Firstly there is the rider who takes pleasure from being able to dominate and control such a magnificent and strong animal. Their horse has no say in the relationship but merely obeys through dominance. They will enjoy the perceived admiration of others who marvel at their skill and prowess. Their horse is a vehicle to elevate their self-esteem. Secondly there is the rider who sees their horse as
an equal partner who has the right to say “I am frightened” or “I am confused” or “I need more time” and the horse’s needs will be met – not the rider’s need for obedience and subservience. Their horse will have complete trust in the rider and the rider can trust the horse likewise. I am in the second category and have nothing to offer anyone in the first. I distinguish my equine training methods from Natural Horsemanship because despite similarities, Natural Horsemanship uses natural behaviours to obtain dominance whereas I seek and equal partnership – an equilibrium where the horse wants to co-operate but doesn’t feel forced. Horses in a wild herd will have only a few friends with whom they will be seen mutually grooming with and it is these same friends that they can be seen fighting. They are not fighting in earnest, they are practising their skills with friends they can trust, in other words playing, even though at times it may look a little out of hand. Their friends are their equals. Their friends are not trying to dominate them. They will never play with the head of the herd because he is not their friend – he dominates the herd. If you can become your horse’s true friend then your horse will return your friendship to be yours. After 25 years of breaking my own horses I have teamed up with Mariana to offer breaking and schooling, however there is no point in us training a horse unless the rider is equally trained. How many times have we heard of horses being broken, returned to their owner and then being sent away for more work? Most of the time that is due to the owner not having the skills to manage a young horse that is just broken. That’s where we do things differently. We don’t want your horse here with us, charging livery where you have no idea how its being treated. We don’t need any special facilities, not even a stable to show you how to tune into the horse’s instincts, language and needs to gain the trust you need to back it and train it. We will come to you once a week so you can watch and learn and then carry on in the week giving your horse a patient and slow progression that with build a long term trust. We can’t say how long it will take with any horse but we can typically be on the back of a tacked horse completely calmly after 3 weekly visits with no one doing any additional work in the between visits. Backing may take a few weeks but the slowness and patience is a vital part of developing trust. Sometimes things go wrong and we ask too much and then we have to go back to where the horse is comfortable and start to progress from there. We don’t see this as a set back but an opportunity for the horse to learn that when things go wrong, he will be treated with compassion and understanding rather than be forced to obey and endure what confuses him and frightens him. When it comes to set backs, it’s never the horse’s fault, its is ours because we asked too much too soon because we misread what the horse was trying to tell us. There are no bad horses just bad riders and handlers. We are asking them to do something totally alien to them and therefore we must make all the compromise giving them the time and patience they need. Once they learn they can trust you they start to learn everything else very quickly. We don’t long-rein or lunge horses we are trying to back because this is a dominant activity where the horse feels driven. We want them to allow us on their backs because they trust us to do so. What we hope to produce is not just a backed horse but a horse/rider combination that are in tune with one another and can both progress because the rider understands how the horse was backed and how to continue to treat it to progress over the years. The best advert for our Equine Equilibrium Training is our own horses and anyone interested is welcome to see them or meanwhile watch this video to see just how trusting the youngsters where when they were three. It is from this trust that everything else is built upon.
