|
HORSE TRAINING AND
RIDING:
ENGLISH - WESTERN - NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP - - TRADITIONAL PASO FINO - WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU? |
| Horse training used to be simple,
— it was either Western or English, and a rider chose what style he preferred
to ride in, and the training methods sort of went with it. Things got more muddled when some western trainers and instructors started to use some English riding concepts. Then the “natural horsemanship” wave hit, and all of a sudden all of the traditional methods were challenged, leaving behind a fierce competition between dozens or so of modern training methods that have a lot in common without being the same, and each seems to attract a following of dedicated students that feel that they have found the one and only way to deal with a horse, creating a "cult" attitude. Some of the teachers of modern methods became celebrities who make quite a splash through certifying their riders or instructors, holding demonstrations, and selling videos, cd's, books and special equipment. Often, all of this doesn't sit well with people who don't see anything so wrong with the traditional ways of training. As a result of all the fuss, --- and the aversion of riders to go back to doing ground work, or even worse, to work in a round pen with the horse at liberty, ---- many riders have stayed with the more traditional methods without giving the new methods a second look. But much of the new way of thinking has found it’s way quietly into the training regimes of many good trainers and instructors, and if you know what to look for you can recognize it and decide for yourself what you like. Many great instructors teach ways to apply natural horsemanship that might be much more suitable for you, — but they don’t receive the recognition because they don’t want to spend their time and energy working on their “popularity”! |
| In the end, the proof is in
the pudding — when you see a horse that behaves in a way you like, find
out how it was trained, — and see if you can acquire some of the knowledge
that was used to train it. |
| How it all started: In the early days of riding history, the Greek and Spanish people were the first ones who put thought into training and riding, and had well organized programs of teaching the soldiers how to apply it, — and recognized the need for regular riding practice that included exercises and drills, for shoeing the horses, feeding them grains, keeping them in stables, and such. Originally designed to train the war horse for one -on -one combat, and the cow horse in bull fighting, this knowledge of horsemanship soon spread through all of Europe and was used later on to train the horse for recreational riding and competitions like dressage, jumping etc. The“Spanish Riding School” in Vienna still trains their Lippizaners, who are of Spanish origin, in the classical ways of dressage. Yet when the Spanish brought horses to America, they changed their horse training, gear and riding style to suit the new environment, creating the “Western” style. The cowboys adapted their training and riding style to horses who were raised wild, had to be trained “on the job” while tending cattle, and whose riders had learned to ride by trial and error, — no instructions involved. The Californian hackamore horses, who first made the western style of reining and cattle work famous, were ridden by Vaqueros, —descendants of the Spanish. When the English and French came to fight over the “New World”, they imported Thoroughbred type horses, ---- and the typical European gear and riding style used by the Army got the label “english”, to differentiate from the “western”style the Spanish had created. In other words, the western and english training and riding has the same roots, but the styles became quite different over time. Natural Horsemanship evolved from the general trend to go "back to nature" and concern about animals' emotional well being. It inspired the studying of the horses' behavior in the herd, and searching for ways to use these concepts in training to produce a reliable horse, reduce resentment in the horse when dealing with humans, and at the same time create a deeper bond between horse and rider. |
| Traditional English:
This way of riding actually never changed much, and has proven itself
over many centuries in turning out horses who excel in calm obedience, who
are brave, balanced, supple, and willing. These traits are nowadays
being proven in cross country and show jumping and dressage. Training is slow and progressive and designed to work best with a horse that has grown up among people and been handled all of it’s life. The theory is that avoiding stress of all sorts in the young horse builds strong nerves in the mature horse, and at the heart of the riding is the horse’s willingness to have the rider influence it’s every move, and the rider’s attempt to aid the horse in shifting his weight over his hindquarters. This is characterized by the rider keeping constant contact with seat, legs and hands, urging the horse to collect and elevate in the front, and a game of give and take that is too supple to be seen by someone watching. It’s a game of creating energy and preventing it from leaking out in the wrong places, until the horse is strung like a bow with much power in each step, the way he would prance around in the pasture if he was trying to show off to another horse! |
| Traditional Western: A cowboy was hired to start colts who had seen very little of humans, and his goal was to get the fight out of them, and turn them quickly into usable saddle horses. At the heart of this method was restraining the horse so it couldn’t flee, and then exposing it to things they were afraid of until they gave up. Some horses turned into outlaws, but most turned into very stable mounts. Entertainment was hard to find out on the open range, and watching a rank horse buck his rider off seemed a fun way to start the day. The horses traveled on a loose rein, since no one wants to direct every step and keep a horse collected when riding from dawn to dusk. The horse had to learn to think on it’s own, and pick it’s own way in the dark, and react with speed to the circumstances around him. With no enclosures near by the cattle had to be roped to be doctored, the horses had to carry sick calves, cut out and sort out on the range, and deal with stampeding cattle, go out in bad storms, and often be without any other horses for comfort. All of this made it a necessity to ride one handed on a loose rein, and have the horse react very fast to a touch from the spur or pull on the bit. Horses were plentiful and only the good ones were kept around, — the ones that spooked or couldn’t deal with a less than perfect rider, or couldn’t keep their weight over their haunches without any help, were simply culled. Even though the circumstances have changed today, we can still see the western riding at it’s finest when reining horses canter circles, do roll backs and come to a sliding stop on a loose rein, or when a cutting horse works a cow on a loose rein, all of them perfectly balanced with their weight over their haunches. |
| Natural Horsemanship
: What started the “natural” horsemanship wave was undoubtedly the ongoing argument between English and Western riders about their horse’s happiness. English riders found the Western way of starting a colt by subjecting it to a certain amount of fear very cruel, and they worried that riding the horse on a loose rein would invite it to become heavy on the front end, - which would be harmful. Western riders found the English way of dictating every step to the horse insulting to the horse’s intelligence, and felt that it must create a lot of resentment, — and they worried how a horse that depends on the rider to stay balanced and to be guided every step of the way would be able to travel over rough terrain or pick his way through the bush. Natural horsemanship needn’t be anything but respecting both those worries! By applying just the smallest amount of something that worries the horse, and then keeping that worrying stimulation up in a rhythmic way while giving the horse the freedom to move around the handler in a small circle, the horse learns to deal with fear without ever getting panicked. When the horse stops, the stimulation stops. With this practice the horse can learn quickly and stress free to accept people’s touch, a certain amount of restraint, and the huge amount of weird and strange things he needs to learn to deal with from saddle to traffic. Whether applying it when halter training a foal or dealing with an adult mustang, it works. Once the work under saddle starts, remember the cowboy’s worry about the English horse never getting a break from the rider’s commands? And the english rider’s worry that the loose reins of the western horse would cause it to be heavy on the front? Natural horsemanship has come up with a way that works great with the horse’s attitude, so it will work for his rider with enthusiasm. The english ridden horse can have more freedom from the rider’s command. The western horse can quickly learn to stay collected on a loose rein. How? As Ray Hunt put it so nicely: Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult! Well said, but how do you put that into practice? The basic idea is that rather than preventing the horse from doing all the wrong things by constantly influencing with hands and legs, let him do the wrong thing (turning towards his buddies, speeding up, breaking gait etc.), and then make it a bit miserable for him: Let him drift towards his buddies and then make him work hard right there, side passing, tight circles, whatever! Let him speed up and then turn him fairly sharply around in his tracks every time he does, so that he gets the idea that those turns would be easier to do if he was slower to start with! Make him go sideways or bend his nose to the side when he wants to break into a jog going home, then offer him a walk on a loose rein again as soon as he slows to a walk. It takes patience, and good timing! You will likely do the same thing over and over, releasing all pressure at the precise moment where the horse does the right thing, until he learns to respect one specific signal, or deal with one specific situation, — rather than trying to improve a whole bunch of things just a little in each session! An instructor is very important for learning to be both persistent enough to have success, and for learning when exactly to release. Learning collection on a loose rein is a by - product of asking the horse repeatedly to flex, tuck by giving to the rein, and changing speed and direction every few steps. Soon he learns to lift his shoulders, tuck his nose immediately when he feels the pressure on the rein, and keep his weight shifted over his haunches. As a reward he immediately gets a big release of rein pressure. As a result the horse moves very balanced, without bracing against the riders commands, and uses his body as he would if he was free in the pasture. Works for English and Western riding. Groundwork: May people think that “natural horsemanship” methods focus way too much on ground work. Who wants to get off their saddle horse and start doing things on the halter from the ground, – or even worse, in a round pen with the horse running loose???? Ground work seems to be for starting colts, —so that you can finally ride them!!!! Indeed, as it turns out, many people start applying natural horsemanship concepts because they want to start their own horse under saddle, — therefore not minding the ground work. Others first fool around with some of the concept while riding, – before they realize how much quicker many of the skills needed can be learned from the ground! And the next thing you know, you realize how the ground work has an incredible effect on how the horse works when you get back on! And when the day comes, that you finally try the “liberty” work with your saddle horse in a round pen, — you might be surprised how he can learn so much about listening to you, about doing as asked and no more and no less, how to wait patiently for the next command rather than anticipating, — and how to really trust you as a leader with polite respect. For the horse, learning this while in a round pen, is natural and mimics his social interaction in a herd, —that’s where the name comes from. And when you research way back into the secret ways of the old time Spanish Caballeros, whose superior horsemanship allowed a small amounts of knights to conquer huge amounts of Europe, — you find out that they used a 33 foot square pen for training on the halter and at liberty, — and did 70% of their training on the ground, — all the way to the fully trained war horse! So while “joining up” is always such a crowd pleaser, — it really is only a very small part of training the horse at liberty! It actually takes very little in a pen to get the horse to be respectful, relaxed and submissive, and join up with his human leader. The key is in applying pressure and releasing it at just the right time, causing the horse to move off or allowing it to stop. Horses recognize this kind of behavior as “horsey” and appreciate their human for it. Round pen work can achieve a lot of things easy, fast and reliably when done right, and is great for starting colts, but of course it’s not a necessary tool that one can’t be without. |
| Traditional Paso
Fino Training: If you want to show your Paso Fino in the traditional way, you should probably train him that way. The horse should be showing enough brio to sizzle, and doing the fino with tons of impulsion but hardly any forward motion, and the corto and large with the same sizzle, just more extension. The rider adjusts the amount of desired extension with the reins alone, while the “throttle” of impulsion is always set on “full speed”. The rider’s legs are usually stretched forward to demonstrate that he his not urging the horse forward in any way. The fino horse is required to NEVER walk while haltered or ridden, but to move in fino instead. To aid in preserving the desire to fino the horse is usually kept in a small enough enclosure so he can’t gallop or extend, and is exercised in the driving lines in fino from the age of a yearling on. It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to make a fino horse, — and there are trainers out there that can help. For ranch work and trail riding this is not only not necessary, it’s totally impractical. For training the ranch and trail riding horse, english, western or natural horsemanship principles have been used by recreational riders with great success. Islandic horses have always been succesfully ridden and trained english in Europe, taking them through basic training with no regard for gait like any other horse. Only after the horse has learned to trot and canter, to stretch down into the bit, and do all lateral movements with ease, does training in gait start. Paso Finos have also been trained for cattle work in Columbia for centuries, and many have been sent to professional western trainers in the US and Canada, who turned them into great trail or ranch horses. I like a mix of western and natural horsemanship, and had great success with my horses being friendly and easy to catch, quiet and reliable with anybody who rides them, gaiting on a loose rein, and walking freely without restraint when riding in groups or alone. My preferred instructor for natural horsemanship is Doug Mills. His program is simple and easy to apply, and suitable for all levels of experience, from beginners to olympic competitors. It focusses on preventing resentment and dealing with it, and teaching the horse to think rather than react, by letting him choose to do the right thing from the choices laid out by the rider. His method works extremely well with Paso Finos who are often quite sensitive and need to learn to respond calmly and to be patient. I've never had happier and easier to train horses! Check out: www.trainingthrutrust.com |