My trainer and I co-purchased a three-year-old mare at auction. According to the breeder, she’d been living in a field with the herd, so no training at all.
Luckily she seems to have an excellent temperament. My trainer is advising me about starting her ground work, but I’d like your thoughts about some good books or other references I could use to avoid inadvertently skipping steps or making other mistakes.
I’m in this project for the learning, so any advice much appreciated.
Making Not Breaking by Cherry Hill
Not a book, but JMS does a series called the Madden Method on Youtube and some cover the breaking and starting of young horses. They do a great job with their videos (unsurprisingly).
“Schooling for Young Riders” by John Richard Young.
He decided to write a book about this. He bought an almost 2 year old stud colt (Arab/Welsh?) with absolutely no training out of the field.
His adventures breaking this colt to civilized behavior and riding under saddle are very helpful. He fully admits to his mistakes! His purpose was to have one of his two daughters learn how to train a young horse under his direction.
This ended up being my main go-to book when I bought weanling Arabian stud colts. I used some of his methods on my already saddle-broke and trained horses. This training book is different, there is no “oh just do this and the horse will do this guaranteed!” idiocy I found in other books.
For after the initial training I depended on “Schooling Your Horse” by Vladimir Littauer which lays out a pretty detailed training method for 9 months with the aim to have a safe horse to ride, jump, hunt and show.
I also consulted “Training Hunters, Jumpers and Hacks” by Harry Chamberlin a lot. This schooling course is longer, 2 years, and is aimed at training horses for cavalry officers who often ended up competing internationally. Very detailed instructions by a guy who was in charge of the Fort Riley cavalry school and who had trained hundreds of horses in his career.
With this really solid foundation you can go wherever you want to go with your horse later, as long as he remains sound of course.
You can find non-hard cover versions for much cheaper.
This book was my bible when I first started working with unbacked horses. I still use so much of what was in that book today. It is a light, educational read full of practical knowledge - from one of the best horse-starting families in the world.
Seconded. The Klimke book is excellent. Gives a great framework for approaching riding and training, for green horses as well as horses with more training
(I still cannot figure out how to reply to a comment, sorry for the double post!)
Thanks for these references–I will follow up. Turns out I have the Klimke book in my library–glanced at it when I first bought it and then forgot all about it. I will start there, wish me luck!
Pippa Funnell’s Training the Young Horse is also good.
I believe this book has the reference to giving the young horse fresh from the field 20 lbs of carrots weekly to help the horse learn to live in a box. Dobbin gives 5 stars. 10 out of 10 horses recommend!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
