Customer Reviews

The Power of Positive Horse Training: Saying Yes to Your Horse (Howell Equestrian Library)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a great book! With so many books available on natural horsemanship, horse behavior and training it's easy to accummulate a whole equestrian library rather quickly. There are really only two books you can't go without though:

Gincy Bucklin's What Your Horse Wants You to Know and Sarah Blanchard's The Power of Positive Horse Training.

Not only are both books full of great suggestions but more importantly they help bridge the language barrier between horse and human. Wonderful books to own, easy and interesting to read and great reference tools and morale builders when you and your equine partner hit a road block.

I did thoroughly enjoy this book. I have done and read a significant amount of natural training methods so some of the ground work stuff was fairly elementary and sometimes not as 'natural' as I would like - found it to be a little incongruent with the 'positive' and 'saying yes' part of the title.

None-the-less the under saddle training suggestions - especially teaching the half halt and circle work - were invaluable and made this book a worthwhile purchase. Like any book I its important to take away what is useful to you and not be too critical of the remainder which may work very well for others.

This book took a long time to get to me, but it's not the sender's fault. It came via "book rate" in the USPS to my Air Force base in England. It took 9 weeks! Maybe it took longer because I was eager to get it! It was well packed so was not damaged. Good reading and very informative.

This book gives good incite to the person who is trying to partner with their horse. Trying to find your way when everyone has an opinion is hard. This approach is a balanced approach, good for you and the horse.

It could have been a great book for horse trainers except for the fact that the author is ignorant of what basic terms of learning behavior mean and so her book is misleading. She failed in regard to her attempt to define and explain reinforcement, positive or negative. Her definitions and explanations of reinforcement are not what is the accepted definition or understanding of reinforcement according to the science of behavior community.