12/21/2024
Patience is the most important quality of a horse trainer. Real professionals understand that it takes only a second to make a mistake and it can take a week to fix the thing that resulted from their mistake. Therefore, preparation is the key to effective training sessions with a horse.
One technique that I use to get a prospect ready for skills training is to first get them somewhat tired. This is often called "taking the edge off a horse".
The image on the left is me teaching a cross country riding lesson while riding a Thoroughbred recently off the track. Riding prospects while teaching is a great way to maximize your work time in a day. From the perspective of giving a lesson, you have the opportunity to show students how horses arrive for training.
For example, in this type of lesson I would jump this racehorse over the pictured small log jump. First, I would ride the horse to this jump from down the slope below the jump. Most horses in an uphill approach will stride over it or jump it, some rather extremely at first. This shows the students that horses don't come trained "right out of the box". They need to be trained. Next, I would approach the jump from the uphill side with a downhill landing. About 50% of the time with a green jumping prospect, you will at first get a refusal, which is also good for the student to see.
From all of these demonstrations, the students learn on two levels. They see correct riding by their instructor, and they often see that good riding is not enough to accomplish the goal with many horses. Students come into reality when they see a professional rider fail at first and then succeed using consistent proper training techniques. Over the course of several lessons with me riding the same prospect, students saw how a horse can progress and that is inspiring for them.
After being ridden in a lesson or two, a prospect becomes tired. They have lost their "edge", and the trainer doesn't have to waste the first 15 or 20 minutes of a training session getting them focused on the work. A tired horse becomes more biomechanically efficient. Instead of having an attitude of resistance to anything new, a tired horse is more receptive, and this combined with a higher level of movement efficiency from their tiredness almost always results in a very good training session.
Not all horses need to have their edge taken away because some don't have no edge, but many do. This method of riding prospects in lessons also permits the horse trainer, who also teaches lessons, to legitimately double bill both the students for the lesson and the horse owner who sent the horse for training.
Young horse trainers don't be afraid to ride for students and occasionally show them failure. Failure in horse training, as well as riding, is part of the process. Ride prospects or tune up your lesson horses during lessons to make the most effective use of your time. Give your students more than they get from a usual, trainer on ground, kind of lesson.
