PRIVATE LESSONS and CLINICS
at
BOWERS FARM

“Training is life” is a famous line used by many who train horses for a living. For me, learning to train horses and people is one of life’s more interesting pursuits. I am ceaselessly amazed at the attention and interest people show when watching a person train a horse, or train a horse trainer. One of the reasons people are so captivated by training is probably because training, as a pursuit, is so rare these days. Our culture has so convenienced ourselves with the combustion engine that we no longer need to know how to train animals in order to survive. Needing to know how to train in order to survive was a human requirement for most members of society until just a few decades ago. Now we don’t need to know much of anything about training skills, but what has that lack of skill cost us individually and collectively?

There are many different approaches that have been written about concerning the human- to-horse relationship. While many today apparently feel that horses and humans (and bugs, and trees, and God) are equal, I believe differently. I believe that God created all that we see, and that he gave man (and woman) the unique position of being beneficent leaders of all animals. It is right and well for a human to be a kind and loving leader to the horse. When people compromise their high state and elevate the lower state of the horse by calling horses “equal”, they knowingly or unknowingly rage against God’s plan, producing the kind of detrimental results that are often seen when horses and humans get together. I believe that the human should be the leader of the horse, for the good of the horse and for the good of the human.

Among the few who do yet train, there is often seen a discouraging substitution of control techniques in the place of training techniques. In other words, instead of carefully and peacefully training willing and respectful cooperation, many “trainers” use convenient techniques that start and end with forced control, where the subject doesn’t get to choose how to behave, they only get “controlled” by severe methods and severe restraints. This is training that leads to “slavery”. When the subject isn’t given a chance to relate back to the trainer in any meaningful way, the subject naturally feels undervalued and forced. This brings on “superficially controlled, but deeply disturbed” behavior. Look around at most any event where horses and people are present, and you’ll see plenty of slaves, their masters, and the resulting frustration and rebellion.

Many trainers of draft and driving horses use a method of training that is more correctly called "breaking". In this method, the subject is hurried to being hitched so that the subject's greatest -ever rebellion is provoked. Horses that don't like this system of being broke are dealt with by harsh restraints and long hours of day after day hard work until they give up. A major problem with most broke horses is that they move forward because of fear. Fear is what gets the work done - it's what keeps horses forging ahead with pressure on the reins hour after hour. If you give a broke horse a couple of days off from work, you usually find that the horse has recovered enough the next time you hitch that it is much more difficult to hold. An alternative reason for a horse to move forward is because of respect for the trainer/driver. Causing movement by respect instead of by fear requires that the trainer know a lot of things about being a good trainer.

My mission is to show people how to think like a good trainer. A good trainer sees the tremendous potential in every animal and human that was created. “Bad” behavior is not seen as purposeless, but as strong communication that the subject doesn’t feel right about how he or she has been related to. Punishment and bribery are used by many people when they try to train, but the good trainer refrains from those techniques entirely, and is instead adept at the use of positive and negative reinforcement. Skillful use of reinforcement requires the use of “timing” - at a level of sensitivity that most people are completely incapable of, at first. He or she expects good results, and is always ready to reinforce the subject when it makes positive decisions; not inclined to force compliance with irrelevant techniques. A good trainer is principle oriented, not goal oriented. Good trainers know that mechanically or irrelevantly forcing the execution of a goal the subject wasn’t prepared for, is a sure way to get poor performance. A good trainer makes the greatest improvements by being gracefully forgiving of past behavior, and knows the benefit of persistently and hopefully “starting over”.

My goal is to relieve horses and their trainers of the upset and frustration that comes from using and receiving inappropriate and non-relational techniques. I have been training horses for other horse owners for all of my adult life, more than thirty years. My specialty has always been the gentle starting of all breeds of horses for riding mostly, but also for driving. Most of the saddle horses have been Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and Morgans, with plenty of Warmbloods and more rare breeds in all sizes from Shetland to Shire. I’ve even trained a North American Caribou to be driven and a Brahma-cross steer to be ridden! I’m not a breed loyalist. Most of my customers have been people who ride english, but, living in Colorado, I have also trained a lot of western horses.

I give lessons here at the farm, Monday through Friday, by appointment. Most people bring their own horse(s) for a lesson, but we can use my horses if that works better for the student. My current lesson rate is $100 per hour, with most customers taking a one or two hour lesson once a week, then going home to practice what they have learned.