Read comments about "Trevor" an Abderry graduates.  Trevor came to Abderry as a virtually untouched 17.2hh 5yr-old sporthorse gelding.....

Many people who are training horses will ask questions that the horse has no way of understanding or answering. Then they will fight with the horse or agitate him so much that the horse either gives in or gives up.

The so-called trainer walks away feeling like he or she has won the game because the horse finally did what they wanted him to do. But no actual communication took place. What happened was that the horse lost. 

Have you noticed how losers (both human & equine) have no confidence.  They continually question their ability to succeed.  They don't think they can....... so they subconciously make sure they can't!

At Abderry we do our best to set up Win / Win situations for both horses and humans so that they can work together as a team.  Remember the acronym TEAM means: Together, Everyone Achieves More. 

We wait until the horse is mentally ready for his next step up the learning ladder

By utilising the fact that horses have very simple minds that can only connect a cause-and-effect sequence of about two steps, we are at pains to teach  no more than one step away from the thing you just taught and not more than two steps away from the thing before that.

We make it easy for the horse to understand how to do the next thing we want to teach him because it flows naturally from the last thing he learned. It is set up to be horse logical for him to behave in a certain pattern. He shouldn't have to guess about what we want until he accidentally gets it right. He shouldn't have to stress himself mentally or physically until he learns to do the "correct" thing by avoiding the "incorrect" thing.

At Abderry we teach our horses a "language" based on their body position relative to ours. The horse first learns on the ground that certain body language on our part calls for him to be in a certain position relative to our own. With this as a basis for understanding, we gradually shift the concepts of mirroring the trainer and working in a corridor of aids from ground work to under saddle work and eventually to whatever “game” we ultimately want the horse to play.

Training horses is about developing the horse's mental attitudes to the point where they enjoy playing the same games that you do. That means taking mental control of your horse. The controlling factor is not strength, not size, not speed. The horse is ten times stronger, bigger and faster than we are.

Let other people be the ones who jerk on horses and slap them around or hassle them until they've "learned" something. We want to be the ones who can communicate with the horse using horse logical emotions, horse logical shapes and change them from what they aren't into what they can be by using what they are to start with.

Working with Cheski as a Coach

Cheski  works alongside a Team  who all have their own specialised training attrubutes.

When a human child goes to Primary School their classmates will be potential lawyers, dentists, doctors, bricklayers, homemakers and website designers etc. Their basic education, at that stage however, is the same for all of them.

We follow exactly the same principles in the education of all our young horses.

Some of the custom built facilities for training Sporthorses on the 48ha farm include:

• A 25m covered indoor lunging ring.
• A 600 metre all weather sand track & a1000 metre grass track for fitness work
• Two large all weather exercise arenas
• A specifically designed loose jumping arena
• Pipe dressage arenas
• Stabling for 28 horses
• An 8 horse Magnum brand walker.
• A custom built crush.
• A full set of show jumps
• Cross country logs
• Flat and undulating paddocks
• A network of all weather tracks and races for hacking out

Feedback from Sporthorse owner clients