Horsemanship clinics are intensive training opportunities, usually with an expert from another area. As a horsemanship clinician, I generally work with riders and horses I’ve never met, and usually on a one-time basis.
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Does your horse pull back when tied to a rail or the trailer? Horses that continually pull back are common. This problem is found throughout the horse industry, not just with dressage and jumping horses. With many riders, a horse’s ground manners are the last thing the rider thinks about.
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Is “hippology” the study of hippos?
No, it is actually the study of horses! “Hippo” is Greek for “horse”. Despite the name, the hippopotamus and the horse are not even closely related.
Distant cousins who would show up at an Equidae family reunion (horses, zebras and asses) would be tapirs and rhinoceroses.
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The training of horses is an exercise in love, for one does not succeed without loving both the challenge and the animal.
There are nearly as many theories on the training of a horse as there are trainers, but when closely examined, all the tricks, gimmicks, and miracles fade away, and one philosophy emerges, bright and clear and sure.
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We’ve been discussing tips for teaching your horse three in-hand maneuvers that are extremely important for the horse’s future from beginning work under saddle to advanced training. They are the forehand turn, turn on the haunches, and yielding.
A “non-horsy” husband of one of my students was perplexed with the notion of teaching horses to “go sideways” as in yielding.
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