https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16SJ9hWNQS/?mibextid=wwXIfr The horse wasn’t so dangerous that it couldn’t be tacked up and ridden. And that’s IF we take Ryan’s word for it. He never says exactly what the “dangerous” behavior was that made his technique of whipping the horse 42 times in a row the only alternative to the killing the horse. And he magically transformed the horse in only three days? Color me skeptical, at a minimum.
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Some post above someone mentions the dangerous behavior as a horse kicking out. I guess the kicking out was a reaction to the whip? If that’s true I’ve ridden a lot of dangerous horses in my life 
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From the description it seems like this is the horse with his new rider - post Ryan episode.
I don’t know this guy from a hole in the wall and didn’t like what I saw in the video but have sure seen some spoiled horses in my life that have needed a CTJ - or should I say renegotiation of who runs the show? Is that more palatable? We didn’t see what preceded the smacking, or what he was doing that got him headed to the knacker before landing with Heath for one last chance, but wow, I sure hope no one ends up with a horse that needs to be redirected to avoid a bad end.
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Pretty sure the behavior seen here is not the “dangerous” behavior Ryan is referring to.
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Major yikes. That video was HARD to watch. The sounds of the crop were insane. He’s getting nowhere. It’s actually quite embarrassing. And he probably felt that, and took it out on the horse even more.
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I worked at Heath’s for several years and I can say personally that man has been the single greatest influence on my life. He is the most giving, most inspirational, most supportive person I have ever had the honor of knowing. He is an open book and his training center was always open to anyone who wanted to come and watch, anytime. That was just the way he was. He supports the community, the riders, the fans, the help. He is the first one jumping in. All his staff are like family and we even spent Christmas at his table, a riot of fun and camaraderie. I have nothing but the very greatest of respect for him and I watched him from daybreak to late at night every day for years. I know him. I know his system. He could be so TOUGH on riders when they messed up but not on the horse, he TRAINED students to teach horses, he inspired a generation of young riders to reach Olympic level- and many of them DID in fact- and he led by example, always. He was never afraid to push you to be the very best you could be but at the same time he was the consummate horse person. I never saw him abuse a horse, he was one of those who could jump on any horse presented to him and it would just go so beautifully for him. He just understood them and they responded. So when I saw this video and read the background and that this horse had already put someone in intensive care, my first reaction was that here is the reason that strong willed, high powered athletes like this horse are never a good thing in the wrong hands. I think yes, Heath took it way too far but in knowing the man, I know where he was coming from and I think a fuller video and picture of this day would show something much more- the results in how the horse is now, well they speak for him.
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I can’t stand the justification.
He whipped the horse 42 times. And apparently that’s the horse’s fault and the owner’s fault. He…the man doing the actual whipping…is somehow the heroic savior here because he didn’t send the horse to slaughter and instead beat it into submission.
If the horse had protested more strongly instead of just taking the beating with mild protests, I guess he would’ve been on his way to the slaughterhouse. All because he decided being a “high powered athlete” wasn’t all that fun.
Heath Ryan beat this horse 42 times because he could. A more dangerous horse would NEVER have put up with that shit. And I’m sure Ryan knows it.
A rider can be put in intensive care if a horse stumbles and falls Let’s stop vilifying the animal and glorifying the man that hit it 42 times.
Truth be known, the horse is worth more $$$ as a “high powered athlete” than what the meat man would pay, and no one seems to “love” the horse enough to consider any other options for it, so it got its ass beat so that it could be useful to those in the industry that make money doing this.
I’m sure the man can be nice, but his motives and methods in this instance do not show him in that light.
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That’s if you take Ryan at his word. According to him, he’s a Brave Hero who selflessly whipped a horse 42 times out of the goodness of his heart. It was that or the butchers knife, and in just three rides, transformed the horse from a dangerous beast to a trained athlete.
Or, possibly, the horse belonged to someone with deep pockets and started not wanting to go forward. The owner has an accident somehow related to the horse being balky and contacts Ryan, thinking that since he’s an Olympian, he should be help. After 3 rides, the owner decided they didn’t like what they saw and took the horse elsewhere. The horse received proper training (maybe a vet work up) and is now willing to go forward.
I know which scenario I find most believable.
Personally, I find CTJ meetings with horses (any human or animal, really) counterproductive in the long run. I think my mare had a lot of CTJ meetings at the two flippers she went through and all that created was a horse that was terrified of people and extremely defensive. The trainer at my barn has a reputation as being able to fix horses that are considered unfixable by other trainers, and almost every one of them has had some physical issues that contributed to their behavior. Kissing spine, broken withers, muscle tears, you name it. It usually takes months of careful rehab and healing, not repeated strikes with a whip.
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The video is rough and never should have happened. Full stop… not condoning his behavior at all.
But I’ve had some difficult horses and have had a few CTJ moments usually around injuries or circumstances like bringing in while neighbors are shooting off fireworks, it’s always set us back, but sometimes it just has to be done for safety.
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For safety sure. As an everyday training tool, nope.
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I mean, if you want to lay blame, it sounds like it is also the owner’s fault.
Didn’t they send it to him saying, if you can’t fix it it’s going to slaughter? Under their request, he kept the horse a few days and then found a soft spot for the horse to land.
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I’ve ridden some rather rank horses that could have used a much firmer hand then they were given.
My friend has a gelding that can be most difficult. He rides great on trails. In an arena, he does 2 circles and says “nope, I’m done”. When asked to continue, he starts kicking out and having a temper tantrum. I lunged him as soon as he refused to move, then got on with a whip… would someone think I was abusive? Possibly… but I know this horse and I know he is moody and strong willed.
I also have a rather lazy mare and you can hit her rather hard with the whip and she will barely react. She just isn’t afraid of you and she’s not very reactive… if I did that with my thoroughbred you would have a bolting horse. She’s also sassy to my boss mare and talks back so it’s not altogether surprising that she tries to get her own way with a rider. She’s just not aggressive about it thankfully, gives up quickly, and is rather less inclined to try 10 different behaviors to get the one thing she wants. The gelding can definitely try 10 different things to get his way.
Then there was the horse who would get mad at you for not giving him his way and try to scrape you off on the trees. He would go directly to the trees and try and rear you into them. He ended up being sold cheap at auction. Not my horse. Was he dangerous? Definitely if in the wrong hands. Could i have gotten him through the behavior? Probably but I guarantee you he would try it again with a different rider. When I rode him, it felt like he was constantly trying to out smart me. I named him Nicky Magneto because he constantly tried to test the electric fence… what does that tell you about his personality? I’ve never had a horse get zapped that many times and still test it.
Is it abuse to hit a horse 40 times? I think so… but at the same time you can have a horse that is simply being defiant. I would like to know how the horse’s new (successful owners) managed the behavior. Because a behavior like that isn’t going to go away… it’s going to show up again later on with a different rider.
Once a horse has learned that bad behaviors allow them to get their own way, they can absolutely be dangerous. Although a refusal like that is much better then a horse that blows up bucking, but it certainly could happen with a horse that doesn’t want to go forward.
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It’s disgusting. His justification and reasoning is appalling. He didn’t read the room, he’s completely tone deaf. He’s not taking any responsibility for his actions.
If a training session isn’t going to plan, just get off and walk away.
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I’ve had a few horses that were dangerous (due to a medical reason that we were in the process of trying to find/diagnose)…and all I can say if you had hit any of them that hard even once, you would have been launched into the rafters! One hit like that would have landed you in the ICU…no way any of the horses I dealt with who were unpredictable and dangerous would have lasted through 42 hits. I realize that a balking horse who won’t move is also a danger to the rider…but that horse was shockingly tolerant and not pitching his rider, despite being given good reason to.
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There has to be something physically wrong with this horse. His reaction is not normal and seems to be learned helplessness. Poor horse.
There is NO excuse for this type of behavior. I don’t believe for one moment that the horse was fully checked by the vet.
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I’ve got one of these.
We call him “independent-minded”. He is an incredibly odd horse. And working with him is a trick in finding the correct motivation. It is not pressure and release, he does not respond to it. He reacted to the electric fence in exactly the same way. He didn’t test it in the same place twice though, he walked around the paddock that had electric on it, touching his muzzle in every location. It was fascinating.
I don’t think many trainers learn much about equine motivation because the majority of the horses out there are quite happy to just go along with the program. They are wired for cooperation. But every once in awhile you get one who doesn’t want to do that, and then it’s a bit of a puzzle to unpick why they don’t want to play. While sometimes it’s pain, sometimes it’s aversiveness from having been ridden in a way they do not prefer, sometimes it’s because they have different ideas about running the show than we do, and sometimes it’s just an inborn nature that is different.
We don’t know why this particular horse is the way he is, and obviously that trainer thought he was doing the right thing, it’s just clear that what he was trying did not work, and he got himself into a bit of a pickle.
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I watched the first half of the video before an ad popped up. He was hitting him with his open hand? No whip that I could see?
I was expecting an all out beating.
There was definitely a whip, you can hear it.
Define an all out beating…? He is hitting the horse and nothing is changing or improving so in my opinion, that is more of a beating than not a beating (if that makes sense).
He clearly needs to change his method to achieve a different outcome.
The houseguest has arrived.
At least that’s what I’m ASSuming.
That’s the justification … but IME if it gets this far, the ‘training’, the ‘education’, is often making it even worse in the long run.
The problem is that if a horse (or other animal or person) learns to ‘behave’ out of fear, take away the fear and the training goes away, too.
Horses are to their core a reactive animal. This type of repetitive ‘training’ is teaching the opposite reaction of what is wanted, through the repetition.
Anything that is repeated with an animal becomes ever more deeply ingrained in their brains as ‘this is normal, this is how it is’. They expect repetition, they perform repetition. Heath is teaching the horse to kick out at the whip, while in a drop-anchor balk. Not sure that’s what the owner had in mind.
All that said – Part of the training conundrum that pressures some riders into backwards thinking is knowing that there really isn’t a place for horses that aren’t rideable, useable – whatever the reason for it. That don’t fit in to the landscape of amateur interest, use and care. That’s what Heath is describing (if hopefully over-dramatically).
Where does a horse with a ‘bad attitude’, even a chronic unfixable soreness, a hore that is no longer useful to humans due to behavioral or physical issues, go to live out its life? How many pastures need ornaments?
The horse has no understanding whatsoever of this. So many horses, I wish I could whisper in their ear “I understand why you are behaving this way, but you are jeopardizing a fairly good lifestyle”. A horse can’t understand the possible long-term consequences for their reactive, instinctive, behavior.
I hope the horse in the video is in kinder circumstances now.
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