Comments on: The Liar

By: Jodi Mulder

Jodi Mulder — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:50:04 +0000

I love hearing what cowboys have to say about training horses. It takes years and lots of experiences to be able to develop “feel” with horses. Each one is different; sensitive, trusting, new. Dull, suspicious, used and every combination in between. Lanny is right, horses tell the truth. Some tell good truths, some horrible ones. They teach me something new everyday and, thank goodness, are pretty patient with my trial and error. All throughout my training I love and respect them and ask for the same from them. Observe how they interract with each other and that’s how rough you have to be sometimes when they don’t respect you as they are a big animal and could accidentally severely hurt you. But the best part is that you can go back to being soft once they get the message. Horses are the best! Thanks Lanny for helping them and their partners.

By: horsemavericks

horsemavericks — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:44:40 +0000

With Lanny, I never feel as if I have been taught something and that’s the end of it. He is always training and building. Like you said, it never ever stops. Thanks for the great comment!

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:22:40 +0000

Comments on “The Liar” , and keeping a respectable distance.

Mr. West is an awesome teacher and trainer. He not only “Talks the Talk” – but even More importantly, he “Walks-the Walk” of how he trains horses.

Lanny has trained me and my horses, and is still building on us.

He has even told me that he has made many mistakes along the way, … and he has learned from them. His style of training has improved and advanced over the last 20 years or so. One of many things that I totally admire of Lanny West, is that he is still learning and honing his horse skills all the time. He’ll even tell you that “nobody knows it all”, and when anybody stops learning and thinks they know it all…they are wrong.

I totally believe and respect him as a horse professional, and as a great person.

There are numerous incidents, facts, and stories about why a horse should learn to “respect our space”, and “keep a distance” between our horses and us on the ground. Lanny has said to me that “Safety” is probably the most important reason. Safety for us, and for our horses. They can accidently hurt us so easily if they spook, or stumble and they are too close to us. Even if they don’t intend to hurt us…it can, does, and will happen. If this sort of thing does happen…we are the ones who caused it by not teaching our horses the proper “space” manors. If a negative thing happens because we have allowed our horses to be too close to us when we are walking with them, we have then Lied to our horses and broken the trust they were building with us. In this case, it takes some work to re-build that trust. Our horses need to trust us enough to know that we are not going to let them get hurt if they are with us. We need to respect our horses, and our horses need to respect us.

By: horsemavericks

horsemavericks — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:03:35 +0000

Thank you. Glad you are enjoying it. I think the best part of this entire adventure is not only the horses, but also all the people who I am meeting along the way.

By: oregonsunshine

oregonsunshine — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:04:50 +0000

I look forward to reading more about your adventures with Lanny. While I grew up riding, I’ve had a 15 year hiatus due to kids, a car accident (with a head injury) and life in general. So, in many ways, I’m re-learning to ride. Refreshing what I already know while getting back in shape and re-learning what I’ve forgotten and learning new things along the way.

So, welcome to the world of horses!

By: horsemavericks

horsemavericks — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:36:59 +0000

Before I post a story I always read it to Lanny. His first response was that people weren’t going to like him, but I had written the truth. Many horse owners think he can be too harsh, but when you spend some time with him you realize he is incredibly kind. He doesn’t like over-grooming because it irritates the horse. He has a hard time teaching rookies how to ride because he doesn’t like the way it irritates the horses. And when he is working a baby colt, he is as gentle as a lamb. His point is that if owners don’t keep the upper hand then they are unsafe. He told me a story about a diabetic who lost his toes from a horse stepping on them. If he had required the horse to respect his space, the man would still have his toes.

By: oregonsunshine

oregonsunshine — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:06:36 +0000

I just found your blog and I love this story!

I used to have a young Arab colt who loved people and thought I was his teddy bear. It took a lot of getting after him to get him to respect my bubble. And then, just as assuredly, he’d forget the lesson in a day or two and we’d have to go about learning it all again. There was a lot of conflict for me at the barn I had him boarded at. The cowhorse- NH’er people thought I was just horribly mean to him. Of course, with him being an Arab, they didn’t particularly think good things about him to begin with. But to them, I was a horrible owner for whacking him when he deserved it.

Now, I board elsewhere and I have a shy, sensitive quarter horse. Correcting Casey is a learning process for me. He rarely does anything naughty and it’s very easy to break his trust with what you’d consider a standard correction. The exact proper amount of correction for him (where he gets the message but doesn’t expect me to kill him and I haven’t broken his trust) is somewhere between a whisper and a good tug on the lead rope. I haven’t found it yet.