Horse Training by Modern Methods

by Allan Melvill Pope

Don’t be rough with your horse.

New horses sent to a post should be turned over to one competent officer with assistants, if necessary, for training. If necessary to assign them to troops to assure proper care and grooming, orders should be given that they be exercised only by direction of the officer in charge. Enlisted men specially suited for training horses should be detailed under the above-named officer’s direction. Only such enlisted men should be detailed who will not be discharged or detailed on other duty until the training ceases. The training should continue for not less than six months. Horses should, when possible, be assigned trainers who belong to the organization to which the horses are assigned, the rider being assured, if possible, that the horse will be assigned to him after the training is over.

Two officers can train with reasonable satisfaction seventy-five horses, if given one hour and a half per day six days a week, in the riding-hall. As the number of horses in the riding-hall at a time go over fifteen the difficulties increase.

In case it be impossible for new horses to be under the direction of one officer, organization commanders should keep the horses out of ranks an equal period, and undertake the same training with competent men.

Hard-trotting, uncontrollable horses, uncomfortable to ride and weak in muscular activity, result from lack of training.

From practical work with enlisted men, it has been found that there is little difficulty in teaching them the kinds of aids, with their proper names, and the use and form the various exercises take. The manner in which they apply their aids and perform the exercises varies with the individual’s ability to ride and aptitude for training.

When Part II. is undertaken, the difficulties increase. The difficulties do not lie in the use of the double rein, which the men soon become accustomed to, but in understanding the flexions and the delicate use of the aids required in these exercises and in the changes of lead at the gallop.

As hands are a most important element in Part II., it is not surprising that men who have ridden perhaps less than three years should have difficulty.

Part II. should not be abandoned, either because of the difficulties inherent to the exercises or because of the lack of proper equipment. The use of a double bridle improvised from a watering bridle and a regulation bit is preferable to the use of a single curb immediately succeeding the work with the snaffle alone.