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Post by elisabeth on Jul 23, 2008 11:30:44 GMT -6
... and for anyone else who's going to be visiting London this October. Not directly LBH-related, but it could be illuminating: on Wednesday October 22nd, at 3pm, the National Theatre is going to host a display of horse-whispering -- with a real horse.
It's in conjunction with their current production of War Horse (about a WW1 cavalry horse -- so there's a tenuous connection for us at least!) and here's what they say about it:
"A unique chance to see the celebrated 'Man Who Listens to Horses', Monty Roberts, and the horse psychologist, Kelly Marks, demonstrating their world-renowned equine training techniques with a real horse and one of the War Horse puppets, live on the Olivier stage."
There are several mentions in the LBH literature of the importance of training cavalry horses by kindness ... so who knows, these methods may not be so very different from those used in the 7th Cavalry. But even if they're nothing like, it should be a very interesting session, I think.
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Post by clw on Jul 23, 2008 19:04:18 GMT -6
Typical Roberts, but he has at the very least made a higher profile for the gentler ways of training. For that he deserves credit. But the great ones, the really great ones like Buck Brannaman and Ray Hunt just get on with it and keep turning out great horses. Their goals aren't rich and famous. I'll bet Mr. Roberts puts on an wonderful show -- even if his 'autobiography' is a bit embellished. If you've never seen these things done before, they will amaze you.
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Post by biggordie on Jul 23, 2008 21:48:25 GMT -6
Lewis Edward Nolan, he of the Charge of the Light Brigade fame, wrote two books - one of which was about the training of cavalry horses. Nolan was a proponent of the "treat 'em with kindness" theory of training, which apparently was something of a novelty in the mid 19th century - at least novel enough to warrant a book.
In my three or four hundred years of experience, I have yet to see anyone who attempted to either "break" or to train a horse through intimidation or physical violence, although I am certain such clods exist. I always found that love and kisses worked best, with carrots a near-run third, and I could never understand what all the hype was about this "horse whisperer."
Most everybody I knew around animals of any kind, including horses, talked to them in normal tones, just as if they could all speak English [or whatever], and told them exactly what was about to happen and what was expected of them.
I must admit that I once bit a horse on the ear - hard - after he bit me on the shoulder; but I immediately apologized to him and asked that we let bygones be bygones. There was no more biting on either side.
Some horsemen/women are better at detailed training than are others, and as clw says, seeing a very-well-trained horse "perform" can be amazing and enthralling. Think dressage, Trigger and stunt animals all rolled into one.
Gordie
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Post by BrokenSword on Jul 24, 2008 7:18:11 GMT -6
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Post by conz on Jul 24, 2008 7:59:53 GMT -6
Typical Roberts, but he has at the very least made a higher profile for the gentler ways of training. For that he deserves credit. But the great ones, the really great ones like Buck Brannaman and Ray Hunt just get on with it and keep turning out great horses. Their goals aren't rich and famous. I'll bet Mr. Roberts puts on an wonderful show -- even if his 'autobiography' is a bit embellished. If you've never seen these things done before, they will amaze you. clw, I'm with you. Pat Parelli is up there in the spot light too, but I like his approach better, even if he is getting too rich. <g> These trainers have been around throughout the ages, from Xenophon onward. They use intuitive "horse sense" and psychology to modify horse behaviors and attitudes...the old carrot and stick approach, with both being gentle...not too much carrot and more guidance than beating, to be sure. As you mentioned, several western horsemen, including many Native American horse trainers, excel in this time-honored practice. For some reason it doesn't translate into book-written training methods very easily, and so as we "modernized" equitation we deemphasized this aspect of horsemanship. But some are out there, like Roberts and Parelli, still trying to remind us of the foundation of the relationship between horse and man (and woman!). Clair |
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Post by clw on Jul 24, 2008 8:26:07 GMT -6
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Post by runaheap on Sept 5, 2008 13:47:01 GMT -6
Both of them are pretty danged incredible.
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"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they
