It’s been a little while since our last blog post, but with good reason. I witnessed a horse training video online that I’ve wanted to blog on, but I’ve been waiting for the right words to describe it – no, I have the right words to describe it, I’ve been waiting for the right words to use that won’t get me sued for libel.* The person I would like to defame is a famous horse trainer that would certainly have the means and motivation to probably shut down this entire site, so I’ll let them remain nameless – but certainly not blameless.
We all know that a percentage of horse trainers are probably more qualified to take out your tonsils than train your horses. And frankly, even great trainers can have bad moments. But there are certain trainers that I wish all of us would just refuse to watch on RFDTV, refuse to buy their videos, refuse to go to their traveling tent circus clinics, refuse to buy their high priced carrot sticks, etc etc. Simply because point blank, these people need to be stopped. Much like our government, it’s yours and my dollars that are fueling the madness!
The (very prominent) trainer I saw in this particular video was in this situation, a man had his horse – presumably at a clinic – and as near as you can tell, the horse isn’t paying close enough attention to it’s rider on the ground. As soon as Ms. Spandex pants takes over, things get quite a bit weird. Although if you want to make a big leap of logic, you can kind of tell what she’s trying to do, however, I’ve rarely seen such a demonstration of rudeness and poor timing in dealing with a horse. In a nutshell, she simply jerks the horses head towards her and as soon as the horse looks at her she then shoo’s his head away. She also spends alot of time randomly jerking and pulling on the halter rope, and every time the horse actually gives a little, she is either too late releasing the pressure or simply doesn’t do it at all! To make matters worse, there is speculation by some who’ve seen the video that the horse is obviously blind in one eye – I don’t know that I agree, but if so, it makes the whole thing nearly criminal. I wouldn’t hire them to muck my stalls, much less train a horse for me.
This post has gotten long and on the verge of rambling, so I’ll stop. I guess the moral of the story is, there are so many good trainers out there and most of them don’t have their own show on RFDTV. Can’t we please get past the point in our society where a good “show” marketed well or a funny way of saying things makes you incredibly popular for no apparent reason and makes you automatically pass for someone capable at your trade?! I bet political elections would turn out much differently if we did that, and we wouldn’t have the mess we have in this country. And, much like the truth behind our politicians, most of us “common people” never hear the stories of many of these trainers. For example how one of the most popular ones was sued for abusing and basically ruining a very expensive dressage horse but the suit was made to go away with alot of hush money because his RFDTV show was about to begin airing.** We also don’t see or hear the backstage antics where a prominent trainer refuses autographs and drops f-bombs all the way down the hall as his (mainly children) fans watch and stare.***
I guess my point is, fame and money in the horse business truly don’t always translate to competency. When you are watching a trainer, make them earn your trust, don’t simply give it to them because they are on tv or have a fancy marketing gimmick.
*(libel is written defamation)
**true story – given to me from a first hand witness
***true story – given to me from a first hand witness