My name is Tom Simmons, and I have been training Morgans since 1961, and breeding Morgans since 1963—sixty years! In my horse training career, I have worked with a wide variety of horses, to include Quarter horses, Paints, Walking horses, Saddlebreds, Arabs, Standardbreds, and Morgans. Some of these horses have been show horses, but most have been pleasure or using type horses. I believe that over these decades, I have evolved a commonsense way of thinking about and training horses, and I am happy to share some of my training philosophy here.
The first essential key to success when working with a horse is to understand the horse’s thinking. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate a few basics. Horses are not Albert Einstein on the intelligence scale. They would rather be friends with another horse than with you. Their memory is excellent, maybe exceeded by that of an elephant or a killer whale. Maybe. Even the most spirited horse is essentially lazy. Horses can measure down to a quarter of an inch. These qualities, once how they manifest in horse behavior is understood, can greatly help your training techniques and horsemanship. I invite you to think about these observations; mull them over in your mind and see how they apply in your own equine relationships. Take some time, observe a horse you know, and try to recognize these different traits. I promise you, once you master these concepts, horse training will become much easier.
We’ve talked about basic horse characteristics. Now let’s talk about you! The quality of your training ability will be greatly enhanced if you solidly and consistently commit to being both a fair person and a disciplinarian. You have to be a willing leader, and not the horse’s buddy. Whatever problem you may be having with your horse right now, I invite you to take a critical look at the leadership part of your relationship. I suspect you will more than likely find your issue right there. For me, this can be summarized succinctly as, “I pet my horses, but I don’t dote on them.”
When you are starting a young horse, and by that I mean a yearling, a long yearling (closer to being two years old than one), you will have to take into consideration how the horse was raised so far. If it was pampered and petted a lot as a baby, it will be much harder to train simply because he doesn’t take you seriously. It is very difficult to explain to a pet why it is that you expect him to stand still on command, and not to push you around. The first place to begin your discipline approach will be on a long line. I don’t mean lunging in circles, but rather leading, stopping, and standing—these three should be your first training goals. These basics are something I quite often have to address in horses that are already being ridden. As I outlined above, horses are very sensitive, have great timing, measuring ability, and above all, have tremendous memories. That memory attribute is your most important asset. Most people run into training issues because they don’t realize how good their horse’s memory actually is, if worked with correctly. I have been able to train something in 20 minutes that someone else was spending weeks on. Here’s the trick: most people stay on a training technique for too long because they do not understand the way a horse’s memory works. To teach a horse something, you have to interrupt whatever he is doing. If you interrupt what he is doing, his great memory will teach him to avoid that interruption in the future, and to stay away from the particular thing that caused the interruption. (A human example of this is when a group of friends are talking, and you have a friend that interrupts incessantly. Most people will then just go silent, because they feel they are going to be interrupted anyway.) Because a horse is so sensitive, the interruptions need only be slight. If it is an older horse that has been ridden or handled improperly, your first interruptions may have to be a little sharper, but then can become light, almost to the point of not being noticeable.
I am a disciplinarian, and it is imperative that I not lose arguments with a horse. The horse will very quickly assign me leadership. You will know when a horse assigns you leadership, because he will come to you without the expectation of treats. A horse wants a master, not a buddy. Some horses are of course a little more willful than others, but if you are firm and consistent in your application of pressure and directions, he will assign you leadership!
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