>> Judy, I definitely appreciate your continued advocacy for horses and feel >> that you have a lot more openness to accepting what US trainers do than >> anything an Icelandic trainer could do.
> These are my sentiments, too. I've ridden with maybe a half dozen > Icelandic > trainers and they were very different in style. Three or four of them I > would definitely consider to be "good horsemen", who know and follow the > principles of good training. OK, let's see them! Where are they? Can you get videos of them? I'd love to see someone who practiced icelandic-style riding and training, now practicing good horsemanship. Remember that we are talking about icelandic-style trainers.... those who use the icelandic training and riding style.... whether or not they are Icelanders. That basic style is hurtful, harmful to the horse. So far, I don't know any Icelanders who are horsemen, but I'm ready to see some proof. If they are indeed horsemen, they should feel real comfortable joining the list and discussing things with us. Bruno's riding bareback and bridleless is a good step in the right direction (not that he did anything functional except ride the horse in a straight line, on a closed track.... BTW why isn't there any video of that ride? odd that the WC was video'd, but there's no video of Bruno?). Yet, if he goes back to the barn and straps on a tight noseband, and / or allows his son to ride icelander-style, and participate in functions that abuse the horse, that negates, to me, putting any type of "good horseman" label on him. I have a fella from Iceland who writes and calls me. He says he practices his own style of riding and training, and worked with an NH guy in Europe, and learned some horsemanship. I asked him for videos about a year ago, but so far he hasn't gotten any. We have plenty of Icelanders on the list. If they wanted to support and show that icelandic-style riding and training is changing, they have the opportunity. > As a clicker trainer, I've learned to focus on the positive and ignore > what > I don't want. It may make the list a little more boring, but in the long > run, I think it is a more effective way to change the world. I'm not so sure that we'd be as far along as we are, or the horses would be less abused, if we didn't point out exact problem areas. Look at all the progress we have made in regard to saddles, nosebands, shoes, boots, centered riding, ground work, at least in North Amerca... where would we be if not for our list and the ability to change things to the positive for the horse. Robyn did her quiet work for years. It didn't change much, until we started SHOUTING things! Did Bruno start riding bareback and bridleless because he saw LTJ do it? No. He started after it was presented on the list. Remember, we had all the Germans, as well as Icelanders, speaking on the list at that time. They laughed at those of us who were doing NH (and clicker training), yet.... here they are, emulating some of the things that we presented. I don't think it helps for someone to only come onto the list to knock the ones who are having success in making changes for the horse, and to say things without being able to back them up with some type of tangible proof. Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com PS: To Robyn: Robyn, you must know how I feel about Monty Roberts. This has been on my site for a decade: http://www.horsetraining.8k.com/not.html
