Description

Modern Horse Training

Equitation Science Principles & Practice

Volume 2, Principles in Practice

If you are interested in how training actually works in terms of the horse’s learning and mentality, this book is for you.

The two volumes of Modern Horse Training comprise the theory and practice of horse training. They represent the latest in our academic understanding of horse training and are therefore a further step forward from Andrew McLean’s earlier works that began with Horse Training McLean Way (2002), The Truth About Horses (2004) and then Academic Horse Training (2008).

This final volume provides a practical application of the theoretical elements outlined in volume one. It is fundamentally important that any horse training methodology does not rely on leaps of insight on the horse’s part. To this end, we have provided a blueprint focused on how training goals can be achieved in the most horse-friendly way. In putting together this text, it is recognised that the methodology we provide here is not the only path. If trainers discover different cues and signals that comply with the first principles of equitation science, these can be superimposed over this blueprint.

The practical application of equitation science theory emphasises that when the basic responses are consolidated in-hand and under-saddle, the horse will be well equipped for any equine activity, sport or discipline: from dressage and horseracing through to working equitation. Combined reinforcement forms the basis of the methodology outlined in this text. Emerging research shows that combined reinforcement constitutes the most efficient form of horse training because it rapidly shows the way to the correct answers, and these choices are rewarded. Therefore, frustration levels and subsequent negative affective states and stress are kept to a minimum.

Traditionally, problem behaviours have been understood and treated only in terms of the context in which they emerge. However, the truth is that many problem behaviours are expressions of insecurity and frustration arising from deficits in the horse’s basic needs and from confusions in training. To counter this, this volume is centred on the welfare science perspective in that the way we keep the horse plus how we train are entirely interconnected.

This text is a leap toward the future of sustainable horse training in an equestrian landscape where social license is under threat.

“It is my hope that from the basics of this text, great horse trainers will emerge, and perhaps horse-sport federations will move away from advocating inhumane traditional equipment towards a more horse-centric approach under the banner of ‘a life worth living’ for horses.”  -Andrew McLean

Watch a review of the book here