Wisdom From the Master
When it comes to training horses I glean wisdom from the masters in a variety of disciplines. Currently I am fascinated with the equine trainers of the Circ de Soleil style show called Cavalia . After studying their French methods despite being culturally different I discovered their techniques are similar to the those of American Ray Hunt who revolutionized the way horses are trained in the U.S. I’m Susan Allen back with more on Mr. Hunt . Because of men like Ray Hunt, and Tom Dorrance we no longer use the word “break” in connotation with starting young horses. To the layman Hunts ideas about training horses seem simplistic, but the revolutionized the horse word. Hunt who died this past March advocated working "with" instead of against the horse. The first traveling clinician he would tell students to “ do more by doing less” and remind them that “If given a little thought, a little understanding, and a little common sense the horse gives back in full measure,” This spring I observed some heavy handed antics in the warm up ring at a reining show; a trainer lost his temper and slapped his horse in the face when he failed to get the perfect stop. I’ve no doubt that Hunt would have told him there is no “quick fix” training”, and repeated his most quoted philosophy to “make the wrong thing difficult and the right thing easy”. Hunt reminded riders that a horse can feel a single fly land on its body - so whips and chains aren’t necessary and would often tell his students “Mad only gets in your way”. Wise council not just for schooling horses but for raising kids, training dogs and dealing with co-workers .
