Gudmar Perursson Icelandic Horses
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Training methods at GPIH I think natural horsemanship is the only way to train a horse. What is natural horsemanship? In my mind, natural horsemanship is to teach, as opposed to "break". This approach of training is from the horse's point of view and lets the horse have a choice- so his way is our way. We always have the safety and well-being of the horse in mind. We care about the relationships with our horses and want them to enjoy the process as much as we do. If I had to say what kind of training I do in few words, I would say my training is a mixture of Natural horsemanship; Icelandic traditional riding; Western training; and classical dressage. But there are also some things that were not as good. And we have better knowledge today. I think that the Icelandic methods of horse riding have in some ways an advantage over many other disciplines because, even though there are traditions in Iceland, they are not resistant to change. We sometimes say if it works, it’s good. It does not matter whether it comes from Western riding, Dressage or something else. I sometimes feel that stringently holding to strong traditions in some disciplines keep them from evolving. "Things are done this way because they have always been done this way". If you ask Why?- there is not a sufficient answer. "If you don’t know why...don’t do it’’. When it comes to starting a young horse, or teaching and educating a horse-that is, to influence the horse's mind-I look to and get inspired from Western Riding (Natural Horsemanship). Starting young horses When we start young horses we always spend time on the ground getting the horse to understand us and trust us. We work with a rope halter and a rope. That is how we ride them at first. When we start to ride them, we are not thinking much about the gaits at first. We just "train them" by allowing them time to get balanced with the rider. We focus primarily on teaching them to accept and react to the bit. We ride with a rope and rope halter and then another rein for the bit, and slowly transfer the cues through the halter that they learned from the groundwork, to the "bit". If something goes wrong we pull on the rope halter and not on their mouth. We want them to be happy to go forward whatever direction the rider chooses. In the beginning we usually have them follow another horse. When they are ready they start to go ahead of the lead horse. Sometimes horses offer all gaits right away. In that case, we usually try to keep them working at the trot in the beginning and once we feel they have good balance and understand the rein and leg aids we start to slowly separate the gaits. If the horse chooses to trot, we just let them trot and when we feel they have good balance and understand the rein and leg aids, we start to prepare them for tolt training. One of the most important things is to teach them the connection between the leg aid and the rein aid which we do with lateral work. When we get to the point that we can start to collect them a little by riding them from the leg toward the rein and they accept and give, we then start to push the walk on into running walk, which then slowly turns into the tolt. Show training When training and preparing horses for shows, like breeding evaluations or competitions, physical condition is very important. We need to be sure the horse is using his body in the correct way so he gets strong in the right way, in the right places. In general, here is how the program progresses: First, I have to make sure the horse knows enough; has a good understanding of the connection between the leg and rein; knows how to round his top line; knows how to relax; understands my body and weight cues; and is good at lateral work. When training horses, trainers often talk about two sides to it. The mental part so the horse understands what you want him to do. The physical part so the horse is able to do what you want him to do. When it comes to show horse training, I like to add a third part...the horse needs to believe he can do what you want him to do. So again, the horse needs to:
When it comes close to the show date, I keep the third point in mind and then I start to shorten my rides again while increasing the expectations. For example, I ask for more collection or more speed, but the training sessions are short enough so that the horse knows that I will not ask him this for two hours. He gives me all he has, knowing that I will keep the training sessions short. If the horse is always ridden long, he starts to reserve energy. That is his nature and they are smart. For example, if I always ask my horse to do flying pace for half a mile each time I pace him, he would very quickly start out very slow at the pace and continue to pace slow to be sure he can make it the whole way. However, if I make sure he knows that I will never ask him to pace more then about 250-300 yards, he will be willing to give me more speed. I also start to mix in other things like ponying them beside another horse, let them trot over cavaletis, etc. to do something different and keep them interested. As you can see from my schedule I travel quite a bit. So how do I deal with that? First, I always have very good, qualified, and professional trainers working for me. They will always be involved in some aspect of the training. But there are other important things worth mentioning. Our training system is very well organized and each horse's individual needs, as well as the training curriculum is supervised by myself. All of the training hours and details of the training are recorded in our computer at the barn on a daily basis. If you have any questions regarding our training methods, please contact us! Your Friend, |
