Hi NeilThanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I have your book and both the foal handling and starting under saddle videos which I followed as closely as I could. My little colt had attitude and was a biter and kicker right from his first week but we got through that. He’s now 2 and … Read more
I just watched a DVD of the Road to the Horse. A revolution in horse training it isn’t. At the end of the event, not one of the horses could even walk a circle in a confident and relaxed manner. There was an obsession with harassing horses with tarps, flags and ropes. It went on … Read more
Lots of people go to clinics to watch a ‘wild’ bucking horse being ‘tamed’. It’s high time for everyone to realise that a young horse is frightened and terrified when he bucks. Yet I’ve seen trainers make a joke of it or say, “It doesn’t matter, he’ll get used to it. He has to work … Read more
This was filmed in Australia in 1989. I’ve been dong this for a long time. Learn more here
A couple of friends of mine… I’ll call them Chris and Macca – because these are their names, looked at a horse to buy the other day. The mare was eight years old and hadn’t been ridden for two or three months. Macca saddled the mare, hopped aboard and trotted around. “Canter her so I … Read more
I watched a horse starting competition on video the other day. One of the trainers left his saddle in the round yard with the horse, explaining that this allowed the horse to look at the saddle and get ‘used to’ it. When the horse walked over and sniffed the saddle, the crowd clapped as though … Read more
If you go to a rodeo and ride a bucking horse for eight seconds, you could be in the money. Eight seconds is all it takes and that’s not very long. Count it out and see. Rodeo horses only have to work for eight seconds, once or twice a week. A rodeo horse is allowed … Read more
Due to bad handling and bad training, thousands of horses never reach their full potential. Many horses don’t make it past the ‘breaking in’ stage. Many others are ‘blown up’ by the use of too much pressure and too much force during their training. These days, trainers everywhere chase horses with flags, ropes and tarps. … Read more
When I was about 14, people often sent ponies to us to be ‘broken in’. I got the job done on weekends and after school, with my father’s help. Looking back, we took a pretty crude approach. For the first few days, we put the girth and mouthing gear on and left the pony in … Read more
