# Favorite trainers?



## Greenmeadows (May 8, 2016)

I am looking for training videos, and was wondering if anyone would direct me to some good trainers. I would like some that work with dressage, jumping, reining; but anything would be helpful, as I would like to know more about other disciplines and increase my knowledge of horsemanship. Thanks in advance!


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

I will leave the dressage and jumping to those that are involved in them, but can give you some reining suggestions.

daily.com/reining-basics-with-craig-johnson-dvd/

The Sport of Reining: with NRHA Leading Money Earner Shawn Flarida and young horse developer Kalley Krickeberg


Fappani - DVD's


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I use a few different 'online video' trainers when I want to show examples of something 
These guys are easy to follow and entertaining too




These sites gives some useful dressage training videos - but aimed more at people already having the basic understanding
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbVXLknCwAVRM28ro7C78Jg
https://www.youtube.com/user/ArttoRide
This one has some videos that you could get good jumping and schooling for jumping info from
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC47PQRfJWJ8n8zzoBL28vRQ
You should be able to find helpful tips on this one
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvfkUMn9P8eEEgr7TdjYmZA


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## BreezylBeezyl (Mar 25, 2014)

I think I commented this on your other thread, but I really enjoy Natasha Althoff and her YouTube channel "YourRidingSuccess". Dressage is the basis behind all disciplines, so even though I don't ride dressage myself, I find her advice applies to all the horses I ride (Hunter Under Saddle and Saddle Seat). She has a lot of lessons on maintaining your horse's focus, half halts, getting them to lift their backs and work correctly, etc... Lessons that all horses and riders in all disciplines need to learn.

I also want to say that nothing beats the expertise and experience gained from a respectable local trainer. It's always great to expand your knowledge through the internet, books, and videos from the big name trainers out there, but being able to have hands on experience through a good lesson program is always better!


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I like Buck Brannaman, because he's my age and has a nice butt and I don't feel like a pervert for looking at it.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

waresbear said:


> I like Buck Brannaman, because he's my age and has a nice butt and I don't feel like a pervert for looking at it.



ha ha!!! classic!


but, that leads me to ask, whose butt view does make you feel like a pervert?

we barn witches used to discuss which farrier was the nicest to have come visit, in terms of how the bending over revealed the nicest tightnesses. ok, stopping here. this IS a PG forum!

PS does Buck know you feel this way? it would make his day.


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

Greenmeadows said:


> I am looking for training videos, and was wondering if anyone would direct me to some good trainers. I would like some that work with dressage, jumping, reining; but anything would be helpful, as I would like to know more about other disciplines and increase my knowledge of horsemanship. Thanks in advance!


As previously mentioned Giddy Up Flix is a great resources for renting videos in all disciplines and areas of riding/training with different trainers. Could not hurt to give it a look.


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## Greenmeadows (May 8, 2016)

Thanks everyone!


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

Buck is more an NH trainer, and I think the OP asked specifically for a reining trainer, far as the western.
To go into a list of all the great trainers out there would be very, very extensive, so I think it would be helpful for the Op to elaborate where she is at, where her interests lie-basic good horsemanship, English or western, discipline specific ect


While it is great to study many disciplines, over time, it is over whelming to have such a broad scope in the beginning, and esp on one horse!


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

Lately, I've been really enjoying Warwick Schillers perspective on things. He has a ton of videos on Youtube and a lot of it is common sense, but he demonstrates it in a way that, for me, makes more sense than many other online trainers I've watched. 
I've actually had some breakthroughs with my gelding, in quite short timeframes, that I never thought would be possible. For instance, I was able to teach my gelding to put his head down so I can hose his face off - completely slack leadrope, no "head down" cue, he just does it. 

I've also found some holes in Fabio's training/my handling that I had never recognized before, that have majorly contributed to many of the issues I have with my horse.

Anyway, I really like him right now. He talks about the WHY of things, and that really appeals to how I like to learn. You can pay for longer videos, but I've learned plenty from the shorter videos on Youtube.

He occasionally refers to himself as a reining trainer and he has a few reining videos posted, but most of it is common sense "every horse/horse owner is better off knowing this"-type stuff.


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## Greenmeadows (May 8, 2016)

My mini does dressage in hand, that is, with long reins and a surcingle. That is were I do dressage. I originally wanted to do reining with my quarter horse, but since I do not have a coach or a trainer right now, I am not going to make it very far.  So it is just me clinging to a little hope that I might at least learn about it in case the opportunity arises. I do some jumping, but nothing big or fancy, more of baby jumps. All of my horses have a fair foundation, and no serious issues to work through. I also love doing liberty with them. And, I always want to learn more about communicating with horses so they understand me clearly.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Wallaby said:


> Lately, I've been really enjoying Warwick Schillers perspective on things. He has a ton of videos on Youtube and a lot of it is common sense, but he demonstrates it in a way that, for me, makes more sense than many other online trainers I've watched.
> I've actually had some breakthroughs with my gelding, in quite short timeframes, that I never thought would be possible. For instance, I was able to teach my gelding to put his head down so I can hose his face off - completely slack leadrope, no "head down" cue, he just does it.
> 
> I've also found some holes in Fabio's training/my handling that I had never recognized before, that have majorly contributed to many of the issues I have with my horse.
> ...


First of all, wallaby will be, already is, quite the trainer in the pure sense of the word; teaching a desired response by patient and planned repetition and reward. 

Secondly, I'd be curios to hear what holes you became aware of.


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

tinyliny said:


> First of all, wallaby will be, already is, quite the trainer in the pure sense of the word; teaching a desired response by patient and planned repetition and reward.
> 
> Secondly, I'd be curios to hear what holes you became aware of.


Thank you! I appreciate that, Caroline! What a compliment. :happydance:


For me, some of the biggest holes I've found have been in relation to "where" Fabio is thinking and is he in my personal space?
I used to figure that he's mentally present with me when he's not bolting away/spooking/etc. THEN I'd wonder where his huge spooks would come from - "he was calm two seconds ago, where did that spook come from?!"
I recently realized that he is actually not often present with me. His body is with me and he might not be spooking or misbehaving, but he might be mentally outside the barn/in the barn aisle/in his stall/wherever - essentially not paying attention to me and not focused on what I'm asking. And the transition back to being present with me is where the spooks often happen - he's 'forgotten' where his body is and the switch back elicits a big spook because he's surprised. He typically did this/does this when he's uncomfortable with a scenario and, instead of thinking through his worry, he chooses to mentally leave and avoid dealing with the problem. So the problem never gets dealt with, and I'm left confused because he "was fine yesterday with XYZ, why is he panicking now?" But it's because he wasn't present for XYZ. His body was there, but his mind was not.

I've started identifying the look in his eye when he "leaves" and, when he leaves, I start moving around/moving his body around/etc so he's called back into his body. Each time he leaves, I call him back. He still leaves A LOT since this is 13 year habit that I'm dealing with, but he's doing much much better. I've been able to take all his tack off [no halter, no rope] and expect him to stand outside the tack room while I put his stuff away, walk down to his stall where his dinner is waiting, turn around, walk back to the tack room, have him wait more, then walk back to his stall - all without putting my hands on him, because he's focusing on what I'm saying vs any other input.

It's the same with him being in my space. He'd use me as a security blanket and crowd me when he was worried - then he'd "leave" and I'd get spooked over.
Working on the leaving thing has pretty much solved the crowding thing - he's present, he's gaining confidence in himself, he doesn't feel like he needs a security blanket anymore. 



Another thing was my entire approach to him. I had always thought that he was a bit hot because of how nervous/jumpy/hyped up he can be. I thought the severity of his insecurity was indicative of hottness.
In REALITY, he's actually very very lazy. 
I've, for literal years, been trying to get him to calm down, slow down, chill out, when really he was being jumpy because he was TOO slowed down, too tuned out. 
I need to speed him up, get him moving faster, make his mind feel like it needs to catch up, and voila. Spooking is significantly decreased.

Half the problem is that his mind is incredibly intelligent so he's like a smart kid in school - thinking 3 steps ahead all the time, "I already know what's gonna happen, why do I need to pay attention?"
I'm working right now to get him to speed up, get him so he can't guess what's gonna happen next while making sure he still feels like he knows the right answer to the next pop quiz. 

My goal right now is to make right here, right now, the place that makes him feel good/confident, the place he wants to stay, so he doesn't feel like he needs to mentally leave/go to his "safe place."



There's a fine line because I have to be careful of how excited I let him get due to his muscle issues, but so far it's working pretty well. The big thing for him is that he gets freaked out-excited [badddd] when he can't figure out the right answer. So we've been doing a lot of work with poles where going over the pole is the right answer. No matter what, going over a pole is always gonna get a reward [either verbal praise, or getting to take a break from work].

Eventually, once he's really confident that he knows what I want, we can move on to more vague "yes, you're right"'s...but for now, we're still on clear, physical, markers of being correct.

For instance, the other day, we were working with poles and someone set off a bomb-like firework. Fabio does notttt like fireworks, so that sent him bolting off. 
BUT, about 3 strides into his bolt, he stopped himself, thought for a second, turned fully around, walked back to the poles that were set up, and started going back and forth across them. He didn't choose to mentally leave, he chose to stay with me and do the thing he was sure would be correct.
And he was right! 
I was completely dumbfounded and, obviously, the session ended right there. haha 


This got longer than I intended, sorry OP! But that is the "meat" of the probems I've found. They've plagued us for yearsssss and I had no idea where to start. Now I know exactly where to start!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

That's some interesting observations especially the thing with the being lazy and spooking because I've always found that the horses/ponies that were really 'hot' and very forward going rarely spooked at anything, DH always says that they're too busy moving along to notice stuff - it was always the more lazy ones who were idling along almost looking for something to scare themselves with that were the worst culprits


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## Wallaby (Jul 13, 2008)

jaydee said:


> That's some interesting observations especially the thing with the being lazy and spooking because I've always found that the horses/ponies that were really 'hot' and very forward going rarely spooked at anything, DH always says that they're too busy moving along to notice stuff - it was always the more lazy ones who were idling along almost looking for something to scare themselves with that were the worst culprits


I completely agree! I also have to wonder if naturally hot/forward horses typically get a lot more instruction[?] on how to deal with their anxiety...

For instance, we board at an Arab barn with mostly halter/WP-bred Arabians - some of which have relatively impressive bloodlines and titles to their names. A few of them are definitely hotter and are treated as such - they are handled by more experienced people when they leave their stalls/turnouts, everybody pretty much keeps an eye out for them in case they do something dumb, etc.

Fabio, on the other hand, is treated like he'll be fine with everything..and he usually is, if "fine" looks like him disappearing mentally. Usually, when he spooks or bolts, no one is prepared and he's actually gotten away from the BO [who trains those Arabs and is very good at it] a few times because she wasn't expecting him to be silly. And it becomes a vicious cycle - getting away, in effect, rewards him for being worried and people figure it was just a one-off, weird, situation, so it ends up happening again, and again, and again.
The BO is finally getting the hang of him [after he almost double-barrelled her in the face because she did the leg straps on his blanket around his legs, vs criss-cross... :icon_rolleyes: ]and I'm thankful for that, but it's taken 6+ months. haha

Those Arabs are getting a lot of constructive guidance about their fears - "no, you cannot run away from your fear, here, check it out! There's no need to be scared."
While Fabio is getting a lot of not-so-constructive advice about his fears and how the scary things go away if you can escape from them. From his attitude and go-to behaviors, I have to guess that that's how a lot of his life has gone.

But I don't know for sure, that's just kind of my theory.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Arabians are a law unto themselves I think - Tramp would ride in the heaviest of traffic and coped on big showgrounds without batting an eyelid but would stand and tremble looking at 'nothing that I could see' in the corner of the barn!!


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## smrobs (Jul 30, 2008)

One trainer that I like that nobody else has mentioned, though he's more of a cutting, working cowhorse person than a reiner, is Larry Trocha.

I prefer any trainer than trains their horses with an ultimate goal of having a handy and good working/performance horse that can actually step out and do a job instead of circus tricks.

I also like Buck Brannaman. Even though he is classed along with the other NH trainers, he trains horses to be handy, responsive horses that are capable and ready to do just about anything you need them to do. Another in this same boat is Craig Cameron. His voice is annoying as heck, but he's a cowboy whose goal is handy working horses.


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## Smilie (Oct 4, 2010)

Yes, I like Larry Trocha, and have posted some of his videos here, esp the ones he has on teaching the stop, and the ones that address various spooks


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