Neil Davies
If you watch a week-old foal playing in the paddock, you’ll see that he already knows how to walk, trot, canter, do flying changes, turns, spins, levade, piaffe, passage, extended trot/canter/gallop and every other movement you ever dreamed of. When we ride, the problem we have is to convince our horses to perform these movements … Read more
My pet aversion is seeing people chase horses backwards on the ground. The last thing I want any horse to do is move backwards away from me to relieve pressure. Everything you ever want to do with your horse relies on moving forward, not backwards. You must have forward movement to control your horse. Forcing … Read more
Some trainers claim they can saddle and ride every young horse in half an hour. They often time themselves and make a big deal of how quickly the horse was ridden. This makes no sense. Starting a horse under saddle isn’t a race. There’s no prize for how quickly you can ride a young horse. … Read more
NEIL’S HORSE TRAINING HISTORY By Christine Davies I’ve known Neil since he was twenty and shared his love of horses for all those years. While I rode my nicely trained (by Neil) horse five or six days each week, Neil rode at least eight or nine ‘outside’ horses that came to our stables for training … Read more
People often think if you can’t stop a horse then he’s ‘hard in the mouth’. So they use a more severe bit and force their horse to run backwards or make him back up time after time. Many people think this will make a horse ‘soft’ and make him easier to stop. This approach … Read more
Whenever you ride, you must remember that your horse has a mind of his own. He may want to run home when you try to leave the barn. He may think it easier to run along in the trot rather than canter when you ask. He may want to stay down one end of the … Read more
Teaching a young horse to back up should always be one of the last things you do. Backing up is actually an extension of moving forward correctly and is quite an advanced movement for a horse. Though every young horse needs to be taught to back up, it must never be the first thing you … Read more
One of the most misunderstood problems that people have with their horse is shying. There are all sorts of old wives tales about why horses shy and what to do about it. Lots of trainers say that the best thing to do for shying is allow the horse to stop and look so he can … Read more
Whether you realise it or not, your horse learns from every interaction he has with you. Every time you go near your horse, you teach him something. Even when you clean his stable, you teach him something. Every time you ride your horse, you teach him something. Horses don’t think, ‘We’re out on the trail … Read more
I’ve seen many of the big name trainers working with horses and I don’t agree with much of what they do or what they say. I don’t agree with harassing horses with ropes and flags or letting horses buck with the saddle or roping their legs or chasing them around until they’re sweating and distressed. … Read more
