# Equine Behaviour specialists



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I am a little puzzled by your Equine Behaviour Specialist term. Could you explain further?


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## Lois (Jan 24, 2009)

AEBC - Home


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

I read through your link to this. And looks like more smoke and mirrors to me. Lots of words, nothing new, just another snake oil show is my thoughts.

If you are determined to only follow this, best thing would be to ask the ones you know of.

But frankly, you'd be better off meeting real trainers with real horse experience and less words is what I think.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Makes me laugh when I see the term, Equine or Canine Behaviourist. I have met a few who have studied this and found them way off track. 
They fiddle and faff around telling you to do things this way or that way, never hassling the animal. It might work but it takes way to long compare to a firm fair correction. 

The horse I have been helping someone with was pushy and determined to get his own way. He would not lunge though he knew how. 
I let him stand and face me, all I did was to keep waving the lunge whip down his left side, when he ignored that I flicked him with it and then used it a bit harder. He lunged - even on his right tire in which the owner has never got him to do. 
The above and much firmer corrections in the stable, making him stand still, moving over when asked and not shoving everything into his mouth, non done with brute force but corrections by making him move back to where he was told to stand making him move over and in three days he is like a totally different horse. Respectful to me and his owner and the way he worked today enjoying having something to do. 


Now according to a behaviourist this horse would have excuses/reasons for his behaviour and all sorts of methods to try and get him to be more compliant when all it takes is horsemanship, experience and consistency.


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## freia (Nov 3, 2011)

I have a favorite trainer of both rider and horse. I love taking lessons from her on my horse. She really studies the dynamic between horse and rider - both when it comes to physical interaction and overall communication. I can hide nothing from her. She sees what my horse is thinking before I can feel it, and she gives incredibly insightful, effective tips and tools for correcting the horse's behavior. Corrections may be with regard to the horse's training as well as in how I ride and interact with her.

I was looking through the local newspaper last week, and it had an "equine directory". I saw the category "equine behavioral specialist". I had never seen that before or heard the term.There was her name. I found it very fitting, and it didn't surprise me at all.

So yes, we do have them here in the US. I don't know how many really can claim to be specialists and how many just call themselves a fancy title.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

I read the link. I'm thinking Carolyn Resnick would fit the bill, in California. Watch a few of her short dvds on youtube.


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## Saskia (Aug 26, 2009)

From reading the page it sounds like a training franchise/organisation 

I'm not saying it doesn't work or they're not good trainers, they look to be decent enough with a science based background but I think its best to look at it as a business rather than a job description/philosophy, just like you would a Parelli Instructor, or a Clinton Anderson one. Perhaps contact them and ask where would be best to see an affiliated trainer?

The trouble with these organisations is not that they are inherently bad or anything like that, but by looking for things and people and experiences under such a specific banner, you risk losing out on all the experiences you could have with other excellent trainers who do their own thing.


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## Joel Reiter (Feb 9, 2015)

I wouldn't rule out a trainer just because they were under a banner that said Parelli, or Clinton Anderson, or behavioral specialist. And I would never hire one just because their name was so associated.

There are two kinds of trainers -- the ones who can read horses and have good timing and the ones who have neither. I'd look for somebody in the first category, and not get too worried about labels.


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## Patty Stiller (Aug 7, 2012)

> Makes me laugh when I see the term, Equine or Canine Behaviourist.


The best horsemen and horsewomen are "equine behaviorists" .If they were not they would not be successful. But the don't need a new fancy title, do they? geesh.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I agree with both the above! 
A good trainer, whether of horse dogs or children, will know exactly when to correct. It becomes second nature, the little changes in body language can warrant a verbal warning thus stopping something before it starts.

I am lucky in that I believe I was born with an inner knowledge of understanding animal which over years has been honed to being an automatic reaction. I consider myself to be a good stock person in that I can walk into a field of sheep or cattle and immediately notice that something is wrong with one of them. It might be something obvious like one being away from the flock/herd or, just being 'different' to its normal self.

I would not class this as being an Animal Behaviourist but just being knowledgeable about animals in general.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

I think those are very common. I think they are called Good Horse owners. 
any good horse owner knows the behaviour of their horse .


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