Natural Horsemanship

Subject: Natural Horsemanship Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:20 pm

Just wondering if you guys use NH techniques when handling/training your horses?

Do you have a particular clinician that you favor? A program you follow?

How soon do you start your groundwork?

Under saddle?

I personally like Clinton Anderson's program with minor adjustments. I start handling my babies from day 1. My yearlings have worn a light saddle but I don't really like to ride my youngsters until they are long 3 yr. olds to 4 yr. olds.

sunny

Subject: Re: Natural Horsemanship Tue Oct 05, 2010 4:31 pm

I started a reply to this this morning before work but my brain wasn't awake enough to form coherent sentences. Sleep

Here we go; I like Clinton Anderson, hate Pat (& Linda) Parelli. LOVE John Lyons, Cherry Hill is OK but she tends to dumb things down a little too much IMO. I havent read any of GaWaNi Pony Boy (however it's spelled) but I'm generally a fan of NA methods.

My babies are all handled from birth (Ruby especially) so they look to me as their lead mare and feel safe with me as their leader. They trust I won't hurt them and if I tell them something is safe, they believe me. Of course they're still babies and prone to the occasional fit but for the most part they are very well behaved.

I start getting them ready for riding with groundwork at about a year old, so they're still small enough I can kick their ass if I have to! Lol. They know how to lead, tie, have their feet handled, they've been clipped and have had blankets on. I think the blankets particularly help get them ready for a pad and saddle. They're used to having fly masks on which helps with bridling down the road, too. They also give to pressure and know what "ho" means. By a year and a half they will give any part of their body to me and keep it where I put it, they're also fairly good at ground tieing.

Now when I actually back them depends on the horse. For example, Sully was incredibly immature mentally and didn't get broke out until he was 5. Indy is going to be introduced to the saddle and will have been sat on a few times next year - that's it, then he gets a year to grow and be a horse with very light riding the following year. Ruby will probably take a year longer, depending on if her legs still look good (I'm very protective of her legs).