Forward Schooling-Littauer

[nighthorse6]

I have been enjoying reading Littauer’s books after they were brought up in some threads on here. Tonight I found videos that go along with his Forward Schooling and training methods.

As someone who loves a good plan and structure, this is really appeals to me. I have started using his program to retain my OTTB, we are currently in the second month and working on stabilization.

Are you familiar with Littauer and if so, have you used his program to retrain an OTTB or just train a horse in general?

Forward Schooling 1 - by Captain Vladimir Littauer

[2bayboys]

Yes, via Jane Marshall Dillon

[nighthorse6]

I have one of her books, Form Over Fences!

[alpine1]

Interesting to see what was considered a “mediocre” school horse in 1948. Would likely be well out of my price range today!

[Whoosh]

I have a few copies of his book, “Schooling Your Horse” that I picked up for pennies on Ebay a few years ago. It’s genuinely a delight to read and very accessible to the average horseperson. (Also weirdly timeless. It was so easy for me to forget the book was well over 60 years old!). I feel like so many horsemanship books are sort of aimed toward professionals or people who want to compete at high levels. “Schooling Your Horse” is for regular people riding regular horses who want very specific instruction on how to improve them. If you’re someone like me who has always found training instructions to be vague (I.e. “Make him go better”) Littauer’s structure is invaluable.

[nighthorse6]

I know right??

[nighthorse6]

I agree! Reading it made me feel more confident in myself that I could do the training myself, because he says along the lines of any average rider can successfully accomplish what I have outlined in my program
. I don’t think I’ve seen that written in modern books, they make it seem like you need specific equipment or knowledge or instruction to train a horse.

[BrownDerby]

Litttauer’s books are written with charm and a bit of humor. My trainer was one of his students in Long Island (when she left for college she sent her horse to Mrs. Dillon). Bernie rode with him as a youth as well, and to this day says Littauer was a problem solver. Lendon Gray also advocated Littauer’s method, especially when she was teaching at Sweet Briar.

The book “Schooling and Riding the Sport Horse” by Paul Cronin is an updated version of Littauer’s system, albeit a bit pompous, like Paul.

[Willesdon]

I picked up an old copy of one of his books and found it very readable and packed full of good things. Totally current because good horsemanship is timeless.

[2bayboys]

What I love about this video is how there is zero stress on “finding a distance” to the jump, just establishing and keeping a balanced canter and then leaving the horse alone to jump. The “perfect distance” emphasis sucks the joy right out of riding for a lot of students.

[BrownDerby]

That’s the first thing I noticed in your vids of Henry learning to jump. No picking, no correcting the somewhat wide or bending line he chose to take and so on. Just letting the green horse figure it out.

[2bayboys]

One thing that really stuck with me as I was learning as a young rider was allowing the baby horse to make some mistakes and learn from them.

[Rackonteur]

Me too!

[BrownDerby]

@2bayboys

One thing that really stuck with me as I was learning as a young rider was allowing the baby horse to make some mistakes and learn from them.

Back when I was still starting babies I called it the smorgasbord. One time it was my bad and I was on a 12 hh POA. I didn’t quite have his strides down and set rail, xrail, vertical, oxer and oops we banked the vertical and the game little guy jumped the whole thing as a wide oxer. The importance of staying in jumping position unless you want to get royally left!

[Salty]

This is how I learned and it’s invaluable. It creates a horse who can keep his own balance and get out of trouble.

[nighthorse6]

And this is exactly what I need in an equine partner! As an “average rider” and adult ammy, I don’t even begin to think I have all the skills to put a horse perfectly at a jump or help them every step of the way. I need a horse that can think for itself and knows how to carry itself.

Another thing I love about this method is the great importance he puts on hacking out in the open and on walking. Lots of good forward walking. I don’t have the facilities to do much work outside of the ring at the place I currenlty board, but I have my own trailer and plan on taking my horse on trail rides with others several times a month. I hate to be stuck in a ring going around in circles and it seems like at most hunter/jumper barns, including the one I’m at now, they are terrified to let a horse out of the fenced arena or look at you like a weirdo for even wanting to trail ride or hack out of the ring.

[McGurk]

@BrownDerby,

We must have similar backgrounds and similar experiences with Paul. (Whom I used to refer to as the South’s answer to George Morris.) Now I feel that’s a really unfair comparison.

I came up in a Littauer system program, read Commonsense Horsemanship and Schooling Your Horse, took clinics with Paul Cronin and Jill Randles, and did some riding ratings at Sweet Briar as a young professional. (They were rider ratings, not instructor ratings, because according to the system, they were assessing your knowledge and abilities as a rider, NOT your ability to teach,)

[Jackie_Cochran]

I schooled ALL my horses according to Littauer’s training principles, including my Paso Fino filly who I got to a 4-beat gait from bred in the bone pacing by following Littauer’s schooling program, with a minor hand/leg aids adjustment.

These horses included a stallion, some ungelded colts, and fillies. Now I just ride lesson horses, and every single one gets reschooled according to Littauer with my riding teacher’s whole hearted agreement since she likes my results.

My MS has been messing up my riding for all my riding life. Even with my non-perfect balance, troubles with proprioception and problems coordinating my aids I can turn an elderly imperfect school horse into one who understands what riders want much better than before I started riding them.

One problem I have occasionally now is one of my hands just dropping a rein. Since I school each and every horse I ride to go around on loose reins they do not freak out, they do not take “advantage” of me, they obey the rest of my aids, I pick up the rein and we go on to have a decent ride.

As a handicapped person whose limbs sometimes jerk uncontrollably I want a horse who has the capability to tell when I mean an aid versus being able to ignore an aid from me that makes no sense at all to the horse. Littauer’s training methods deliver for me, and they have delivered for me for over 50 years…

Welcome to the training system that just about ANYBODY can use to train a safe horse without abuse.

[BAC]

I think you would really enjoy her other book, “School for Young Riders” too.

[Ghazzu]

@BAC

“School for Young Riders”

I took that book out of the library so many times as a kid that my mother finally bought me a copy.
Lent it out to someone who did not return it, but managed to find a used copy years later.