See our Why Relationship First Works
The Soul of a Horse website – The “Horsemanship page”
Monty Roberts and Join up: http://www.montyroberts.com– Please start here! Or at Monty’s Equus Online University which is terrific and probably the best Equine learning value out there on the internet (Watch the Join-Up lesson and the Special Event lesson. Inspiring!). This is where you get the relationship right with your horse. Where you learn to give him the choice of whether or not to trust you. Where everything changes when he does. Please, do this. Learn Monty’s Join-Up method, either from his Online University, his books, or DVDs. Watching his Join-Up DVD was probably our single most pivotal experience in our very short journey with horses. Even if you’ve owned your horse forever, go back to the beginning and execute a Join Up with your horse or horses. You’ll find that when you unconditionally offer choice to your horse and he chooses you, everything changes. You become a member of the herd, and your horse’s leader, and with that goes responsibility on his part as well as yours. Even if you don’t own horses, it is absolutely fascinating to watch Monty put a saddle and a rider on a completely unbroken horse in less than thirty minutes (unedited!). We’ve also watched and used Monty’s Dually Training Halter DVD and his Load-Up trailering DVD. And we loved his books: The Man Who Listens to Horses, The Horses in My Life, From My Hands to Yours, and Shy Boy. Monty is a very impressive man who cares a great deal for horses.
http://www.imagineahorse.com– This is Allen Pogue and Suzanne De Laurentis’ site. I cannot recommend strongly enough that everyone who leaves this eBook Nugget ready to take the next step with treats and vocabulary should visit this site and start collecting Allen’s DVDs (he also sells big red circus balls). Because of his liberty work with multiple horses Allen has sort of been cast as a trick trainer, but he’s so much more than that. It’s all about relationship and foundation. We are dumbfounded by how Allen’s horses treat him and try for him. His work with newborn foals and young horses is so logical and powerful that you should study it even if you never intend to own a horse. Allen says, “With my young horses, by the time they are three years old they are so mentally mature that saddling and riding is absolutely undramatic.” He has taken Dr. Robert M. Miller’s book Imprint Training of the Newborn Foal to a new and exponential level.
Frederick Pignon – This man is amazing and has taken relationship and bond with his horses to an astounding new level. Click his name above and watch the video of his show with three beautiful black Lusitano stallions, all at liberty. This show would border on the miraculous if they were all geldings, but they’re not. They’re stallions. Most of us will never achieve the level of bond Frederick has achieved with his horses but it’s inspiring to know that it’s possible, and to see what the horse-human relationship is capable of becoming. Frederick believes in true partnership with his horses, he believes in making every training session fun not work, he encourages the horses to offer their ideas, and he uses treats. When Kathleen read his book Gallop to Freedom her response to me was simply, “Can we just move in with them?”
Natural Horsemanship: This is the current buzz word for those who train horses or teach humans the training of horses without any use of fear, cruelty, threats, aggression, or pain. The philosophy is growing like wildfire, and why shouldn’t it? If you can accomplish everything you could ever hope for with your horse and still have a terrific relationship with him or her, and be respected as a leader, not feared as a dominant predator, why wouldn’t you? As with any broadly based general philosophy, there are many differing schools of thought on what is important and what isn’t, what works well and what doesn’t. Which of these works best for you, I believe, depends a great deal on how you learn, and how much reinforcement and structure you need. In our beginnings, we more or less shuffled together Monty Roberts (above) and the next two whose websites are listed below, favoring one source for this and another for that. But beginning with Monty’s Join-Up. Often, this gave us an opportunity to see how different programs handle the same topic, which enriches insight. But, ultimately, they all end up at the same place: When you have a good relationship with your horse that began with choice, when you are respected as your horse’s leader, when you truly care for your horse, then, before too long, you will be able to figure out for yourself the best communication to evoke any particular objective. These programs, as written, or taped on DVD, merely give you a structured format to follow that will take you to that goal.
http://www.parelli.com– Pat and Linda Parelli have turned their teaching methods into a fully accredited college curriculum. We have four of their home DVD courses: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Liberty & Horse Behavior. We recommend them all, but especially the first three. Often, they do run on, dragging out points much longer than perhaps necessary, but we’ve found, particularly in the early days, that knowledge gained through such saturation always bubbles up to present itself at the most opportune moments. In other words, it’s good. Soak it up. It’ll pay dividends later. Linda is a good instructor, especially in the first three programs, and Pat is one of the most amazing horsemen I’ve ever seen. His antics are inspirational for me. Not that I will ever duplicate any of them, but knowing that it’s possible is very affirming. And watching him with a newborn foal is just fantastic. The difficulty for us with Liberty & Horse Behavior (besides its price) is on disk 5 whereon Linda consumes almost three hours to load an inconsistent horse into a trailer. Her belief is that the horse should not be made to do anything, he should discover it on his own. I believe there’s another option. As Monty Roberts teaches, there is a big difference between making a horse do something and leading him through it, showing him that it’s okay, that his trust in you is valid. Once you have joined up with him, and he trusts you, he is willing to take chances for you because of that trust, so long as you don’t abuse the trust. On Monty’s trailer-loading DVD Monty takes about one-tenth the time, and the horse (who was impossible to load before Monty) winds up loading himself from thirty feet away, happily, even playfully. And his trust in Monty has progressed as well, because he reached beyond his comfort zone and learned it was okay. His trust was confirmed. One thing the Parelli program stresses, in a way, is a followup to Monty Roberts’ Join-Up: you should spend a lot of time just hanging out with your horse. In the stall, in the pasture, wherever. Quality time, so to speak. No agenda, just hanging out. Very much a relationship enhancer. And don’t ever stomp straight over to your horse and slap on a halter. Wait. Let your horse come to you. It’s that choice thing again, and Monty or Pat and Linda Parelli can teach you how it works.
http://www.chrislombard.com/ – An amazing horseman and wonderful teacher. His DVD Beginning with the Horse puts relationship, leadership and trust into simple easy-to-understand terms.
http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com– This is Clinton Anderson’s site. Whereas the Parellis are very philosophically oriented, Clinton gets down to business with lots of detail and repetition. He is not very relationship oriented but could well be the best teacher of all. Get your relationship right and then go to Clinton for leadership and it’ll be 1+1=3. What exactly do I do to get my horse to back up? From the ground and from the saddle, he shows you precisely, over and over again. And when you’re in the arena or round pen and forget whether he used his left hand or right hand, or whether his finger was pointing up or down, it’s very easy to go straightaway to the answer on his DVDs. His programs are very task-oriented, and, again, there are a bunch of them. We have consumed his Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground, Series I through III and Riding with Confidence, Series I through III. All are multiple DVD sets, so there has been a lot of viewing and reviewing. For the most part, his tasks and the Parellis are much the same, though usually approached very differently. Both have served a purpose for us. We also loved his No Worries Tying DVD for use with his Australian Tie Ring, which truly eliminates pull-back problems in minutes! And on this one he demonstrates terrific desensitizing techniques. Clinton is the only two-time winner of the Road to the Horse competition, in which three top natural-horsemanship clinicians are given unbroken horses and a mere three hours to be riding and performing specified tasks. Those DVDs are terrific! And Clinton’s Australian accent is also fun to listen to… mate.
The three programs above have built our natural horsemanship foundation, and we are in their debt. The following are a few others you should probably check out, each featuring a highly respected clinician, and all well known for their care and concern for horses.
http://www.robertmmiller.com– Dr. Robert M. Miller is an equine veterinarian and world renowned speaker and author on horse behavior and natural horsemanship. I think his name comes up more often in these circles than anyone else’s. His first book, Imprint Training of the Newborn Foal is now a bible of the horse world. He’s not really a trainer, per se, but a phenomenal resource on horse behavior. He will show you the route to “the bond.” You must visit his website. Without Dr. Miller and Allen Pogue (above) our baby Stormy would never be what she is.
Stacy Westfall
http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com
When I grow up I want to be Stacy Westfall :)
——
The story of our journey with horses (to date) is told in the two books that follow: the national best seller The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd and its sequel Born Wild – The Soul of a Horse.
And what a story it is as two novices without a clue stumble and bumble their way through the learning process so that hopefully you won’t have to. If you haven’t read both of these books already please do because with that reading, I believe, will come not just the knowledge of discovery but the passion and the excitement to cause you to commit to your journey with horses, to do for the horse without waiver so that your relationship and experience will be with loving, happy and healthy horses who are willing partners and who never stop trying for you. Horses like ours.
Read the highly acclaimed best selling sequel to the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse – Life Lessons from the Herd
#1 Amazon Best Seller
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Order Personally Inscribed Copies of Born Wild – $15
Order Both The Soul of a Horse & Born Wild – Save 20%
Both Personally Inscribed – $24
Please list the names for each inscription in the “instructions to Seller” field as you check out!
Read More About Born Wild
Read More About The Soul of a Horse
Watch The Soul of a Horse Trailer
Watch the Born Wild Trailer
But first read the National Best Seller that started it all:
Amazon & Kindle
Barnes & Noble & NOOKbook
Apple iBooks
Order Personally Inscribed Copies of The Soul of a Horse – $15
Order Both The Soul of a Horse & Born Wild – Save 20%
Both Personally Inscribed – $24
Please list the names for each inscription in the “instructions to Seller” field as you check out!
Read More About Born Wild
Read More About The Soul of a Horse
Watch The Soul of a Horse Trailer
Watch the Born Wild Trailer
“Joe Camp is a master storyteller.” – The New York Times
“One cannot help but be touched by Camp’s love and sympathy for animals and by his eloquence on the subject.” – Michael Korda, The Washington Post
“Joe Camp is a natural when it comes to understanding how animals tick and a genius at telling us their story. His books are must-reads for those who love animals of any species.” – Monty Roberts – Author of New York Timers Best-seller The Man Who Listens to Horses
“Camp’s tightly-written, simply-designed and powerfully drawn chapters often read like short stories that flow from the heart.” Jack L. Kennedy – The Joplin Independent
“Joe Camp is a gifted storyteller and the results are magical. Joe entertains, educates and empowers, baring his own soul while articulating keystone principles of a modern revolution in horsemanship.” – Rick Lamb – TV/Radio host – The Horse Show
Follow our latest journey with two amazing new arrivals from the wild. Kathleen’s terrific photos are worth the click.
In chronological order:
What an Extraordinary Weekend!
Firestorm’s Amazing First Day in the Playpen
No-Agenda Time – So Much Value!
An Amazing Birthday Gift from a Wild Mustang!
Saffron and Firestorm – Progress and Photos – Lots of Both!
Two Mustangs – Three Mind-Boggling Months!
For more current posts go to the blog homepage and scroll down
Follow Our Entire Journey
From no horses and no clue to stumbling through mistakes, fear, fascination and frustration on a collision course with the ultimate discovery that something was very wrong in the world of horses.
Read the National Best Seller
The Soul of a Horse
Life Lessons from the Herd
…and the highly acclaimed…
The Soul of a Horse Blogged
The Journey Continues
Go to TheSoulOfaHorse.com Homepage
Visit The Soul of a Horse Channel on YouTube
