Breaking The Wheel - Why You Should Choose To Train Trainability
Do we follow tradition because that’s how it’s always been done?
Or do we challenge tradition and incorporate new training techniques that have been proven to not only work for horses but dogs, elephants, birds, dolphins, seals… And those are just the animals I am aware of.
If you are “doing all the things” and your horse can do all the tricks but you feel like there is still something missing, then Training Trainability is for you.
Our tradition-breaking perspective that we have incorporated into our training values, philosophies and principles is that horses are emotionally intelligent, sentient beings that should be valued as equals and not devalued to the status of a belonging.
We value our horses needs physically, mentally and emotionally over our riding goals, and encourage them to learn and willingly participate in their education so that our training and ridden sessions are not only a joy for us but our horses as well.
This does not mean we let our horses push us around and get away with being bold. In fact, we are the complete opposite.
One of our core values is that to have a strong, trusting relationship between horse and rider we need to show up as a strong leader, setting clear, consistent boundaries and following through on our asks. The thing that is different is how we set those boundaries and being clear and consistent so our horse understands what we want, what to expect from us and why.
Our goal in training is to give our horse a voice. Some say in their own training experience. Their education is happening for them, not to them. They are allowed to tell us if they are overwhelmed, frustrated, sore, confused, unsure, anxious and any other spectrum of emotion they may feel without being “pushed through”.
We offer other supportive strategies that first teach our horses how to process and move through these emotions and then tackle the challenges we set for them with confidence and trust in us to guide them through the unknown (which is obviously always full of scary monsters like flapping plastic bags and rustling trees).
What we are really truly looking for in our work with horses is not the 50c ribbon, the nod of approval from our peers or the accolades from the judges but the connection, emotional relationship and the peace that comes from creating a deep and powerful bond with our horses.
Because if all we wanted was the adrenaline rush of the ride without the emotions and intellect, we would ride motor bikes.
