When I started with my first horse over 40 years ago horse training was sort of considered an esoteric activity that only adepts could do.  Most people sent horses to trainers because only trainers had the equipment and the secret knowledge necessary to train horses.  After several months at the trainer’s place the horse came home, hopefully knowing enough about carrying and obeying a rider to do whatever its owner wanted. 

It was so different back then.  The main model of breaking/training horses for English horses (hunter and saddle seat) in the Eastern USA was what I consider the “bondage method” which was developed for training horses for harness, the major use of horses before the advent of the automobile.  The already halter broke and gentled two year old horse was strapped into a bitting rig with a single joint snaffle bit, side reins, side-checks, surcingle and crupper.  The horse was allowed time in its stall to get used to the new restraints, and in a few days the horse was lunged or ground driven in the bitting rig.  After this initial training the horse might be trained to pull a two-wheel cart around in a regular harness with either an over check rein or side check reins.  If the horse was being trained to be a hunter it was often turned back out in the pasture until it turned three, if it was in training for harness or for saddle seat there was a lot of slow work pulling a cart and getting the horse used to roads and traffic, often breaking to saddle at two and a half years old, then when the horse was three years old it was put into harder work.  One of the main goals of this type of training was to get the horse to hold its head UP and to KEEP HIS HEAD UP while being ridden, in harness the side check or overhead check reins kept the horse’s head up.  These trainers thought they were humane, especially in comparison to the “throw the saddle on the blindfolded horse and ride the bucks out” Western horse breakers.  Hunt seat trainers did not have many specialized bits (mostly single jointed snaffles and pelhams), and saddle fit was rough and approximate for all types of horses.

As the automobiles and trucks took over the nation’s roads and highways it became ever more dangerous to use harness horses on the roads, and when the road surfaces changed from dirt or gravel to hard pavement the motor vehicles sped up while the horses had to slow down to a jog for the harder and much more slippery footing.  Harness horses basically disappeared from the streets except for the Amish and Mennonites, some cart horse holdouts in the big Eastern cities, and the tourist carriage trade.  Peaceful country lanes, suitable for relatively safe riding, also switched to hard pavement and the higher speed motor vehicles.  With the introduction of the tractor for farm work the market for trained work horses crashed, and when I was young there were people confidently predicting the extinction of the horse in the USA except for police horses, race horses, cow ponies, and the riding and fine harness horses of wealthy people.  After all there was no longer any economic need for horses, and as men and boys got seduced by the speed and convenience of motor vehicles they stopped riding horses and sold them off to get a car.

American little girls saved the American riding horse for all of us.  We just would not let go.  Finally freed from the tyranny of the side saddle we put on our britches or jeans, mounted up on any old horse that would stand still, and we found the few remaining places where it was safe to ride.  When the boys stopped wanting a pony the girls stepped in, we not only wanted a pony to ride, we wanted a pony to love on.  And as women started being allowed to show internationally, and to compete in the higher levels of local/national shows we never looked back, we went out to prove we could ride and train as well as the men could.

As the old horse trainers wore out and retired there were just not enough trainers for the demand for decent riding horses.  The wealthy did not have this problem, they had the money to pay for decent horse training, they had the money to buy good horses, to pay for months and years of training, and they kept the best trainers going through the big decline in horse population (thank you, you saved higher equitation.)  The rest of us had to deal with the second and third rate horses, often rough broke by hurried trainers, there was no point in giving a second or third rate horse the training of a first rate horse.  And believe me, these horses were second and third rate, back then the horse stock of the USA was in the initial steps of up grading with pure bred sires, hunters were upgraded with Thoroughbreds, trail horses with TBs or gaited breeds, and the Western horses with Quarter Horses.  I remember drives through many states and seeing badly conformed, weedy and unsubstantial or blocky and thick jowled horses in the pastures.  Back then the term “grade horse” was not an insult, it meant that the dam had been bred to a better conformed purebred stallion, often a show winner, and that the resulting horse was an up-grade in quality and rideability, and of MUCH higher quality than the normal horse of that time. 

Because of all of this, training had to change.  A rough trained horse was often considered suitable for a boy or a grown man, but not for the tender, gently reared middle class horse crazy girls, and most of the horses around were not valuable enough to merit months and months of expensive training.  Many Western trainers got away from the buck the horse out mode and got into rational and humane training as they changed from mustangs to the QH type horses.  Saddle seat retreated mostly to the few very, very, very wealthy people who could afford to show the high stepping show horses.  Hunter trainers, because they jumped, got into the Fort Riley cavalry seat, which was descended from Caprilli’s Forward Seat combined with Saumur training methods, and a few went into pure Forward Seat.  One of the Forward Seat teachers, Vladimir Littauer, faced the facts of the changing horse culture, and developed a training system that amateur riders (i.e., the horse crazy American girls and women) riding on the intermediate level could use to train her own horse beyond the green-broke stage.  Littauer was not teaching for international competition, he was teaching so that regular people could learn to ride and train their horses humanely, and then either hack, hunt, or show in hunter/jumper classes.  He remarked that he could train a horse perfectly but he could never find enough good riders to serve as a market for his perfectly trained horses.  It was not economically feasible for him to make his living by training horses, good training was not affordable for most people.  His solution was to train his intermediate riders how to train.  FINALLY, someone developed a training method that was pragmatic, effective, easily understandable by both horse and human, and horse training moved out of the esoteric adept category to something that a decent rider could do with most green-broke horses, and one that a patient horsewoman could use to train a horse from the beginning, enabling horse crazy hunt seat girls and women to break and train their own horses with relatively safeness and a minimal amount of specialized gear (lunging cavesons, lunge line and lunge whip.)  The “bondage method” started to disappear. This was a HUMONGOUS change in horse culture.

As the American riding horses were bred better, the horse crazy girls got decent riding lessons and showing replaced most pleasure riding (there not being many places you could ride safely), horse trainers reentered the picture for those who could afford them.  Due to the influx of European horsemen from the Russian Revolution and those fleeing the Soviet takeover of their countries after WWII a lot of dressage based riding became more prominent, and even the best amateurs were not knowledgeable enough to train their horses to collection.  Secret and esoteric knowledge entered horse training again, but American women and girls, having had the heady knowledge that they could train their own horses, buckled down and seriously studied this new (for them) form of riding.  Unfortunately, since dressage is a MUCH more difficult form of riding, many overestimated their abilities and knowledge.  Some, natural riders with decent lessons, were able to switch to dressage based training without tormenting their horses.  Most others were not, and the demand for horse trainers soared again, this time for riding horses who could be ridden at a higher level instead of just green breaking.  Of course, since the riders were not good enough to ride perfectly trained horses, this ensured that the demand for the best trainers would sky-rocket, to train the horse, to train the rider to ride the perfectly trained horse, and to constantly re-train the horses that these less than perfect riders ruined.  The esoteric training gear came back, again only adepts could train a horse that could win at the shows, and to get these horses to allow their less than perfect riders to ride and show them, weird bits and auxiliary reins entered the picture--just use this piece of tack and you can pretend your horse is still perfectly trained and you can ride it!  (Yes, I know that true dressage training is not like this, but in this time of instant results how many people want to spend five years training a horse before they can show it?)  Horse trainers started prospering again (somewhat), but most of them switched from just starting horses to also retraining ruined horses so that their riders could continue riding them.  But outside of the show ring regular riders are still capable of breaking and training their own horses for pleasure riding.

I have never been wealthy, able to afford professional training or to buy well trained horses.  I was fortunate to get my first horse (green broke, me an elementary level rider) around the time that Littauer published his book on training “Schooling Your Horse”, and in spite of my undiagnosed MS I was able to train my first horse (including to jump) and later go on to buy weanlings that I later broke to saddle and trail riding.  My first horse ended up good enough so that a scared dressage rider leased him as a confidence builder, her dressage trainer, the owner of the stable she boarded at, and the lady were all amazed at how soft, responsive and obedient my horse was, a horse that had never been trained to dressage and never collected in his life.  I quit buying horses when I learned I have Multiple Sclerosis, by then it was obvious that my training days were over and I have never had enough money to send a horse out for training by a decent professional.  I am still training other people’s horses some, mostly with ruined horses, getting them so they can be ridden  more or less safely by beginners.  I am SO GLAD I started out when I did, when Littauer published his training method, because otherwise I would have assumed that all horse training was esoteric, doable only by people with special equipment, special skills and secret knowledge, and I would have never discovered the joys of training my own horses.  And I would not have been confident enough to go on riding as my MS continued to cripple me. 

Today there are many sources of training knowledge on the net, articles and videos, and there are many systems available that can lead you through the steps of training your horses.  If you are a reasonably good rider with a secure seat and you hunt out the knowledge you too can train your own horse.  No, you won’t end up in the Olympics this way, but you will have the satisfaction that yes, you CAN train your own horse to be a decent riding animal, something that just a hundred years ago was only doable by professionals with esoteric knowledge.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran