Real Time Horsemanship Archives - Bolo Hunt

September 27, 2022September 27, 2022

The Training Puzzle

Quite often I am approached by horse owners asking for help to fix a specific issue. Some examples, “My horse spooks on the trail’, “My horse bucks..”, “My horse wants to kick out at other horses..”, “ My horse runs over me..” and list goes on and on. So, we correct that one specific bad behavior only to have another bad behavioral issue surface. More than likely here, the root problem is poor foundation training.

There was a time in my life when everybody was very eager to give me advice on training horses. Being equally eager to learn, I would always listen with intensity and try to absorb as much as could. The problem, I soon discovered, was that every person who, with good intentions, gave me information, was only able to provide a small piece of the big picture. It seems that way too many times, a horse is rushed through training due to time, money or ability constraints or the owner is just in a hurry to do whatever they want with the horse so they figure, if the horse isn’t currently bucking them off, everything is good, maybe !

Training horses is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. If you get in a hurry and only get a portion of the pieces together, those pieces you left out will more than likely show up at some point down the road.

With all horses, especially young horses, provide them with good solid foundation training with ALL the pieces in the beginning. The extra time, money and effort spent here will save you much more time and more money later…and maybe a trip to the emergency room!

Energy Management — Like a Jigsaw puzzle-you need all the pieces!

May 18, 2022September 27, 2022

Do You have a Dream Team?

There is a sundry of services out there, offering assistance with the well-being of your four legged little darling.

To name a few, we have Veterinarians, Chiropractic Services, Farriers, Trainers, Equine Nutritionist, Red Light, Electric and Message Therapists, Equine Dental Specialists, Equine Psychics, (That’s right, I said Psychics), and the list just keeps going.

Now, I’m not saying you should have everything everybody offers, however, owning a horse requires a little more than just feeding and grooming.

For me, there are four basic professional areas that are essential to support and keep our horses healthy and happy. Good Veterinarians, Good Farriers, Good Chiropractic Services and Good Trainers

My definition of a “Good” professional means, someone that gets the results I want and, in the manner I like. Someone with whom I can honestly and effectively communicate and who is professional enough to show up on schedule. I look at this as building a team that will, as seamlessly as possible, assist, and provide me with the best possible options regarding the welfare of my horse. Remember, as horse owners, we are ultimately responsible for making final decisions.

Now, let’s take this a step further, I really love it when my team members work together to reach a common goal. For example, A farrier should work closely with the Veterinarian to address laminitis since both of these professionals are needed. As a professional trainer it really helps when I can provide a chiropractic professional good feedback and they can give me good advice on a training program that is best for the horse.

I feel extremely fortunate to have a great team that I work with regularly. If you don’t already have your team, I highly recommend you start building your dream team today!

July 21, 2021August 3, 2021

Mounted Shooting – Why I Do It!

As a professional trainer, Why did I learn the sport of Mounted Shooting

I am a professional horse trainer. I’ve been training horses now for many years. A few years ago, I was approached by representatives of a local mounted shooting club and was invited to join them and try this new sport called mounted shooting. At the time, I was into reining and ranch horse type competitions and didn’t really have much extra spare time getting involved in another competition! Don’t misunderstand, I enjoy competing however, my passion is training, and that has always come first! So, the more I thought about it, from a trainer’s perspective, I knew the more things I could expose my horses to, the better! I then decided on a plan, I would bring a different horse each week, rotating them so each horse would get equal exposure to shooting a gun from the saddle. My “plan” was purely for training purposes only.

So, I show up with one of my own horses (Montana) and I was provided a very nice orientation to the world of mounted shooting. The first thing I noticed was the very welcoming and friendly atmosphere from all the members of this organization. So, I began my training sessions.

With each horse I would bring, I quickly realized that mounted shooting required a whole new set of skills that I had not used or even thought of as a trainer!

As time progressed, I became better and faster with each horse…..now, I’m really starting to have fun! After a few months I was encouraged to think about competing in a mounted shooting match. I did, and well, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

I still enjoy competing to this day. I have no doubt that getting involved in the sport of mounted shooting made me a much better trainer and made every horse I used along the way a more well-rounded horse.

Try mounted shooting, or really, most any level of competition in any discipline! It might just humble you a bit and more than likely improve your horsemanship skills. I firmly believe you will also come away with a much better horse in the process!