Saddling A Horse For The First Time – Part 2

7UntitledHere’s another video from the Wild Colt-Breaking clinic with Daryl Gibb. These colts had been running wild on Daryl’s friend’s pasture of a couple hundred acres; Daryl drove them into a stock trailer and brought them to the clinic. They had never been handled or haltered before.

Just like the Mustang Challenge and similar events, it’s astounding how much you can do with a horse in one day. HOWEVER, if you look beneath the apparent, physical reality of the horse, you may notice that the horse has dissociated from it’s body. It’s lights are on, nobody’s home time!

If you think about it, it’s kind of crazy to take a horse that’s never even been touched by a human and “train” it wear a saddle, bridle and have a human on it’s back in one day!

WHAT has to happen to the psyche and soul of that horse for such momentous events to take place, one after the other, in only a day or two? Is this really teaching, or is it trauma and breaking a horse to learned helplessness?

And when did it become the marker of a great trainer to be able to do this in only a day or two? I took 6 months to get on my semi-feral mare’s back for the first time – when she was lying down, with no tack whatsoever! And she was so relaxed she then rolled over onto her side for some deep REM sleep.

Well, anyway, I’m not saying my approach is for everybody. So if you like the natural horsemanship approach, then Daryl Gibb is one of the kinder, gentler trainers who gives the horses more time than many do, with constant reassurance.

As Daryl says in the video:

“If we would just be a little bit more happy with less, and set our goals smaller, we would actually go up faster.”

Saddling A Horse For The First Time with Daryl Gibb – Part 2


 
p.s. Click here if you missed Part 1. Part 1 is all about the ground work and getting the horse familiarized with the saddle, pad, moving around, touching all areas, noise, etc. and is a CRUCIAL part of having your horse accept the saddle without so much fear.

Saddling A Horse For The First Time – Part 2

3 thoughts on “Saddling A Horse For The First Time – Part 2

  • November 24, 2018 at 8:04 pm
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    I can’t watch videos like this anymore. It hurts too much. I get so angry for those horses (which says a lot about me) I can’t handle it. When I watch people interact with animals this way I just think, “didn’t they ask? Don’t they see what they’re doing?” but they don’t. I know I didn’t, at least not fully/consciously.

    Reply
    • November 24, 2018 at 8:45 pm
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      I know – I thought long and hard about whether to keep these posts/videos. At the time I had ‘surrendered’ to learning natural horsemanship. And when I learn something I adopt ‘beginner mind’ and immerse. LATER I unpack things and see how I feel about it, what I think about it. I did not participate in this clinic, just audited it. I was so disturbed by what one of the wildies went through in this clinic I nearly bought her afterwards.

      BUT, for people who are sold on ‘natural horsemanship’ – this guy is one of the quietest, gentlest trainers, especially in Canada. So I decided to keep this information available. The people who watch/learn from this video are eons away from the Horse Listener method, or rather, non-method! But this is still much better than a lot of natural horsemanship that is out there. Sometimes you gotta meet people where they’re at. And then help them move ever so slowly along the path to emancipation – if they so desire.

      Reply

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