Richard D. Alexander grew up in Illinois, living his own version of a child’s adventurous life with foxes, while also soaking up the fox stories of older neighbors and relatives. Richard has interacted with horses and horse people for virtually his entire life. His father was placing him on the backs of horses before he could walk. One of his early vivid memories is of a scary spill, at age 5 or 6, off a fast galloping pony. A few years later he was harnessing and handling in the field his own team of work horses. Until his parents found out, he was breaking to ride not only the young work horses but the feeder cattle as well. His first experiences as a trainer were teaching tricks to a pony 65 years ago and gentling and starting two riding horses for a great uncle 60 years ago.
The first 50 years of his adult life were spent as an academic biologist, trying to understand the behavior of animals and humans. He is a 35-year continuous breeder of American Quarter Horses and still starts the young horses bred and reared on the Michigan farm that he and Lorrie have operated for 37 of their 59 shared years. He is author or editor of a dozen books, including Teaching Yourself to Train Your Horse and two children’s books, The Red Fox and Johnny Valentine’s Blue-Speckled Hound and Thumping on Trees. In his earlier life he was for 43 years a University of Michigan biology professor. He is a medalist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, past president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, and the Animal Behavior Society’s Animal Behaviorist of the Year: 2002.
Richard has written many essays and articles to help horse owners train their own horses. As an author, he has been published many times and is still an active writer.
Essays on Horses and Horse Training by Richard D. Alexander
* Understanding Rewards and Punishment in Horse Training (PDF)
* Keeping the Young Horse's Trust While Riding (PDF)
* Long Latigos (PDF)
* Two Seconds A Day to Gentle Your Horse (PDF)
* Holding On With Upper Legs (PDF)
* On Using Ropes to Lift a Young Horse's Legs (PDF)
* Targeting, Clicker-Bridging, and Positive and Negative Aspects of
Horse Training (PDF)
* Four Ways of Training (PDF)