The Horse Training Series of Books
Like me, you have undoubtedly heard stories of old time horse training methods that brutalize the horse and truly "break" him. Even today, your farrier or veterinarian could tell you of horse owners who try to brow beat horses into submission and think they are training the horse. Yes, the past had its adherents to the methods that were cruel and abusive. Some of today's trainers were witness to such methods, just a generation past, and were so traumatized themselves (to say nothing of the poor horses) that they developed a training method that brought real communication between horse and trainer that evolved into what is now called "Natural Horsemanship". Trainers of previous generations did not all universally use brutal training techniques. This website will introduce you to a horse trainer, Jesse Beery, who communicated good habits to the horse using kindness and produced contented horses who understood what was required of them and were compliant to their owners' requests through willingness, not fear.
Throughout these books, you will find an incredible amount of detailed and useful information on horse training. You may be surprised at how similar the training techniques are to the methods of today's horse trainer. This web site is a reproduction of a correspondence course offered by Jesse Beery, a renowned horse trainer who wrote books, gave demonstrations of amazing horse training feats and was in great demand as a horse trainer in the early part of the 20th century.
Book One: Colt Training - FREE
Book 1, Colt Training, is offered to you, in its entirety, free of charge. The effort involved to reproduce this 53 page book, the first in a series of 8 books, was time consuming and labor intensive but I want you to see the value of this series both in terms of the valuable lessons it presents as well as the amazing illustrations. As it turns out, the web version I have produced is much more easily read and the illustrations much cleaner and clearer than the yellowed pages of the original work. You can view the entire Colt Training book for free online, and you can also download a Word version which is in a better format for printing. Use the links on the left to read Booke One.
Professor Beery's methods of horse training were way ahead of his time. He dismissed cruelty and rough handling of horses as unnecessary and ineffective and degrading to the human who used such methods. He told his apprentices to train the horse so that he would know who was his master and that his master would never hurt him. Beery's method was to create good habits and his message is that a well-mannered horse is one that has good habits not one that has reasoned.
As you go through the Colt Training lessons, notice the similarities between Beery's methods and the methods used by today's respected trainers. Instead of a round pen as used today, Beery used a square pen made of wood. Instead of a coil of rope to keep a horse moving in the pen, Beery uses a lunge whip. These are slight modifications but the concept is the same. Colt Training and the lessons in correcting bad habits and behavior problems reveal the secrets of present day "horse whisperers".
If you are interested in horse training techniques either for practical reasons or you simply would like a taste of history from the standpoint of a traveling horse trainer of the late 19th century, early 20th century, I invite you to read and absorb Book 1, Colt Training and if you would like to see the rest of the series, the subsequent 7 books are available for a small charge.
Horse Training Books 2 through 8 - buy now and download now ^ TOPPackage Deal: Buy all Eight Books at a Discount