KaraKum Stud Blog | Dangerous places II Training the Teke, introduction

Monday 5th, September 2005

Dangerous places II Training the Teke, introduction 09/05/2005 09:48 AM

Another dangerous place for the horse is in the hands of the unexperienced/uneducated/ignorant trainer. I would like to begin with encouraging every prospective horse buyer to make sure to budget more money on a trainer than for the horse you plan to buy.
Equus caballus is man made, but still like us, have many traits from their forefathers that they still express. This eventhoug the domestication of the horse probably took place more than 7000 years ago. The traits express themselves as both unwanted and wanted behaviours, the flight instinct, to run away from anything dangerous is used by us in training to make the horses perform, but the instict sometimes causes problems when the horse tries to escape from things that scare them but not us. We have all been surprised by the horse that suddenly jumps for a stupid stone in the forest.

Horses react immediately to stimuli, they cannot figure out and plan ahead, for example a horse does not see his rider coming with the saddle and think "today I'm going to be really, really bad to my rider and throw him off" WE can think that the horse can think so but the horse cannot.

If you are later thrown off it has to do with something that happened in that moment.

Horses are easy to educate though, an animal that doesn't have the ability to learn from experience will not live for long and horses are therefore easy to, with repeated commands, to react in certain ways to certain commands. We use treats and punishment to make the horses do what we want them to do.

Akhal-Tekes belong to the hotbloods, that have been selectively bred for speed, and have faster reactions than the warmbloods. This consequence of this is that they can be a little bit more difficult to train and I therefore seldom recommend the Akhal-Teke as a beginners horse unless you are prepared to work with an experienced trainer.

The forefathers to Equus Caballus where animals of prey, they had to be observant, fast and also not show any pain or weakness. The predator always picks out the weakest animal in a herd and horses always try to not show any lameness or irregulaties in order not to be picked out by the predators. This trait has caused very much problems for the horse. Humans normally express pain loud and clear. And many of us expect the horses to do the same thing.
But again, horses are not human beings!

Coldbloods are much tougher in not expressing pain than the hotbloods, for example colic is more dangerous for a coldblood as they normally go longer with symptoms than hotbloods and therefore are in much more danger when you finally see that something is wrong withyour horse. Hotbloods are more sensitive and therefore more easy to read. Warmbloods are in between and I think pay quite a high price for that, just look at the increasing back problems of the warmbloods.

But as a rule the horse will run until he falls down unless he is stopped. You as a rider and trainer is responsible for detecting early signs of illness or pain in your horse. YOU will have to be observant because in most cases the horse will not tell you the damage is much worse than it would have to be.

If your horse tries to escape your aids, legs and bit, for example raise his head, do not use the more or less cruel methods that exist to prohibit the horse to do so, but examine your horse for pain instead, check out legs and back.

Be very observant with your horses, they do seldom do things to be bad, they often change their behaviour because something is wrong.

Now I have mentioned some basic facts about horses behaviour that surprisingly enough seems to be unknown to some people that call themselves trainers. They recommend one brutal method efter the other to make the horse do what you want to by force. Which is unnecessary, the horse wants to please, they want to do what you ask as long as they are given the possibility to do it. It is all about fairness. If you cannot communicate with your horse, do not punish your horse for your incapabilities. Take a step back and think, what did I do wrong. Horses are simple, they respond to stimuli.

The talented, ambitous horse is at risk here. And I include many Akhal-Tekes in this group. The typical Akhal-Teke is athletic, eager to please and prepared to work hard. But they are more sensitive to pain. I have seen far to many Akhal-Tekes that are asked to do so much more than they are prepared for, they are often asked, by rough methods to jump too high, collect too much for their age and ability. They do jump and they do collect, but they are never given the chance to perform on higher levels as older and fully educated and developed indivuals, they are often "retired" at the age of 9 or 10 years olds.

The most difficult horse to train is the talented horse. Why? Because the can and they want to do so much more than they cope with. If you have a young horse that is a jumping talent, do not jump it! Educate it properly and wisely with a good trainer until it is ready for the big classes. Stay away from trainers/breeders that offer 2 and 3 year olds that already jumps 150 cm fences. They are not supposed to do that. There are way to select the talented horse without destroying it at the same time.

Here again, the Akhal-Tekes are at risk, they are often talented and ambitous, and I would say that it sometimes kills them too early.

My advice, take is easy with you Akhal-Teke, invest in a good, educated trainer that is fair to the horse.

Comments :

1. maria09/19/2005 18:52:15

Jessica, we went to see a training session of Lipizanners in Vienna. I kept thinking - they are so EASY to keep as stallions. Well, that wasn't the only impression. They are easy because they are started at four and until that age they live in herds of many males, so the hierarchy is established before the humans come into the scene. But then someone told me that the training methods used are so harsh and that's why they look so obedient. It certainly doesn't look that way - the classical school looks so harmonious and they emphasise in the booklet how the rider has to adapt every day to the mood of the horse and often has to change his intentions to follow the horse's cues. What do you think? Do you know much about the training methods of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna?

2. Jessica09/20/2005 13:11:48

Maria,
Well, the art of riding and training have been discussed since we began using the horse as a riding animal. The Spanish Riding School, Cadre Noir etc are more or less still training their horses in accordance with Guerniéres principles (Ecole de Cavalerie) that by systematical education create a calm, worked through and obedient with comfortable movements. Is this system is good for hunting and show jumping Caprilli didn't think so.
Like with all ideologies they always sound good in printing but do not always work good in reality. I think that an art or method for riding that is suitable only for one type of horse is not that worked though. I think that the Eastern European/Asian/kossack light, free riding style more towards Caprilli type of training is better for the horse and defenitely works better for the Tekes. I would agree with Littauer though, that the classical art of riding is worth saving as it is beautiful to watch but that the system is not applicable for modern sports and riding.
You had the opportunity to see well trained horses educated under full time empoyed professional riders and of course you enjoyed it. But to cite Chamberlain "collection under a bad rider is like a razor in the hands of a monkey".

3. maria09/20/2005 18:48:19

Gosh, that's a lot of names! and lots of food for thought.

The thing is, they didn't seem to look unnatural in their collection. They were being ridden in snaffle bits, single bridle, and didn't look "strapped up".

In fact, I am sure you remember the MOST STRAPPED UP dressage horse any of us had ever seen - in that stable in Luxembourg. Remember that man on a big warmblood who held it's poor head in so tight, the horse could barely move it's shouders?

I remember one lesson I had with a very good rider here, she rides at the British National level. She walked in and told me to collect Altai. He, as usual, said "No" and I said "Well, it takes a bit of persuasion with him" and she said "He HAS TO" and came over and held the reins from the ground and made him look down and walked like this with us the whole lesson. Needless to say, I never had another lesson but I still admire her riding.

4. Debbie01/17/2006 00:33:43

For Maria, at the beginning of this thread: on the training methods used for Lipizzans. There is a book written years ago, maybe 15 or 20 years, called "My Flying White Horses". I forget the author but he at one time was in charge of a school for Lipizzans. He personally used gentle methods but was aware of other schools that used harsh methods and of course he deplored this; he said horses trained that way lose their joy in performing, but his horses retained it to an advanced age. He said it was customary to give the horse a lump of sugar at the end of a session, and if it did not like the way it had been treated it would refuse the sugar!

5. Debbie01/17/2006 00:37:47

P.S.: in his school it was considered a terrible rebuke if a horse refused your sugar!

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