If you have a passion to learn all you can about horse training, then you will want to know about a 108-year-old horse training manual recently revived from a dusty old bookshelf of a used book store. This horse training manual was written in the late 1800s by a then world-famous horse trainer named Jesse Beery.
In Beery’s manual, he explains the different steps it takes to train a horse to be gentle, safe, reliable, and valuable. Although this is a very basic example, Beery describes the number one abuse of a command given to horses by their riders. The command is “whoa.” The reason this command is so abused is that the rider will often say “whoa” while riding when they want the horse to slow down. The horse then associates the word “whoa” with slowing down instead of stopping. Soon, the frustrated horse owner wonders why his horse won’t stop when he says “whoa.” Beery reminds the reader to say “whoa” ONLY when you want the horse to stop. Pick a different command for the horse to slow down.
Furthermore, Beery explains with great detail how to teach a horse to stop – even under any circumstance. This lesson, according to Beery, is THE MOST important one of all.
Beery also describes in his book how to cure different vices a horse may have. For instance, if a horse is a confirmed biter and has been for a long time, Beery gives clear instruction on how to stop it for good. Even better is the instruction Beery offers for horses that jump fences. In the book, you see a picture of a simple apparatus put on a horse to keep him from jumping. Beery says, “When this simple appliance is on your horse, he can lie down and get up, eat, or do anything but run fast or jump. This is the best, most reliable, and safest remedy that has ever been devised for fence jumpers.”
Unfortunately, this book is rare enough that few copies exist. The copies that exist are not always readable due to fading and age. Thus, good copies are very pricey.
American horse trainer Andy Curry discovered a legible copy from a used book store on a dusty shelf. Curry was able to make copies available to horse owners who want to learn about Beery’s methods.
