GOT TRAINING PROBLEMS? ASK THE HORSE FIXER! © 2002 by JP Giacomini
Copyright ©2002, PUBLISHED 2002
Many innovative trainers (legitimate or not) promote increased kindness first, then suggest a new approach to the training of horses. Their literature usually describes OTHER trainers’ methods as a brutal excess while equating the practice of discipline with egomania, lack of compassion or the downright absence of moral righteousness. Their moral critique is mostly used to claim public attention (+ financial gain :~), and present their “New Paradigm” as the next eternal truth.
Unfortunately, too many “Philosophies” only serve as their promoters’ vehicle toward ownership of the moral high ground, rather than provide improved practicality in horse training. It is called: the being “Gentler-Than-Thou” marketing system and it consists in shaming others into adopting the system being promoted through the fear of public disapproval. In reality, the occasional brutality so violently criticized is not the mark of a wicked character, but rather a consequence of frustration combined with a lack of knowledge.
As a result of this pressure, we are seeing an unfortunately growing laxness and horse owners are too often getting hurt by their “beloved” horses. Eventually, the approach backfires and drastic measures are used as a last resort to control the “renegades” (before the fatal trip to the slaughter house). Candid vets often admit that they have to use sedatives when performing routine procedures, because amateur-owned horses are becoming increasingly dangerous to handle and many owners do not tolerate even a modicum of life-saving discipline applied to their brat. When horses were exclusively used as working tools, advocating increased kindness was a priority.
Now that they are, for the most part, becoming companions/pets, a little discipline could go a long way towards increasing everybody’s safety.
I suggest that a no-tolerance attitude for misbehavior or laziness, insistence on tangible results, love and encouragement, are all equal parts of the educational equation. Could we promote THAT idea in a complacent world too busy being indignant against a perception of excessive authority to realize which of the 2 excesses (permissiveness or toughness) creates the greater danger?
For the sake of our safety AND to get results, we need to put a little practicality back into training. Unconditional Love is great but “Love-That-Insists-On-Good-Behavior” works better! It also implies that humans ALSO practice self-discipline and become competent owners.
Gurus have always competed for the title of “Most-Kind-Trainer” position. Having been an innovator all my life, I understand the temptation, but I prefer
“Most-Effective-Trainer”, if I could only get the job :~). Here is a little historical perspective on “New (and excellent) Training Methods” (the title/subtitle of 90% of horse training books) that were quickly condemned by the next inventor.
** Xenophon (450 B.C.) complained about the brutality of his contemporaries and proposed the embryo of an effective horse training method, touted to this day as a pioneering work. He was only to find, to his dismay, that Iberian horsemen hired by Sparta to fight against him troops, could ride a lot better than his men, though nobody bothered to commit THEIR method to posterity because their tradition was oral. They apparently rode more collected horses (they invented the side-reins at least 5 centuries B.C.), which is the simplest way to facilitate one’s riding.
** Pluvinel (1620. AD) “did away” with the excesses of his teacher Grisone (known as the Father of Equitation) only for HIS method (the “kindest known to man” at that time) to be criticized by La Gueriniere for it’s own excesses.
** Baucher rejected La Gueriniere’s world-famous equestrian commandments and “reinvented” riding (but not quite as much as he would have liked to believe). He was VERY inventive in developing flexibility and, while he enlightened some disciples, he confused many others (120 years later, THAT is still going on).
** The American John Rarey (and a few imitators) “introduced kindness” in XIXth century “remedial training” public displays by forcibly lying dangerous horses down as many times as needed to change their previous unpalatable habits, yet former renegade horses reportedly adored him.
** Natural Horsemanship is promoting the understanding of equine
ethnology (the social behavior science of animals in nature) into the be-all and end-all of horse training, while neglecting the simplest notions of equine biomechanics from the Europeans who dedicated 5 centuries to it.
True abuse (and true nurturing) reside more in styles of riding and habits of management than in occasional untoward actions by trainers in a heated moment. Here is a short list of heroes probably much appreciated by “Equinity”:
** General L’hotte who imposed the posting trot in the French Cavalry and punished the practice of rider-friendly racking with jail time because it lamed the horses who suffered it over long distances.
** Caprilli who invented the forward seat and eventually stopped the torture of back-leaning jumping.
** The FEI board who banned all drugs from international competition (and forced competitors to use health prevention measures instead of daily bute).
** The dressage saddles designers who made them WAY more comfortable for horses by using flat, wide panels (after the design excesses of the 70’ and 80’).
** The farriers and vets who promote balance trimming/shoeing (the short toe/higher heel concept that prevents most musculo-skeletal problems).
** The equine dentists who are pushing their customers to have more frequent, in-depth dental work done (due to the awareness that TMG may well be responsible for many unexplained lamenesses and other physiological problems) .
** The stable owners who decided that a loose stall was a better environment than a tie down stall, and a multi-horse paddock was better than a lonely stall.
** Anybody who understands that a horse is much more at peace with a quick, negative reinforcement when called for, than with the permanent anxiety of not knowing where s/he stands, (created by owners who refuse to assume the proper herd-leader position they signed-for when they took possession of their horse).
It is all relative: every school of thought holds the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the equestrian truth “for the centuries”, or do they? Historically respected thinkers kept changing and evolving in their theory and practice, often completing 180’ turnarounds in their rationale.
Real Masters achieved a synthesis of what came before them, THEN added their own contribution as a better way of training/managing. The great innovating physicist Newton (who discovered the laws of gravity) said, that “only by standing on the shoulders of the giants who preceded me, could I see as far as I did”.
Only after demonstrating practicality for the riders and producing
biomechanical & emotionally positive, lasting results for the horses, can a “New Method” be added to the Body of Equestrian Knowledge. When iconoclasts reject the past as a whole and pretend to offer THE ONLY training philosophy acceptable, they expose themselves, sooner or later, to a little “historical adjustment” and may suffer the ridicule only they created by their own overreach.
Let’s get off of the “Gentler-Than-Thou” judgmental
soapbox and gain greater legitimacy by learning to do, first, what equestrian history can teach us. Then, by painstakingly remodeling the less effective parts of the tradition, educators will be able to improve the well-being of all riders and horses by teaching a
holistic understanding of horsemanship presented in simpler and simpler words.
This could REALLY contribute to the mutual enjoyment people and horses could derive from each other, if only they knew how...
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