The Ultimate Guide To Horse Training

Horsemanship Book and Video Reviews


Natural Horsemanship by Pat Parelli

If you watched the level 1 and level 2 Parelli natural horsemanship videos, you were probably wondering where all the meat was. That isn't to say the videos were lacking for good information, but too much time was spent listening to lectures given in a classroom by some educational consultant they partner with and not enough time was spent with horses. The new videos are probably better, but if you wanted the level 1 & 2 you know what I'm talking about.

If you asked "where's the beef" with Parelli materials when you watched those videos then you don't have to look any further than Pat Parelli's Natural Horsemanship book. This book is as fine a compliation of horse training wisdom as I've ever seen.

The version I read was published in 1992, I believe, but the entire philosophy and information about Parelli's system was all there. The book starts out talking about principles of natural horsemanship and recognizing that you're a predator and a horse is a prey animal. Its all very insightful and nothing but Pat Parelli talking to you all the time-something I was longing to see in those videos.

If you went to any Parelli clinics or got caught up in the level X certification and all that, you probably spent oodles of time doing groundwork. Not so for this book. While groundwork is definitely covered in depth, Pat spends a lot of time talking about actually riding your horse. Personally I think everything you would ever want to get out of Parelli is in this book. Its very detailed and has way more information than their videos. I highly recommend it.

Here's a nice review I pulled off Amazon.com which concurs with my recommendation. There are a few folks that are against the book but I'm not sure what they've been smoking. One lady says "save your money" on the book and get the videos. Well the videos would cost you several hundred dollars, and the book is twelve bucks. You make the call. If you can't afford to drop $500 for the videos, the book sounds like a good substitute because its packed with a large share of everything you need to know. If you can afford to buy the videos, well spring another $12 to read Pat Parelli himself in addition to watching the videos. Anyway here is that other review:

Pat Parelli's work is an excellent reference guide for equine enthusiasts at any stage of riding. While his writing style bears the signs of a real show-man, beyond the self-hype lie important ideas and techniques which have, repeatedly, proven exceedingly beneficial for all types of horse-people. He carefully (albeit often somewhat pompously) describes his programme, which consists first of ground-work and then of exercises to be performed in saddle. His very noble goal is to help humans to develop a subtle, understanding relationship with their equine partners.

Having read (and re-read) Parelli's work countless times in the past few months and having consistently applied his programme when "playing" (Parelli believes that humans should never "work" a horse) with my young Quarter Horse, I have witnessed enormous improvements in my horse's demeanour and, crucially, in the trust he has for me. By establishing dominance over my horse using the sensible, humane tactics Parelli recommends, I have made major progress en route to transforming this horse from a fearful, unridden colt into a willing, dependable, "true blue" mount.

I highly endorse Parelli's work; if his programme is applied with persistence, patience, and an open mind, the possibilities in the horse-human relationship are limitless.

What Your Horse Wants You To Know: What Horses' Bad Behavior Means And How To Correct It

"What Your Horse Wants You To Know" is an easy, informative read written by Gincy Self Bucklin. Priced at around $14 on Amazon, its a worthy investment for your horse training dollars.

After all if you're going to have horses yourself, its good to get some idea of what horse trainers know about horses instead of just hiring one to come out and "work" with your horses for exhorbidant fees.

Anyway, this book has a nice encylopedic arrangement of listings of "bad horse behavior". If you own a horse, chances are several of his disagreeable behaviors are going to be listed in this book. So you'll get some insight as to why your horse is doing what he's doing, at least according to Gincy Self Bucklin. Example bad behaviors discussed include biting, fear of blankets, resistance to haltering, pawing for treats, panicking when being alone, and moving during mounting. So many vices are covered that you're bound to see your horse or any horse, for that matter, covered somewhere in the pages of this book. The book is well written by an author with decades of horse experience. At $14 its highly recommended that you add this to your bookshelf if you're looking to improve your horsemanship knowledge.

Breaking Your Horse's Bad Habits

This wonderful little book was written by the now-deceased W. Dayton Sumner, and I have to say with all honesty its one of the best horsemanship books I've ever read. Like Bucklin's book, this one covers a list of "bad horse behaviors" but the list is much shorter, and its more focused on riding issues. The book starts out talking about why horses do what they do, how they think and how they form habits. OK none of this is scientific, but its based on another horse trainers years and years of experience being around horses, and its nice to be able to pick the brain of a top notch horse trainer.

You can-and should-order this book from Amazon.com by clicking on the image to the left. But they don't list the table fo contents for the book so I'll list it here for you.

  1.  Why Horses act the way they do
  2. The legacy of nature
  3. The effect of domestication
  4. Individual differences
  5. How horses learn
  6. How habits are formed
  7. How habits are changed
  8. Before you begin
  9. Bad habits in the stable
  10. Correcting problems of handling
  11. No mouth, no horse
  12. The horse that won't walk
  13. The horse that won't back
  14. Theo horse that is hard to mount
  15. The runaway
  16. The balker
  17. Refusing to jump
  18. The horse that rears
  19. The horse that bucks
  20. The horse that shies
  21. Mixing gaits
  22. Bad habits in Harness
  23. Conclusion
I loved reading this book-hearing the expert share his secrets picked up over a lifetime of horsemanship. If I had to recommend a horse owner get just a single book, it would come down to this one or Parelli's. The author  in this case has passed away so there's no telling how much longer it will be in print. You can snap up a copy on amazon.com for $12.

Bombproof Your Horse: Teach Your Horse To Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter

This book is written by a former police officer. Whether you can actually "bombproof" your horse after reading this book, well I'll leave that to your own imagination but my guess is no. Nonetheless the book is worth a look because we only have to look at the results. You certainly can't have a police horse that's on the spooky side, so any police horse trainer must know what he's talking about-after all he's been spending his time getting horses ready for duty doing riot control and other fun tasks.

How much longer the practice of having police horses continues is in doubt. In recent years, due to bad economic times and state and local budget shortfalls, many municipalities have been forced to cut back or even eliminate their mounted patrols. This is a shame for a couple of reasons, for one seeing mounted police is probably the only up-close horse experience many people are going to have, and secondly think about all the skill that's going to be lost. Handed down for generations, many skilled horse trainers learned their trade within the mounted police. It will be a shame if it disappears completely.

Anyway one of the biggest benefits of this book is that the author gives you hands-on practical advice you can use to train your horse to be solid and calm. My feeling about the exercises was that they are best performed in groups, and probably with a professional trainer present. So while I'd recommend the other books listed above on this page just for reading to get insight into horsemanship (natural or otherwise), I wouldn't recommend this book for that purpose. I would recommend this book if you have a flighty horse and you want to get together with a few other folks and arrange some de-spooking clinics.

As the owner of one sane and two completely insane horses, I can see the value of such an exercise. Horses with "issues" are not in short supply these days, so if the will is really there I would imagine such a clinic could be arranged. If that sounds like something you need to do, pick up this book as a first step and study the exercises. Then get together with a trainer and see what could be worked out. If you are a trainer yourself, you might want to study the exercises in the book to incorporate into your clinics.

Definitely a practical, hands-on book recommended for people with spooky horses.

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