Boot Camp
Many Equine Trainers ask questions that a horse has no way of understanding or answering.
They fight with the horse or hold him hostage until the horse gives in or gives up.
The so-called 'trainer' walks away feeling like he or she has won because the horse finally did what they wanted him to do.
But it wasn't a happy session for equine or human.
What happened was a mutual "breaking" rather than "building" of trust.
They think most horses won't do what's been asked, when in reality, many horses can't do what they've been asked, at least not right at that moment in time.They don't work with a horse in a systematic way that's logical to the equine brain.
That’s not the way we do it at Abderry...
We like the fact that horses have very simple minds.
They can only connect a cause-and-effect sequence of about two steps.
To be horse logical, the next thing you teach a horse can never be more than one step away from the thing you just taught him 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 try & guess 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.
Read more about The Education Process. Read more about our Breaking-In Service
Let other people be the ones who jerk on horses heads 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.
Some of the custom built facilities for Training Sporthorses on the 48ha farm include:
- HorseHotel
- A 25m Covered Indoor Lunging Ring.
- Four All Weather Exercise Arenas
- Pipe Dressage Arena on grass (in dry weather)
- Stabling for 28 horses
- An 8 Horse Walker.
- A Custom built Crush.
- Rubber floored stable area
- Warm water horse showers
- A full set of Show Jumps
- Cross Country logs
- Flat and undulating paddocks
- A network of all weather tracks and races
| I had purchased a 11yo TB trained in dressage. I rode him successfully for the first few weeks and then the situation got worse the more I rode him, the naughtier and more difficult to ride he became. I was disappointed because he wasn’t the horse I had initially trialled and over the year I began to lose my confidence and thought that I needed to find a new horse. My husband suggested we take him to Abderry for some ‘retraining’. To my utter delight, it turns out that I have the perfect horse after all! It was me that needed the training to ride the horse properly and not to rev him up into an excitable and uncontrollable state and to learn to ignore his tantrums and if he did choose to have a tantrum to deal with it in the way Cheski taught me. All along I’d been pushing all the wrong buttons! Cheski identified “our problems” and sorted us out! After receiving careful advice and learning new skills on handling him, we are now a solid partnership once again! I was a bit apprehensive to leave the guidance and training I was receiving at Abderry and go it alone at home but I’m delighted to say he’s been a perfect gentleman and we are both in harmony together and I’m LOVING riding once again. So a BIG thank you Cheski - I couldn’t have done this without your help! I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending your services to anyone with a “problem horse”.... or as it turned out to be in my case “problem owner”.
Paula Watts
27/11/13 |