What is the best way to get into the horse industry?

What is the best way to get my horse trained?

• I just got a 4 year old fresian that is very gentle and willing and calm. I have many different opportunities for trainers....AND THEY ARE ALL SO DIFFERENT! Mainly though I seem to have a few trainers that have lunged him and are happy with his cooperation and want to proceed quickly it seems with getting the saddle on him and move training along quickly. Then I have some trainers that practice a lot of natural horsemanship and want to start from teh very beginning and take it slow not missing any details. NOW, I want him trained well, he is going to be my horse forever, and I wish I could do it myself but I dont have the knowledge. My therory is that although I want to get him ridable, I don't want to rush the details like getting him used to different things and perfecting ground manners and voice commands. I am afraid that rushing will lead to a spooky high strong horse which he is not meant, or do I want him to be. However, my question I guess is do all those little things come after you get on his back? Do I always have time to perfect those things or is it right to take t real slow and ease into the riding and driving? Can't wait to hear responses! ** He is 4 years old and has been worked with and even had someone on his back but hasn't been worked with and hardly touched for the past year. What do you think? Also, one place that is a great facility has a 3 year old stallion on the property and is only in an electric string fence...should I be worried?

• Answer:

  My senior opinion: The foundation first. However, that does not relate to weeks of groundwork. Some horses pick up your body language and requests and can move body parts on command in a couple of hours. Some are ready to be ridden in that amount of time. However, you must have that solid foundation of understanding your feel into them first. Once they get the idea of relief and that you are fair and consistent, they sort through the rest on their own. That's the base foundation. Some horses don't need repetition 100 times. My mustang mare locks into something new and has it after less than a dozen requests. My appy mare resents boring repetitions. But I want to know that a body part can be isolated and moved and that is the baseline first. So if a trainer assesses that on one day and decides to ride, ok. Probably one of the finest "natural horsemen" was Ray Hunt. He did not use the term. He rode horses on day one or two and so did all of his clinicians. Pretty funny to watch the mayhem in the arena at first, but the amazing thing is that he could use a newly ridden horse as his mount to move the other horses. Also look at what Buck Branaman, Martin Black and Chris Cox do. Riding in a few hours. So If you get a trainer that really knows how to do that you are not creating a spooky or high strung horse. On the contrary, that trainer is moving the feet to the horse's understanding. You are relating natural horsemanship to the step by step programs of round penning or lunge work or whatever. It really is working with a horse on what they naturally understand within the herd, and that is how and when to move their body. Talking about perfecting ground manners and voice commands doesn't even relate in my book to what I would be paying a trainer to do with a green horse. Since you are struggling with chosing and really with understanding the nuances of what it is about, you need to take the time and go watch some of the trainers who are working green horses. With a good trainer, you will see the horse actually change its attitude and facial expressions to one of relaxation when it "gets it". So that's who you hire. If the horses he/she works with ring tails, resent the work, tighten up in fear, never get relief, or never get to search for the right answer or response but get forced to do it, walk away and keep looking.