Neil Davies
Our feedback is both heartwarming and encouraging. I’d like to share this letter that arrived in the mail today. Dear Neil, Thank you and your wife, without whom I doubt you could have written us another book. I can only imagine your frustrations between books. I am stunned when people comment on our horses / … Read more
The most misunderstood part of horse training is the idea that you have to get horses ‘used to’ new things. Many trainers advocate to keep exposing horses to things that frighten them and they’ll eventually ‘get used to it’. Others say, when a horse is frightened of something, just keep frightening him with it and … Read more
We should try to use as little unpleasantness as possible at every phase of horse training. Everyone thinks horses stop when you pull on the reins. However, before you apply pressure on the bit, bring your legs on and sit in the stand and relax position. If your horse is ‘giving’ and ‘listening’, he’ll understand … Read more
Every time I pick up a horse magazine, I read that horses are prey animals and humans are predators. Many articles say horses are ‘naturally’ afraid of humans because humans are predators. Others say it’s ‘natural’ for a horse to buck when the saddle is introduced, because a ‘dead animal’ is being strapped onto their … Read more
In my opinion, advance and retreat is the key to introducing everything to every horse without frightening them. Equally, when a horse has previously been frightened by a specific item, advance and retreat must be used to overcome the bad experience. When advance and retreat is used, two components of learning theory are at work: … Read more
Lots of people go to clinics to watch a ‘wild’ bucking horse being ‘tamed’. It’s high time for everyone to realise that a young horse is frightened and terrified when he bucks. Yet I’ve seen trainers make a joke of it or say, “It doesn’t matter, he’ll get used to it. He has to work … Read more
People have an obsession with forcing horses to come to them. When a horse is hard to catch, trainers say you must make the horse come to you. They say you must be the alpha and the horse must submit. They say the horse must be lower in the pecking order. In other words, the … Read more
There are many stories about round yards and chasing horses. One story often told is that if you chase your horse in a round yard, you enter the ‘mystical’ world of the horse herd. You become the dominant horse in a magical herd of two. When your horse eventually comes to you, it’s supposedly because … Read more
At every level of training, every horse has a threshold where his flight or fight response overrules his logical thinking process. Your horse may jump when he hears a noise or he may shy when he sees something. A badly handled horse will rush away at the slightest distraction and be constantly nervous and worried. … Read more
A couple of friends of mine… I’ll call them Chris and Macca – because these are their names, looked at a horse to buy the other day. The mare was eight years old and hadn’t been ridden for two or three months. Macca saddled the mare, hopped aboard and trotted around. “Canter her so I … Read more
