[QUOTE=Shadow14;3722454]
Do any of you guys read the word BUMP. If you where spurs what good are they if you can’t bump a horse with them?? I watched my guy playing with another gelding and they play rough and I hoped a tooth wouldn’t get knocked out and you guys worry about BUMPING with a spur that is not sharp but a 3/8th well rounded prong. And I say I used it harder at times after he learns and I want to speed up the hind end to keep him square?
What is harder? What is bumping? If I said I carried a whip would it mean I whip him almost to death?
You guys are just out to lunch. A really mouthy person , the know it all at the barn I was boarding at started her horse two years ago this comming April 1st , 2 years and she still can’t ride him but she knows it all, does all sorts of ground work and the sad sad part is she spent almost $3000 for 3 months with a very natural horseman.
Another guy at the barn is having his horse trained by a student of this natural horse trainer and I asked him if he is riding his horse yet… Yes , we have been on him 32 times but we have not yet started to pull a rein. We just mount him and let him wander the round pen but someday we will start him turning. Don’t want to wrench on the mouth by asking for such a thing as a turn or halt.
I am sure all this twirling of the lead rope will eventually pay off but I want it in this lifetime, not in the next.
Have a nice wekend[/QUOTE]
Ahh, so you can dish it out, but you can’t take it? Well, now that doesn’t seem fair. If you’re going to make free with the insults and imply that everyone who disagrees with you can’t ride, then don’t be surprised when people make assumptions about you in return. The truth is there’s a million different ways to train a horse, and ALL methods have their advantages and disadvantages. ALL. Including yours.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with bumping with a spur. Hell, there’s nothing wrong with – as one poster’s trainer said – “making your spurs meet in the middle” occasionally. On a broke horse who knows what you want. There’s a time and a place for that sort of thing, and it’s certainly not abusive (in most cases).
In my opinion, that time and place is not when you’re teaching the horse a new movement. NOT because it’s abusive, but because there are other ways that get the same, or better, results.
You said you haven’t had any formal training, but surely you’ve seen some good trainers in your time. Have you ever seen one teach a horse to sidepass with precision and lightness in 10 minutes? I have. He didn’t start off hard and get lighter. He started off light and got lighter. There were no spurs involved. He did it by controlling the direction of the horse’s front and hind end separately, then putting them together, then adding a leg cue. The horse learned the movement one step at a time, without making mistakes.
While I don’t have that level of finesse myself, I had enough to get the same job done on my own horse in a couple of half hour sessions. From there on it was just a matter of refining the control and speeding up the movement.
Given that having the horse sidepass willingly off a whisper quiet leg cue is the goal, I can’t think of any reason at all why starting rough would be preferable to starting light. You can get the same results in the same amount of time, and you can keep the horse from making mistakes (like, say, lack of squareness) right from the beginning rather than having to go back and correct them later on.
I know you’re not a fan of formal training, but if you ever change your mind, my barn gives some really excellent clinics. Just thought I’d throw that out there since you’re near my area (I think). A little finesse can go a long way, especially when you start with a base of common sense and the gumption to get things done.
