Book Description

Give your young horse the best start by building a solidfoundation with this essential training guide, from newborn foal to adulthorse. Dip in and out of the four distinct sections to solvespecific problems, regardless of your horse's age. Tackle new experiencescalmly and with confidence by following the step-by-step sequences withexplanatory captions and practical tips. Richard begins the book with Making the Decision, coveringall the general areas that you should know when buying or breeding a youngster.Richard explores what has changed with working with horses and why over theyears, from using round pens and join-up, focusing on owners as well as horses,to creating a training pyramid plan to follow an organized training regime witha logical progression to help you and your horse achieve your goals. Richardasks the important questions you need to answer before committing to owning ayoungster and runs through the 10 training principles. He highlights theimportance of repetition, establishing a clear means of communication betweenyou and your horse, and understanding how the horse's brain works, from theright side to the left side. There are also areas of special mention: orphanfoals and keeping entires. The second chapter runs through training your horse from 0-6months. Maxwell encourages you to develop your foal's brain from the verybeginning. From imprinting and halter training to leading and weaning, thesection covers all of the basic techniques for training for your foul at thisinfluential time. The third part of the book looks at preparing your horse fora working life at 6 months-3 years. Maxwell teaches you further haltertechniques, tying up, desensitization, techniques for avoiding the challengingyear when the horse turns two, tips on preparing for the farrier, bathing,clipping, injections and preparing for loading with a comprehensivestep-by-step guide to loading. He also covers preparing for a bridle andcircling work. Part 4, Backing and Riding On, focuses on horses aged 3years+. The chapter explains how to: introduce the first saddle, the firstbridle, to teach your young horse to accept the bit, to introduce long-lining,to introduce a rider using a dummy, to back your youngster, and to desensitizeon the move. Maxwell goes on to show a day-by-day guide to riding from day one,concluding with an interesting selection of real-life case studies that demonstratethe effectiveness of Maxwell's methods for molding a young horse into a safe,rewarding ride. With valuable checklists, step-by-step instructions, anduseful question and answer sections at the end of each chapter, Richard Maxwellreally does provide all the essential information you will need to effectivelytrain your young horse.