Hart's Horsemanship

Having an equine that doesn’t want to be caught and not knowing why is not only time consuming, frustrating but it is sad to think that perhaps they just don’t trust us or want to be with us. Whether your horse, donkey or mule is young and inexperienced has an abused background or perhaps if they have recently decided not to be caught, this course will help you understand why equines don’t want to be caught. Then by helping you to determine the specific causes of your equines problems you can follow a shaping plan so we can remove the cause and create an equine that is willing and easy to catch.

Having a shaping plan to guide your training is a very powerful tool on the journey to success. This shaping plan breaks down the behaviour of catching to small steps to create a plan of retraining that is safe, effective and enjoyable. This plan is supported by videos exploring all the elements of catching from causes, to finding out why your horse doesn’t want to be caught, body language and shaping the behaviour of catching and what to do when you just have to get them caught. There is 45 minutes of video footage of Ben working with two equines that are considered reluctant to catch, which demonstrate the practical application of the principles of discussed in this course.

In his normal relaxed style equine centred approach Ben explains the complexities of catching and the equines point of view of this situation. He explores the application of both positive and negative reinforcement , importance of body language and of fixing the cause as well as the differences between training and having to get the job done.

Catching is at the heart of equine relationships yet we often don’t appreciate the value of being able to easily catch our equine partners until they don’t want to be caught. More than a plan for catching this shaping plan and its support materials encourage an exploration of equine behaviour and our partnerships with our horses, donkeys and mules.

To help save you time and improve convenience, audio files of some of the most important course content are available for you to download so you can listen anywhere.

"Jacquie Billington You know, even the most experienced horse owning people can get stuck sometimes with something as each horse has a different series of issues, past histories and attitudes in each situation that are totally unique to that horse. A shaping plan can help to unravel and unstick things, step by step."

"Ellie Woodward I think shaping plans are brilliant, they prevent me from rushing forwards too quickly when a horse is doing well and also allow me to see gradual progress in a horse rather than just feeling that we haven't met our end goal yet. I also find it stops me from getting distracted from my plan on how to tackle an issue and helps to stop me from becoming indecisive in training!"