12/06/2025
As part of my continuing education, I follow trainers of different disciplines. While our finished goal may be vastly different, cutting horses vs carriage horses (for example), our way to success often shares the same path. I would hate to leave valuable tools on the table because I'm wearing blinders to different ways of doing things.
Luke Reinbold Horsemanship LLC is one such trainer. I appreciate his philosophy and methods.
Today he made a post that really resonated with me. He and I differ in that I primarily train horses where he now focuses on training people. Here he shares why he made the change.
I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into rehabbing and training a horse. I welcome owners to join any and all training sessions so they can continue the work I've started. Once the horse is safely going between the shafts, I offer daily driving lessons. More times than not, owners are too busy to attend.
I think some owners think when they send a horse to training, the horse will come back doing all the things they want without doing any of the things they don't want. But we can't install the 'perfect horse' button, because one does not exist. What we do, and what owners need to do, is consistent work focusing on the (sometimes boring) basics. Instead, I see owners who make concessions in their training while also making excuses for their horse's bad behavior.
"My horse won't stand tied, she breaks her lead, so I just hold her." 🙄
Like Luke, I, too, have had my heart broken by the lack of follow through after a horse leaves my property. But right now, I'm not giving up on the horses. And I'm not saying Luke has. He's made a decision that does the greatest good for the horse community while inflicting the least amount of personal heartache.
Everything I do, I do for the horses. I will continue trudging through the mud, working in the rain, suffering through the wind (I hate the wind) to improve the horses' lives. I just wish owners would assume more responsibility for continuing our hard work. I know life happens, but maybe then horses aren't for you.
(This post is not intended for anyone specifically. I'm not pointing fingers. Life happens, I get it. We all do the best we can.)
Why I No Longer Take Horses For Training?
When my career began twenty years ago, everything was different. I enjoyed riding horses and soon found a way I could get paid to do it. Fast forward a bit and I was working a steady job to pay the bills as I was building my business, and in the meantime was learning a lot, about horses certainly, but as much about people.
Horses are the easy part, people are not. Quite frankly, people are hard to please and at the same time are often unreasonable. I have met some great people because of horses, many were clients, but people are still the hardest part.
Here is a situation that played out enough that I have it memorized by word.
Client-I have a horse I need started.
Me-how old is it?
C-5 or 6, I really wanted it to mature before it was started and now I dont have the time.
Me-what will be changing in your schedule so that you can keep riding the horse when it comes home?
C-oh I will find the time. I just can't afford to get hurt right now.
Me-I can't either
Me- here is what I charge...per month, and I require 90 days
C-oh I can't afford that! What can I get for 30 days?
Me-........
C-and I want to be there everyday so that I can watch you and learn what you do. Can you work it everyday on my schedule?
If life was only this simple. The truth is that training horses is a very tough business. I have recently had numerous aspiring trainers reach out to me, which is great. But everyone needs to realize that that the industry needs to fix some things. If we dont do some things soon, I fear no one will be training horses in a decade, especially starting colts. And that is where I want to focus on.
We have too many people that have trained one or two and think they know everything and want to throw stones at everyone else that might do things differently. Then, what realistically needs to be charged to make the finances work is much more than most will pay. So why would a young person want to start something that takes considerable time to learn, doesn't pay much, and has a high risk of a short career?
So here is what I believe can be done. Take it or leave it.
Be reasonable, despite what you may think, ALL young, uneducated horses can have their moments. I know in the YouTube, TikTok age that doesnt happen, but in the real world it does.
Don't be cheap. It isn't the trainers responsibility to make horses affordable for you.
Understand that the process of training a horse is a VERY time consuming, thought out process filled with immense intentionality in everything and that doesn't end when you pick them up from the trainers.
And finally and most importantly, understand that horses are not programmable. Just because a trainer spends tons of time teaching a horse to do all the things, but you do everything differently they they did. You will get a different result. That wasnt and isn't the trainers fault. Ask the same way they did or expect something different.
I have just scratched the surface of the topic. Much more could, and maybe should be talked about. And to be fair the horror stories can be told from both the client and trainers perspective by many of you. So lets see if we can communicate better with each other and do our best to look at life from potentially others perspectives, not just our own, just like when we are working with our horses.
Pc Tracey Buyce Photography
