A KINDER GENTLER WAY

Since this is a blog about Horse Health Products and my goal is to paint with a broad brush so that we may all gain from reading these articles. My son and I set out to present only the best equine care products and information beneficial to our animals and their owners. To this end, as I referred to in my previous article about Queen Elizabeth and Monty Roberts there are several schools of thought about horse training. I wrote an article titled, "TO SHOE OR NOT TO SHOE, THAT IS THE QUESTION?” which deals with hooves and their care.

Lest I digress, let me return to the subject of training horses. Above I mentioned the Queen’s friend Marvin Earl "Monty" Roberts MVO who is an American horse trainer known for training horses without violence. I also recently ran across an Australian “Gentleman” named Mark Langley who teaches “Calm Connected Horsemanship”. And of course, we all remember Robert Redford as “The Horse Whisperer”

Before I cast myself into a caldron of dispute I first want to give you all a line from Wikipedia about horse training that should be pretty ambiguous and help frame this conversation.

There is tremendous controversy over various methods of horse training and even some of the words used to describe these methods. Some techniques are considered cruel; other methods are considered gentler and more humane. However, it is beyond the scope of this article to go into the details of various training methods.

As in any worthwhile endeavor, people learn along the way and wise folks know that there is more than one way to train a horse. A lot depends on the outcome we are looking for as well as what we have to work with. We have all watched the bruised butts and egos of the movie cowboy greenhorns that tried in vain to break horses brought in from the wild. If you want to see a thing of beauty you should watch the training of world-class Olympic Gold Medalist Jumpers like Mclain Ward and Laura Kraut. This differs from training trail rides, and on and on.

I find awe and beauty in the outcome of all types of training. I remember when my granddaughter and her Dad would spend hours working with her Barrel Racer. Oh, Happy Days! 

Thank You for being a Caring Horse Owner.