I went to a 2 day John Lyons symposium in Davis, CA this weekend and
wanted to share a few important basics I learned from it.
John covers basic groundwork training. If you are starting a brand
new young horse for the first time, working with a seasoned old timer,
an abused animal or any other situation, his techniques will benefit
you and the horse.
Several key important things he went thru:
1. Teaching the horse to focus his/her's attention on you.
2. Teaching the horse that you won't hurt the horse but will relieve
the horse of its anxieties.
3. When the horse is afraid and spooks, that it is allowed to spook
but not to move its feet. This is especially important to give the
rider time to quickly react to the thing scaring the horse and give the
horse guidance on what to do next.
4. Conditioning the horse to stay still if say, the saddle slips
beneath its belly, a rider falls between its legs, etc.
5. Techniques for catching the horse, working with a barn sour or
pasture sour horse, a horse that must be first in line at all times.
This is a very brief description of what he went thru, working with a
horse that was never worked with prior to his clinic 2 weeks ago in
Oregon. I, as well as everyone else in the audience, was truly amazed
at what we saw over the weekend.
By Sunday night, that horse had a saddle on its side, two chairs
hanging off its side, a blue and yellow tarp hanging from it and
wrapped around its legs, stuff hanging from its head, yet remained calm
and still.
Everything used to spook him resulted in the horse jumping in place
(feet stayed still) but looking at what scared him..no flight.
And so on and so on. Anyone interested I urge you to read his many
articles, rent his tapes from your local tack store or sign up for a
symposium. I just can't say enough about his techniques. They've sure
worked for me.
Happy riding!
Kimberly (&Mystery the Morab)
Petaluma, CA