ridecamp@endurance.net: Sending our horse to a trainer

Sending our horse to a trainer

Ruth Bourgeois (ruthb@tdsi.net)
Tue, 22 Apr 1997 09:12:22 -0500

This story is a good example of what happens all too frequently in the
horse world. You send your horse to an expert, trusting that person to
take good care of your horse and treat it right, and it doesn't work out
that way. Regardless of whether the statements made (on both sides of
the story) are true or exaggerated, it still comes back to a very
unhappy horse owner.

I've had bad experiences (and also some good) with trusting others with
the care of my horses. No one can take care of them like I can, but even
I make mistakes at times with my own horses. You just learn from the
experience and move on. Luckily, horses are very forgiving animals and
no matter how bad the problem, can usually get over it.

The comments made about the method of training are exactly why I don't
use these or send my horses to these types of trainers. I went to one of
the very first TEAM clinics that Linda Tellington-Jones gave back in
1981, and when she emphasized teaching the horse without fear and
threatening, and I watched her work with my horse, I knew this was the
way for me. I've gone to other trainers' clinics and learned other
methods, but the base of all the work I do with my horse or other
peoples' horses is with the TTEAM techniques. I rarely have an injury or
accident (more frequently I end up dealing with things that have
happened with other methods, "fixing"), and after a training session
(with my own horses or anyone else's), I can sleep at night and have no
disgruntled owners or horses to worry about.
When it comes to trusting another person with my horse, I've learned to
trust my intuition. I realize that not everyone can train a horse, but
if you take the time to learn good training/handling/care techniques
(such as TTEAM), if may take longer than sending the horse off to a
professional, but you won't have things happen like the incident with
Liz and her mare.

As far as racehorse trainers, I know it's difficult to find a good one.
Horses do get abused in all disciplines, sometimes intentionally,
sometimes unintentionally. My feeling is that we are responsible for
our own animals and need to be responsible stewards, to do the best we
can. There are better methods of training out there - it's up to us to
find what works best in our own situation and to stand up for what we
believe in when it comes to the care of our horses.

Ruth

Home Events Groups Rider Directory Market RideCamp Stuff