Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] HORSE TRAINING

msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Mounted search and rescue

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Deb8562@aol.com
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] HORSE TRAINING
  • Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 00:30:00 EDT

Jorene,
The lady cop I have been working with has about 30+ years behind her as a horse trainer. She does not recommend them to her students she just more or less likes Parelli's methods, because she remembers the old "cowboy" way. Bigger bit, bigger spurs, bigger whip.  She finds that distasteful and so do I.  Just my personal opinion.  I have not been in SAR for very long, but I have been riding/handling/working with horses all my life.
 
I  believe that to be fair you have to ask the horse to do things in a way that they can understand.  And she always tells folks to remember that horses are prey animals, and they are going to act like prey animals when pushed and they do not understand people, they do not think like we do. I also believe that we humans have to try and communicate in a way that they can understand. Horses read body language. It is in their makeup being herd animals. They do not speak human. 
They did succeed in getting us through some pretty scary stuff and we were both much more confident for it.  I am interested in horse training and was very interested in their methods. They read the horses body language and cues and try to train the rider/handler to do the same. 
 
A horse is a horse not a person and they would laugh at you if you thought otherwise. These are police officers after all.  I adore them, but a horse acting or thinking like a person?
I know they type of people you are talking about.  I am a retired large animal veterinary technician.  I have met all kinds, particularly while in equine A.I. and E.T.
I actually had one lady tell me that I should not say the word horse around her mare that she (the mare) might get offended, and that I needed to feed her hard candy at least twice a day. The world is a very interesting place.
 
Debbie Dooley



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page