Good Natural Horsemanship books

[Karie]

Do you guys recomend any? I was looking in to Parreli but his stuff was way out of my budget so does any one know of some good but not to expensive books? Maybe even a training guide for yearlings?

Thanks

[cvb]

Karie

you don't say where (country) you are in the middle of ? There are "starting" books (like John Lyons etc) but most NH clinicians/trainers advise you to learn the principles with a started horse and only do your own starting later.

And I don't know from what you said whether you have already done that or not ?

We had our latest purchase backed by a Silversands person. Even then I have had to use a great deal of the Savvy I learnt on our older horses to work out certain things. A young horse has had a life where they get to do what they want - and it can take some pretty good savvy to convince them they want to change that !

Its been an interesting challenge and one I have definately not always been right first time on (tho who is ?) - I've had to work by trial and experiment and having the background of more experienced settled horses helps with that.

IMHO.

Gonna stop now as I'm starting to preach :rolleyes:

[Karie]

, i live in Central america so classes on NH are very limited, infact ive never heard of one down here.

The reason i posted these questions is because I want to explore the different ways of training. I have a lot of interests in NH so i though id just ask for some good books that explain the method. I also have a yearling right now and im trying to look for a good way to train him.

[cvb]

Karie

Okky dokky. There are some UK NH folk - like Richard Maxwell's "from Birth to Backing" that might be of interest
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birth-Backing-Complete-Handling-Horse/dp/0715312847/sr=8-1/qid=1159470654/ref=pd_ka_1/202-1448528-5084617?ie=UTF8&s=books

or JUS folk:John Lyons "bringing up baby"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Lyons-Bringing-Baby-Ground-Work/dp/1929164122/sr=1-8/qid=1159470689/ref=sr_1_8/202-1448528-5084617?ie=UTF8&s=books

I don't have either of them as I haven't had a youngster to deal with. But it might fit what you are after ?

[Karie]

ok, thanks

[sheryl]

Hi Karie,
Here is a really good website to start with, that someone put on this forum the other day. I have put it in my list of favourites.http://www.harmony-project.net/home.aspx#shop

I am also working on a part T/B youngster. He is now 3 yrs old but I've had him nearly 2 yrs. I have had quite a few challenges along the way!!

I have got by, by reading EVERYTHING!! Different trainers have different ways, but if you read all you can, you can come to your own conclussions.

However you start your baby, it is most important to establish good groundwork skills. This is the basis of everything to come, and will make your job a lot easier in the future.

Make sure your horse respects you as his leader at all times. He may quite often challenge this role, but it is very important that you don't ever let him get an upper hand. Reprimand immediately when he over steps the mark. And, always praise for the tiniest of good behaviour. You have to be completely consistent every day.

I have quite a few books on training, but one of my favourites is "Breaking And Training Your Horse" by Sheila Roughton.

Feel free to PM me. Perhaps we could help eachother along the way!!!

[Shadowlark]

This isn't really for baby.. although you can apply the same principals..

Clinton Andersons - Downunder Horsemanship.

I had read several books and liked them well enough - I LOVE Chris Irwin's books exp. dancing with your dark horse. Nothing will make you more concious of every move you make around hroses then his stuff...HOWEVER

For simplicity sake - Clinton's is the best i have seen. Straight forward, direct, in photos - here is how - here is why. Then he has one english and one western student going thru all of it, and they are interviewed about what did and didn't work and things that helped them/made it easier for them.

What I REALLY liked was.. the lack of "You must buy" - or you must have a round pen to get anywhere. Everyone else it's buy buy buy. For clinton's stuff you need a rope halter, a long lead rope and a 4 ft stick. Presto away you go.

I also found there was less room for error for a novice. I loaned it to a novice who had made a mess of things with her mare in the round pen - and she took it home read it, came back worked thru some things.. went and got her own copy and has been very successful with it.

just some thoughts from someone with a shelffull of books!

[Karie]

thanks, and maybe ill take you up on that, i dont have many friends where i live to talk about things like that.

Thanks

[jenren!!]

I have Parelli Natural Horsemanship book - pretty good and not expensive. I also have 'Groundwork Training for your horse' which is excellent! And Kelly Marks Perfect Manners. All really good. If you're looking into different methods the groundwork one is best.

[alfi-social]

I also have the Groundwork Training one and find it very good.
GGenerally I find that anything written by Mark Rashid, Lucy Rees, Michael Peace will give anyone the best idea of a good attitude to have with horses.
Ross and Heather Simpson are very good too.
Ross is an ex Parelli person as he came to see (with Heathers help perhaps) that positive reinforcement is the best way to train horses.
Clicker training is a great tool for anywhere I get stuck.
Kelly Marks books are really good too.

One thing I found when my daughter and I backed our first unhandled 4 year old was that doing everything amongst our other backed horses was the quickest and most effective way for the baby to learn. Once we had established a friendship with him he was there hovering around while the others were being groomed, feet done, saddled and unsaddled- and he just couldn't wait.
We had no problems at all with backing him because it was no big deal to the others and they showed him how to behave.So I think they backed him as much as we did! He's the most laidback non spooky boy around (apart from his horrible disrespect for white tape GRRRRRR..........! Alfi

[LodgeRopes]

karie, it is all so difficult.......
we have all subscribed to a style, then broke away from that docterine.....
CVB has pointed you in the right direction.
Other forum members have given good advice.
But it is your horse, you need to make decisions based on what feels right for you and the foal.

cheers

[KateWooten]

I don't know if it's Natural Horsemanship or not, but I learnt a lot - to get started - by using Clinton Anderson's Daownunder Horsemanship. The basic theory is easy to grasp and well-explained, but more importantly, unlike any of the other big name trainers ... his $20 book gets you straight out there, and gives you step-by-step, can't go wrong, big pictures that explain it - exercises for you to get started.

Now, you can't stick religiously to his 'program' at this stage, all you can do is use his base groundwork exercises to go out there and start having fun, while setting the guidelines of respect for your future working with your youngster.

The basic principle of establishing respect by moving their feet, is fairly common to all good horsemanship 'methods' I think .. they all differ in subtelty, and in what, exactly they focus on ... like CA goes deep into the western reining discipline in later riding series, where parelli concentrates on getting a horse to stand with all 4 feet on a coffee-table, neither of which a big on my radar, so later on, you have to think a little more about where you want to go later on in the relationship.

I know more now, having talked to people here, BUT I still maintain that if you've never gone down this sort of route before, and you are a bit isolated, then CA's book gives you a good introduction from which to be able to judge and understand the more subtle points from other horsemen. CA is really very accessible - by far the most accessible I've read. That means it is a bit simplistic, so you WILL want to look for something more after a year or so.

I started my first horse last year, just by using his book - I don't have other people around to talk things over with either - and that worked out fine. You don't need any expensive equipment - I just used a piece of string from home depot to tie a rope halter, and my 'handy stick' was just that - a stick, which was pretty handy. :)

[lolahutt]

Try eBay!!!