Monday, June 30, 2008

Training People

This weekend I got into a discussion about trainers and training methods with some other horse people. It got rather heated because I am a strong proponent of the Parelli method. I believe in it because it is designed to train people.

The old saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life." holds true when it comes to animal training. The following story is how I learned this important fact. Warning you may need something handy to blow your nose on during and after reading it.

First Client

I opened for business as a horse trainer in the late sixties. My first client was a big Appaloosa mare that was "stubborn" and wouldn't canter for her owner. Since I had been working for an Appaloosa breeder for the past three years I approached the project with confidence.

Within the month I had the mare walking, jogging, cantering, neck-reining, doing sliding stops etc. Her owner, who had been on vacation, came back and with some friends tried out his newly trained horse. Since I was working out of a public stable at the time the only control I had was over my horses and equipment.

He proceded to gallop the mare up and down the arena doing slidding stops until her mouth and legs were raw. His friends got on her and blooded her sides using spurs. When they were finished they said I was miracle worker becasue she'd never done that well before.

She stood there, sweating, sides heaving and bloody, and looked at me with eyes that said "I did what you wanted me to. Why are you letting them do this to me? Wasn't I a good girl? What have I done wrong?"

I never trained a horse FOR someone again. Either I trained both horse and rider or I didn't train.

The mare? I didn't have the money to buy her so she ended up at the killers.

Lazy Trainer Tip

Forget training animals, train the people is my motto and I'm one hundred percent behind Pat on this one.

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