Comments on: Horse Training Tips – Training Fads

By: Tom Boyle

Tom Boyle — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:16:04 +0000

Well,
Having well bred Horses and being a breeder of horses that your average horse owner would not be able to afford I would like to say Hog wash to imprint breeding. I want nothing to do with it. I do not want to stress out the mare, Nor do I want to disturb the foal and mare in they're most important time of bonding. I want the foal on the tit ASAP. I have to have horses that preform. They have to have the breeding. I have 5k or more in the foal just from the stud fees. Not to mention the price of a good brood mare. One that has proven herself in the Arena. I started two colts on the ground this week. I worked on gentling them as weanlings .
I have never had trust issues with a horse that was not imprinted.Nor have I had any horses that where over reactive or hard to train. I turn them out in the pasture until 18 months and see them daily on feeding. I let them run in a herd setting and keep them with older horses that give them manners and teach them to be a horse. They tend to be more respectful and less pushy when this id done.How ever I have had customers who have raised they're foals in a stall. Spoiling them and never exposing them to a herd setting. They are pushy they, tend to resist and I have a harder time with them. I would like to leave some food for thought, I do not breed horses that do not have a great conformation, The stud and mare must have a good mind,a winning show record, they must have earned points in the perspective event I want to use the foal for. Performance horses are natural breed to be winners . A good horse will never have to be touched when it is born. The breeding is already there, The mind will be curious on a good horse. He will hook up with me long before the round pen. And will never have to force myself on him as a foal to get him to respect and want to be with me. If you are good with horses you never need to imprint one.
If you breed with responsibly and people quit breeding horses with bad traits we would have better horses and a better horse market. But, until people start to act responsibly and take feeling out of the reason for breeding we will continue to have bad horse people producing bad horses, I will keep producing great horses. Because if I have anything that is not up to standard it will not produce an offspring. My name is on the horse, I could care less about the money and more about my respectability as a horseman and to provide a good horse. And I dam sure do not have my horses tagged as turds,
Tom

By: Dianimal

Dianimal — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:08:35 +0000

Never imprinted a foal and probably will never do so, however you if/then logic is faulty. If you have taken a group of well bred horses and imprinted them and then they did not perform well on average, then you'd have some real evidence that imprinting affects training results.

However it has been my experience that folks that buy into training fads usually aren't buying or breeding well bred horses. As you mentioned in a previous column, it's easier to get an exceptional training result if you start out with an exceptional horse.

It is also true that those folks who are winning have been known to use some pretty harsh methods that no one should emulate.

My experience has been that horse people are loathe to change training techniques unless they are getting their asses kicked in the ring. And often, people adopt new training methods without really understanding how it works (which I believe results in cruel and often harsh methods).

So unless you have a breeder of well bred horses who decides imprinting is the real thing and performs it correctly AND that breeder uses other accepted training practices no one will really know if imprinting adversely affects training results.

So really, it seems like your evidence is only anecdotal.

By: LarryTrocha

LarryTrocha — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:47:13 +0000

@Tom Boyle: Tom, look closely at my photo on the home page…

I DON'T have any hair… and now you know why!

Take care,

Larry T.

By: Tom Boyle

Tom Boyle — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:15:18 +0000

Larry,
Thanks for the news letter, I dont know how you don't pull your freakin hair out over some of the emails and post you get,
If I may can I advise your Patrions to this wonderful free new letter of a couple things.
1. Read Lary's post before you comment.
2. Buy a freaking horse that has been there and done it and is consistant.
3. Do not think you ca train with out paying your dues. You need to be able to ride correctly, you need to have shown reing or cutting horses before you atempt to train one.
4,You cannot give the horse what you do not have.
5. Dont think you can take a turd and make it a cutter or reiner. Buy a horse that has the confermation , bred in skills for the event you want to compete in. Your usally wasting your time and money if you dont.
6.Be prepared to spend alot of money, Reinig and cutting are not cheep. You must have your horse tuned up if you buy an older horse. They still need trained and corrected and most people has no idea. You will give your horse bad habbits and he will usally try to cheat you if he is not corrected by a trainer. It cost from $750 to $1500.00 per month to keep ypu horse with a good trainer while you are showing. You need to have a pro riding your horse at his barn so you have a chance of winning. As well you get lessons from that pro while while your horse is getting kept in show shape,
There are no short cuts folks. You will pay for what you get. And you have to pay to play.
Thanks,
Tom

By: Alanna

Alanna — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:18:32 +0000

I'm training a three year old for reining and have never riden a reining horse before,let alone a colt. I've never trained a horse in western(I've started a 9 year old in english but thats as far as my training expirience goes). I want to thank you for the tips and am wondering what I should make sure she can do at 3!! PLEASE COMMENT BACK!