Description

Modern Horse Training

Equitation Science Principles & Practice

Volumes 1 & 2

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).

Together, these two volumes provide you with a blueprint for sustainable and efficient horse training and management. Volume 1 – First Principles distils the latest thinking in various academic fields and its relevance to all equestrian sports and activities, highlighting best practice that logically emerges from a full understanding of the inner workings of horses. Training systems that align with such evidence-based knowledge ultimately result in optimal equine welfare as well as safety for humans, not only because of gains in efficiency but also because they reveal the actual hard-wired needs of the horse in contrast with the human-centred narratives that have pervaded and polluted equestrian education for many millennia. Volume 2 – Principles in Practice provides a practical application of the theoretical elements outlined in Volume 1. 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.

“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