Horseman’s Corner Radio

Listen in to learn more about Mindy Bower of Simla, Colorado!

Utah Horseman Jim Hicks on how he trains his horses to handle the situations that might be uncomfortable for them.

"I want to create thinking horses that respond, that learn to think their way out of the problem versus horses that react and check out. And so what I have found for myself is that in doing that I need my horses familiar with the things that I'm going to expose them to so that when I expose them to things that they're unfamiliar with, that they'll work with me and we can work through it in a positive way.  This was a valuable lesson that I learned on the horse that I took to Tom Dorrance was is when you allow the horses curiosity to work for you, it's more powerful and more potent for the horse because what happens is you go out in the pasture and you intend to catch the horse, you might just sit there and look at the tail end up because you're trying to catch them. But if you walk out in the pasture with a bucket of tools and you set them down and you start doing the job, the horses curiosity will draw them in."

California Horsewoman and trainer Sharon Camarillo.

When you're unsaddling your horse, that's the time to look for dry spots, rubbed hairs, soreness when you're brushing that horse's back off. I always like to use just a little alcohol and water or liniment on my horse's back as I brush off that sweat. And you know, you're a good sitting saddle with the right pad when you pull it off, should have an even sweat pattern. If you see white hair starting in an area up on that spine, it's pretty confident that it's a pressure point. When your horses quit working, when they're switching their tail, when they're grumpy, when their ears move, you need to listen to that horse. He's trying to tell you something and a lot of times you can fix it by just paying attention to quality of equipment. It's not how much you pay for it. It's really the fit. How it sits on that horse's back, the type of pad you're using. I said it earlier, I'm going to say it again. When you're around your horse, when you walk to the stall or the pasture to catch him, that's when you need to put your mind in the game.