List of figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Even Beginners are Trainers
Even Trainers are Beginners
Using This Book
Horses Used in This Book
Choosing Additional Reading Material
Finding Friends with Whom to Train and Ride
Using Professional Horse People
Maximizing Rewards, Minimizing Punishment
Henry Wynmalen's Four Secrets of the Art of Riding
Some Thoughts about Beginning Training Efforts
Defining Science
Personal Knowledge and Repeatability
The Nature and Importance of Controls
Why Horse Training Has Not Become Scientific
Cautions about My Approach in This Book
Understanding Straightness
Position of Horses' Heads
Is Forced Submissiveness of General Value to Horse People?
Competition and Beauty in Horsemanship
Introduction and Definitions
Applying Rewards and Punishment
Keeping Rewards and Punishment Distinct
Trainer Timing
Trainer Awareness
Competing Natural Stimuli
Principles of Learning and Teaching
Strategies of Training
Strategy 1: Exploiting Desirable Spontaneous Behaviors
Strategy 2: Inducing Desirable Behavior as Conditioning to Negative Stimuli
Strategy 3: Successively Conditioning Behaviors to New Stimuli
First Example: Coming to a Call
Second Example: Neck Reining
Third Example: Habituation or Desensitization
Fourth Example: Leaving a Horse Alone as Reward
Strategy 4: Using Power to Punish and Threaten
When and How to Punish a Horse
Improving Training Responses to Undesirable Behavior in Horses
Rearing
Biting
Training or Genes?
Restraints Allow the Trainer to Stay Near the Horse
The Variety of Available Restraints
Using Physical Restraints
Using Social Restraints
Using Physical and Social Restraints Together
What About Round Pen Training?
Why Not Just Rope the Horse and Truss It Up?
Restraints and the Ages, Sexes, and Social Situations of Horses
Procedures With Untrained Young Horses
Newborns and Positive Foal Imprinting
After Foaling
Ways of Thinking about Initial Gentling
Sixteen Specific or "Recipe-Like" Suggestions
Rewarding the Experienced Horse After Haltering
Reassuring a Horse That has Become Evasive or Threatening
From Initial Gentling to Social Bonding: A Long and Rewarding Road
A Bonding Example
Trust and the Veterinarian's Visits
Why Talk to a Horse? (Box)
Summary
Introduction
Planning the Initial Steps
When to Start
Where to Start
How to Start
How to Continue after Haltering
When to Stop
Slack Rope Leading: Soft Touches from the Beginning
Twenty-Five Useful Items That can be Taught with the Lead Rope
Should People Pat Their Horses? (Box)
Horses are Two-Sided (Box)
Riding Equipment
Preparing the Horse for Mounting and Initial Rides
Starting a Two-Year-Old: A Narrative and Photographic Sequence
Trainer Mistakes
Keeping the Horse Relaxed on Initial Rides
Handling the Reins
Two-Handed Riding
One-Handed Riding
Changing between One-Handed and Two-Handed Riding
Riding a Horse Compared to Driving a Car
Sources of Signals to the Horse while Riding
Teaching the Basic Movements while Riding
Summing Up Riding
Appendix I: Punishment and Abuse in Horse Training
Why Do People Abuse Horses?
Trance-Like States in Horses and Forcible Training Methods
Why Aren't There More Master Horse Trainers - and Ideal Parents?
Appendix II: More About Imprinting Foals
Appendix III: Idenities and Relationships of Horses Used in This Book
Horses Pictured and Discussed (*) in the Book
Riding Horses Mentioned in the Acknowledgments
References
Index to Subjects and Authors
About the Author