse, but oh no they don't. I have to explain it to them two or three times. Then I get them and the horse in the round pen to do the Join Up and the human goes to pieces. At some point I wondered if I should stomp my feet at them and send them away as I did the horse - perhaps that would help.

I use Linda Tellington-Jones methods, too, when training. I often use her obstacle course to lead horses through in-hand as well as mounted. Going through the labyrinth, cones, over tarps, around the wagon wheel and over ground poles helps the horse readjust his thought process. As a rule doing this a couple of times with a horse will make a difference in his attitude.   I'm always hopeful it will help readjust the human thought process as well and change their attitude. Sometimes it works, but other times not so much. When you do this Linda suggests you carry what she refers to as wand (riding crop-dressage whip) so if the horse gets out of control you can use the butt end of the wand to give him a quick rap between eyes just once. You don't do it repeatedly or severely - just once and then move on. Sometimes humans listen and do it correctly, but other times they don't and will do it two or three times. That's when I take the wand away from the human, apologize to the horse and ask the horse if they would like to use the wand on their human to readjust their thoughts.



I always say "if the rider is right the horse is right" a quote I stole from Dressage training a long time ago. When I'm training a horse I have no trouble helping the horse be right.. now wait for it, because I'm right in the saddle. I keep my heels down, my stirrups are the correct length, I sit on my seat bones, I use my legs to ride, I sit up straight in the saddle and my hands are quiet so the horse is bending at the pole, flexing, collecting his gait and is a happy horse.  The horse improves with every training session, so happy trainer and happy horse, Now when I trying to train a human that's where I became a little flustered and unhappy.  See humans want to blame the horse and take no responsibility for what they may be doing wrong. Maybe the problem is the horse is listening to me in the saddle and the rider isn't listening to me while I'm instructing them. Maybe it's easier for them to blame the horse than face their own shortcoming as riders.

Yes, training humans is a much bigger challenge than training most horses, but I will keep doing it because somebody has to help all those horses out there with problem humans. I will also keep doing it because I have had success training humans. When it all comes together and that light bulb goes on it's a very satisfying feeling. I will keep doing it for those moments when the rider climbs off their horse, hugs him with tears in their eyes and then hugs me.