Horse Training For The Beginner
Should beginners try out equestrian training techniques? While this is an issue that seems to fascinate a large amount of brand spanking new or wannabe pony owners, it’s an issue that’s hotly discussed, between veteran horse folk some being completely against the idea of letting beginners dabble in pony coaching. They have their reasons, naturally, and a lot of their reasons are very sound. Nonetheless I opted to learn the tough way when I was a beginner, and that benefited me a lot. Which has made me absolutely in favour of encouraging beginners to train horses. There is a proviso, though: I had an excellent tutor, who put me thru the grind without mercy. I am hoping some of the wisdom I’m making an attempt to convey thru this article will be of serious help for you, if you should also be a newcomer who is eager on horsemanship as well as pony coaching.
I was made by my tutor to take great pains. One of the first things he made me do was to go to visit a book store and buy a few books on riders, horses, horsemanship, rider coaching and pony rearing and training. I was also ordered to rent a few videos. The books and videos covered the whole gamut: routine horse care, horse health, cleaning of stalls, barns and environment, bareback and saddled riding, you name it. I read each book I bought numerous times, and saw each video a number of times. When I finished with a book or a video, I had to give a synopsis to my mentor. He would grill me on and on, trying to discover how much I had learned. He would make me do things and show him that I had really caught a few techniques.
I seriously recommend you get yourself some videos on natural horsemanship. They’re very easy to find online. After a year or thereabouts, my tutor sent me to a professional horse trainer. I was thrilled and hankering to put into practice some of the stuff I had read about and seen on video.
I worked out a deal with the horse coach where I would help him out with the physical aspects at his yard in return for being permitted to train horses under his supervision. I was given living quarters close to the stable. I had to get up early in the morning and set about cleaning the stalls and other menial work. I learned that cleaning stalls is not an unpleasant chore if you look at the positives: it gives you great opportunities to observe horses at close quarters. There is nothing like cleaning out a stall while staying wary in case the pony kicks, while the horse eyes you. A few of them look at you with the demon in their eyes, like there is very little better they would like than to plant their hooves in the square of your pants if you give them the opportunity. A number of them look at you sympathetically, while others actually avoid having a look at you. For me, learning the finer subtleties of horse riding was just an extra bonus. I think I learned plenty more about horses from working with them and around them. Riding high is awfully thrilling, but you need to come down to earth now and then also. After a few months of training horses under the hawk eyes of the pro coach, I made up my mind to try out my recently acquired talents on a pony of my own. I had clear ideas on exactly what type or horse I wanted.
No matter how raw you are I have this to point out to you: if you don’t dare and go out of your way, you are not going to progress. The two components of achievement are very clear: learning and doing. Take the time out to learn, and then make some effort of doing. You can’t go wrong if you agree one home truth: you’ll barely get everything right the 1st time.
Horses are Heather Tomspassion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers http://horsehorses.net/
