The Author's Corrective-Behavior-Training Philosophy
What you might call my Corrective-Behavior-Training philosophy is just my perspective on what is behind the bad behavior which a horse may exhibit during our attempts to trim or shoe it It is the result of my experiences in shoeing and training and the reason for the approach I use in Corrective-Behavior-Training.
I have found that there are very few truly “mean” horses. Most of the vicious behavior I have encountered I believe is the result of a horse’s having been spoiled. All too often our good intentions and love of the animal (in addition to its ability to frighten us - - after all it is a very large and powerful being) have caused us to indulge its deviant behavior. When such indulgence goes unchecked it breeds bad and often dangerous habits in our would be friend and can create a dangerous shoeing situation. Such behavior must be corrected. I remember one customer bringing me her young children’s horse for Corrective-Behavior-Training saying that she didn’t understand what was wrong, that it used to be nice but that now it wouldn’t allow anyone to saddle, bridle or ride it. When she arrived and attempted to unload it from her trailer, it almost demolished the trailer and once out of the trailer was ready to challenge anyone who tried to handle it. If you tried to tie it to a fence it would attempt to break its lead rope or tear down the fence. She asked me if Iknew what was wrong. I said “I think so” and told her to come back in two weeks. When she returned, the horse was standing quietly tied to the corral fence. I told her to saddle it up, which she did without incident. She then loaded it into the trailer as easily as one could wish. She asked me what the problem had been and I told her that the horse was “extremely spoiled.” It was very unusual for me to say something like that, and I did not say it without regard for her feelings. But I wanted to seriously impress upon her that she needed to be aware of her and her children’s limitations with regard to this particular horse. In terms of my Corrective-Behavior-Training philosophy, I believed that she and her children, for lack of knowing what to do, had indulged the bad behavior that their horse exhibited until that behavior became habitual. I told her that I seriously feared for her children’s well being around this animal, and that I had two adolescent horse-savvy children of my own that I would not want to be around a horse like that The animal would be all right with someone who knew how to keep it in line, but otherwise it was my belief that it would revert to vicious behavior in order to be left alone. From my Corrective-Behavior-Training perspective, it was not a mean critter, but just a very, very spoilable one. I advised her to find a new horse for her children. It is very important to know what to look for in buying a horse and to pick one with a personality that is a proper fit for its prospective owner. 
Most of the problems I encountered in training and shoeing horses were the results of bad habits that the horse had developed, and just so you won’t feel hopeless you should know that I never ran across a behavioral problem that couldn’t be corrected using the methods I present in my book. If you'd like to check out my book click here:
Corrective-Behavior-Training in "No Feet No Horse" Aside from the specific training my book focuses on, there are a couple of very good general horse training sites worth your taking a look at. They offer lots of information at a very reasonable price. Click here for the first one called: Best Horse Training I often wonder what caused the irregularities I found in horse behavior that I encountered in shoeing. As my female friends say “Anyone can have a “bad hair day.” Once in a while a horse that had never given me a problem would act up, and then never give me a problem afterward. When you’re feeling down, sick, stiff and sore from too much physical activity, you too probably don’t welcome the idea of being messed with and having to control your discomfort. We all know what it is to be stressed out, just want to be left alone, not hassled, not asked to perform at a certain level. Who is to say our equine friends don’t have similar days. Another irregularity I ran across was the horse who would let me shoe him without any problems but would give other shoers fits, and vice versa. This raises questions about the psychology of interpersonal relations of our equine friends? What was it in the personality and /or approach of one person that would work for a given animal? What problematic associations might a horse have in mind with regards to one person but not with another? And what about unknown physical problems that a horse might be experiencing? I think we should remember that such possibilities exist and temper the severity of our Corrective-Behavior-Training accordingly. 
As any competent farrier, I always tried to find the most comfortable and relaxed position for holding a horse’s leg when trimming or shoeing. Age, stiffness, and arthritis can make it very uncomfortable if pressure and strain are being put on its limbs. And what of all the other aches and pains that a horse might be experiencing but is unable to tell you about.
The importance of being sensitive to physical, mental or medical problems that a horse might be experiencing should not be underestimated.
On the other hand I believe an important part of my Corrective-Behavior-Training philosophy is that I never let a horse “get away” with bad behavior and was always determined to get the shoeing job done. Consequently owners with ill behaved horses were often referred to me by other farriers who lacked my particular combination of experience and skill. As a result I found myself with numerous opportunities to practice the methods I have presented in my book. I have personally found the eclectic style of developing skills to be the best. That is to say I believe one is best off by familiarizing himself with as many approaches as possible to solving a given problem, so that when one method doesn’t seem to be working well, he is in a position to try another. What I present in my book are not all but rather only the best methods I have found to correct specific problems that may occur during trimming and shoeing. Given all of the unknowns, and regardless of the kind of horse, the Corrective-Behavior-Training philosophy I practiced was to be as sensitive and considerate as possible to all the factors that might be effecting a horse’s behavior, and then do whatever was necessary to teach the horse to stand in a well behaved manner while being trimmed and shod. While my book deals with training which is designed to correct specific problems that occur during shoeing, there is another book I would endorse for you which deals with training in general. It consists of a good list of horse training secrets from traditional times. To take a look at it, click here: Horse Training Secrets Revealed To return to the Home page and Table of Contents for this site, just use the list to the upper left or click here: Home Page and Table of Contents |
