Looking at Other Trainers...

Post from mid-November, just after I came back from Equine Affaire...


Hi all!

Well, I spent the past 4 days practically living at Equine Affaire, but I'm home now! I had a really great time and I bought a ton of great stuff, too! The clinics, I felt, were a bit sub-par compared to other years, but I did find my way into a Kenny Harlow clinic on "Rearing, Bucking and Spinning, Gaining Control in Potentially Dangerous Situations" because Cloud's, well, been a little, um, bucking. I know it's just LB bordom, but I wanted some insight on how to quickly gain control. Up till this point, I'd never heard of Kenny Harlow. Man was I in for a treat!!

I'd been to another "natural" clinic and, while the lady had some good ideas, she was dry as toast. I mean, falling-asleep-I'm-so-bored dry. This guy though, Mr. Harlow, was really fun to watch. He was dynamic - always asking if we (the audience) had questions, treating everything as a game, lots of stuff -- it was a blast! Anyway, he was demonstrating preparation for riding techniques. Now, let me back up to say that, although Cloud and I are doing really well and advancing well on the ground, we're not doing well riding. I mean, I can trail ride and everything, but FQ, HQ and lateral (sideways) movements have been almost impossible. Cloud never got them and I didn't know how to teach him. Anyway, Mr. Harlow was demonstrating how to prepare your horse for those movements from the ground, using only the bit.

He's a really natural guy -- refuses to use anything harsher than a snaffle, able to calm spooky horses in a single bound, treats everything as a game (Yesterday, he had the horse's owner get on and learn what he was doing. Once they were good with that, he galloped over to her, whacked her on the back, said "you're it" and galloped off!! It was so funny!!) -- and what he was doing just made sense to me. So much so that I went to his session today for preparation, took lots of notes, and then headed to the barn. It was a ... COMPLETE SUCESS! Funny how things just click like that. Cloud was totally interested, learning and we had a GREAT riding session; although most of it was on the ground.

Now, I belive Mr. Harlow is a traditional cowboy in his groundwork techniques.. roundpenning and the like.. but in preparing for riding, the guy knows his stuff! But don't worry, I'm not changing camps! I don't think I could have understood it without my background in PNH -- or at least I wouldn't have been so sucessful. And I don't think he provides such a complete foundation as PNH. What I thought was cool was that I'm getting Savvy enough to know what can work and what will confuse my horse -- not that I'm there yet, but I think there's hope for me!

The other thing I learned at EA: NO ONE is as well-rounded as P&L! I went to a saddle fitting demo and the guy was explaining things very similiarly to P&L -- but this guy dosn't train, teach, investigate feeding programs, learn about learning, teach about fear, &c, &c, &c. There are lots of people who SPECIALIZE in one of those areas, but I've never seen another person who can do it all at once! Very cool!!!