10.24.07

Natural horse training videos

Posted in Horses for the horse crazy at 10:01 pm by petArtist Cmoses

I would describe the basic concept of natural horse training as teaching the horse in a non-punishing, non-threatening way, using language the horse can understand (body language and cues,) to respect and trust the human as his herd leader.

At the start of my 15 years as a horse owner, I was extremely lucky to find trainer Joanne Gelinas Snow, Gelinas Farm in Pembroke NH, and to purchase our first horse from her, the Arabian mare Willow’s Bask who is still going strong with us. Joanne has always practiced her own style of natural horsemanship and training, and her methods have proven themselves over and over during my years of riding my very sane mare trained by her. In recent years she has considered Tom Curtin her mentor, and the Farm offers training, lessons and clinics in a wide range of disciplines.

Here are some videos we took at Gelinas Farm while our 2 yr.old Glendale (Willy’s half-percheron son) was there being starting under saddle. You may want to turn up your volume to catch Joanne’s tips! (These videos were in two different sessions.)

SADDLE BLANKET WORK

Joanne explains how she trained to saddle blanket prior to saddling, teaching Glen to stand quietly. When she had first introduced him to this, he had been rather worried about it.

SADDLING PREP

Desensitizing green horse to motions and feel of being saddled, with corrections to teach horse to stand still. Joanne trains in open arena, rather than tying the horse, feeling he should learn that his job is to stand quietly even if he was being saddled out in a field.

LUNGING PREP

Joanne lunges Glen from his rope halter and lead line, to make sure the saddle isn’t going to bother him before I get on. Note that she just starts him into a canter in each direction, as it is at the canter DEPART point he is most likely to try a buck.

In the process of this work, Joanne notices that he is leery of the lash of the lunge whip, so she does some desensitizing on him to the sight and feel of the lash brushing against him. Note also her subtle use of the lead rope to tell him to stand quietly and to hold him in place or reposition him every time he moves out of the stand position she has defined for him.

ROUNDPEN UNDER SADDLE

At his first few saddlings, Glen was round penned briefly over cavaletti, getting him used to the feel of the saddle when he rounds his back. If he was going to be bothered and buck, that is when he would do it. The first few saddlings he was a little broncy about this, and by now he is fine.

BRIDLING TIPS

Joanne coaches me with some valuable bridling tips… Putting my forearm over his poll was new to me, the intent is to encourage him to keep his head lowered and in an easily-reachable position. He had practiced this only a few times.

MY THIRD RIDEOUT

Myself getting on for my third ride, heading out to do natural horsemanship training on the trail, with Joanne on a 4 yr.old. At this point, Glen has been ridden 6-7 times in 2 weeks by his trainers, and twice before by me. He wears mecate reins made of rope. I do some head yields to both sides before starting, and lots of patting.

For more complete descriptions and explanations of natural horsemanship and training, see these and similar books:

Smart Horse, Understanding the Science of Natural Horsemanship, by Jennifer M. MacLeay, DVM, Ph.D.

Down Under Horsemanship, by Clinton Anderson

For related posts, search petArtistWithPeaches at top right on:
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