In the Northeast area, the new wave of interest in natural horsemanship has really been more a matter of marketing rather than real substance—at least what I’ve seen so far. My friend trailers her horse far and wide up and down the coastline for clinics with some of the big names. Unfortunately, in the New York area we seem to be rather stuck with people who claim to be natural horsemanship trainers but have no clue what they are doing. And some are just plain dangerous.

Recently, two supposed natural horsemanship trainers came to our barn. One, while standing next to the client’s back leg right in the kicking zone, kept tapping the horse on the leg, nagging him until he raised his leg. I turned to my friend and whispered “What is he trying to teach the horse to kick?” My friend shrugged, shaking her head in disbelief. And when introduced to a horse that used to be an aggressive youngster but had been worked nicely through his behavioral issues, he made some comment suggesting that they teach him tricks and using food as reward. Oh big no-no. This horse becomes seriously aggressive when hand fed and hand feeding is out of the question for him. The food as reward doesn’t work for him. And what's the point of teaching tricks?

And then there was my experience with a natural horsemanship devotee, a follower of a well-known name that I won’t mention here. I was teaching an eight-year-old beginner rider on a pony in a very large indoor arena. It was just me and a woman riding her horse bridleless with two whips, one on either side of his neck, guiding him. I kept my student in a corner on a 20 meter circle much like on a longe line, giving the bridles horse the rest of the arena. But even having all that arena, the other rider still insisted on marching her horse right through my student’s circle in the corner. The pony did not care for it and reacted a little bit, and I don’t know if it was from the freakish looking way the woman was riding (sitting very forward and leaning even more forward with her whips on either side pointing forward along the horse’s neck…one whip obviously close to the pony). Or maybe the pony was smarter than this woman and knew that there was really no control over this big horse bearing down on him.

Suffice to say that all it takes in one incident like that for me to very angrily tell someone that she was to keep her distance from my student. I brought up the situation with my colleague and asked “What is with the two whip thing?” My colleague answered that she had no idea and that this woman had been doing the same routine for months. “But what’s the point? Isn’t she just using more props and more equipment? What’s the goal? She’s leaning so far forward with her whips that her seat plays no role except maybe when she finally plops back in the saddle for a halt.” All my colleague could offer was that nothing changed and it seemed like she was going nowhere…except getting in other people’s ways and occasionally getting thrown.

Another natural horsemanship trainer was telling a friend of mine to never drive a horse out of her space when working on the ground. That made no sense to me as that’s the very basic training I used on my off-the-track horse who loved to test dominance by getting in my space. When he spooked, he would also spook INTO me, which was very dangerous. Through the very basics of classical dressage groundwork (using my dressage whip, body language and voice command as the guide), he has learned to move away from me through backing or leg yielding. The training is so ingrained into him that now if he spooks at all, he spooks away from me. And because body language and voice command had also been used, I don’t need the whip anymore to get him to back off me. Instead, I take a determined step toward him (sometimes raising my hand) and say “back,” and he does without hesitation (or fear as he was never hit with the whip during this training...it was strictly a guide.)

I did have a good experience some years ago with a woman who was certified by a big name natural horsemanship trainer. She had experience with all types of horses including thoroughbreds and warmbloods, not just the quarter horses that most of these trainers seem to be only familiar with. I loved riding with her. Her techniques fully complemented my classical dressage background. But then she moved to Nevada.

I just wish one of the real natural horsemanship folks would make his or her way to this area. No tricks. No props. No special halters or sticks. Give me something that makes sense.