Have you ever ventured into something only to realize
that you “don’t have a clue” what you got into?
I have. Multiple times. I tend to be one of those
who will jump into something by saying “let’s try it,
we’ll figure it out. Thousands of others are doing it
okay and we have at least average intelligence, to we can
learn it as well.”
I’ll give you some insight from the experiences my wife
and I have had being involved in a ministry in our church.
Our church has a policy that states that no one can be married
in our church unless the couple has gone through our
pre-marriage program. We have multiple couples in the
church who have been through training to “facilitate”
the program with the new couples who want to be married.
We are “facilitators” and not “counselors” because we
are not licensed counselors.
Anyway – we get these new couple who are “in looooove”
and want to get married. Most are in their early 20’s.
We’ve gone through this process with at least two dozen
couples now over the last few years. It is a six week
process we take them through and we dive into every phase of
marriage you can imagine – including finances, intimacy,
what their home life was like when they were growing up, etc.
While some couples really have it together, many of them
do not. Whether they say it or not, it becomes
real obvious that “we never thought of that” or
“we had no idea about that”. In a couple cases we even
suggest that it is best for them not to continue due
to various reasons and provide other help ans assistance.
We want them to start with a chance of succeeding because
we know every relationship will have trials and adversity
and, if not prepared for it, will become another failed
relationship that will end up hurting not only them, but
extended families as well.
It’s not their fault much of the time. Either they
were too infatuated with each other, marriage wasn’t ever
modeled for them in their own parents, or whatever –
they just didn’t know to even ask or think about it.
Horse ownership and training is a lot like that, too.
How many of you bought your first horse only to find
out that “OMG – this is hard” or “Why isn’t my horse
responding to me” or “Why is my horse biting or kicking
me” or “I had no idea it would cost this much to keep this
horse, buy tack, take lessons, pay the vet, and on and on?”
You didn’t start this horse-crazed hobby with all the
knowledge you needed to be successful.
Just like we can find a mate and fall in love, we do that
with our horses, too. We see those big eyes staring back
at us, see that majestic animal in the pen or out in the
pasture and immediately fall in love. We start dreaming
of trail riding or showing or just wanting to be around
this new love and start a new relationship with this
new horse. Some go ga-ga and don’t have a clue what
they’re getting into.
It happens every day to hundreds, if not thousands. Then
reality sets in and we have to start training or fixing
problems. Perhaps that new love has some quirks – he bites,
kicks, rears or bucks. He won’t come to you and you can’t
catch him in the pasture. He won’t let you pick up his
feet or he won’t stand to let you groom him or put
on his saddle.
He won’t walk, turn or stop right. You jerk, kick,
pull, scream and get frustrated. Now the horse is even
more confused and doesn’t have a clue what you want
because you haven’t learned enough to know how to
get him to move properly.
Sometimes the horse is so frustrated with you all he
knows to do is try to remove the pressure, pulling,
and frustration by rearing or bucking you off.
What just happened is natural for the horse but your
lack of understanding and training sees this as
a “bad horse”.
Sound familiar? Ever seen this before? Are you living with
some of those issues right now?
Sometimes we have to come to the realization that the
problem is with us, not the horse.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right. If you don’t
have control of your horse then you’re skirting danger.
I know this – a 1,200 pound horse which has lightning-fast
reactions and enormous strength is a time bomb waiting to
go off, even with a trained handler or rider.
Do me and yourself a favor right now – if you’re not
willing to learn how to handle that horse correctly
and safely, and train it so it’s safe to ride, then
please get rid of it. Don’t put yourself and others
in harm’s way. Statistics show that you’ll get hurt
and many times it will lead to broken bones, concussions,
or worse.
That may sound harsh but it happens way too often. If
I’m the first one to tell it to you that way and it
keeps you, others or even your horse from getting hurt
then I’ll do it.
It’s sort of like the new couple who are blinded by love
and don’t see the train wreck coming in their lives.
Seek out those more experienced and trusted who have
proven themselves and listen to them.
However, there are some that want to sell you a magic potion
that would solve all your horse problems in a few days.
Run from them. Seek other help. Experience and insight
take time to learn. It’s true with almost any skill.
Horse training is no different.
Here’s a huge truth about horse training that you
need to understand:
Over half the problem is with the trainer and not the
horse. Until the one doing the training understands
how horses learn and know how to get the horse to start
properly acting on the commands over and over each time
when asked, then nothing is good is going to come
out of the training attempts.
You MUST understand the nature of the horse, how his
brain works and how he learns.
Know this: the horse already has all the ability to do
all the basic stuff you want it to do. It’s up to
the trainer to teach the horse each command and act
on it properly in a controlled fashion.
So, how do you get there you ask?
You study, you watch others do it successfully and
learn along the way. It doesn’t happen over night.
Tell me any valuable skill or trade you have learned
that didn’t take quite a while to learn.
We have assembled various resources to help you and we
have never sugar-coated or “hyped” the results attempting
to get you to otherwise. We wouldn’t be in business
long if we did.
Our 8 Volume Jesse Beery Course is one of the standards
in the horse training that has been proven over 100 years
of use and by nearly 300,000 horse owners.
http://horsetrainingresources.com/beery.html
If you’re just starting out learning about horseback riding lessons then read about our Beginners Guide here:
http://horsetrainingresources.com/RidingBook.html
And, of course, we have a full set of horse training videos and DVDs by
professional horse trainers that cover a multitude
of lessons about everything from de-spooking their
horse, to teaching sliding stops and spins, and how
to teach your horse reining, etc.
If you’ll take the time to listen closely and learn
from these proven professionals you’ll pick up
a multitude of horse training “gems” or “nuggets”
that you can apply to any horse in lots of situations.
Listening to these professionals is like learning from
the “Jedi Master” in their own specialty. You can
learn a lot if you pay attention.
http://horsetrainingresources.com/DVD.html
If you’re looking for a microwave fix to your horse
problems then please don’t bother.
With one exception – and that is our pulley bridle –
most things take many, many repetitions before your
horse finally “gets it”. You can read some of the
testimonials many of our pulley bridle uses have
had to solve certain problems here:
http://horsetrainingresources.com/bridle.html
Many have been amazed how well and how fast it works.
OK – that’s enough for today. I hope I haven’t stepped on
too many toes here. Please take a step back and examine
what’s really happening if you can relate to any of this
I’ve discussed above.
[We’re offering horse training not marriage counselling!
Although, if you think about it, we can learn a lot
by taking the same approach in many of our relationships.]
Thanks for reading this far. And thanks to all our customers
who help us continue to bring these emails multiple
times a week.
Charlie
P.S. You can still use the coupon code CHARLIEHORSE
and get 10% OFF any order. Enter the code in the box on the
checkout page and make sure you click on “Apply”.
An Update:
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Entire Horse Training DVD Library
Friday we announced we would only sell 4 of the
“Entire Horse Training DVD Library” at $100 OFF.
There are two left. Sale ends Tuesday or until these
remaining two are left.
20 Titles, 25 total DVDs. An awesome library
of professional horse trainers that you and others
can use. Go together with your riding club or
some of your friends and share them??
http://horsetrainingresources.com/WholeLibrary.html
If you were thinking about getting one you might
want to act soon. This is the cheapest we’ve ever
sold these for.
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