The Horse as a Prey Animal

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

Advance and Retreat and Learning Theory

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

The Respect Myth

I’ve heard at least a thousand times that you must gain your horse’s respect. It’s a mantra parroted off by horse people everywhere and many trainers say that respect is the first thing you must achieve. There are countless videos, articles and books on how to gain respect from your horse. Respect is often explained … Read more

Feedback

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

Neil’s Book is Unique, by Joan Klenger

  Review Fear-Free Horse Training Every Step of the Way By Joan Klenger We live in a Hurry Up Quick world, moving a million miles a minute.  We are inundated with information, a constant barrage of data, so much detail, in fact, that there isn’t really enough time to stop and think about what we’re … Read more

The Truth About Desensitisation

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

Teach your horse to mooove forward

The same theory applies to your horse. Instead of cow; think horse. If you want to move a  horse or cow forward, you must apply pressure on his rear end in the ‘flight zone’. Pressure in front of the ‘point of balance’ will  move a horse or cow backwards. This is a very simple concept. … Read more