POINT OF VIEW All of these reflections brought me to some interest-
ing conclusions: The statements of the old masters deserve to be
examined in their context. Most modern science ends up proving the empirical conclusions of trainers who had spent 40 or 50 years training a multitude of horses to a high level. To be an effective trainer, we must read and reread the classical books to understand the principles that have been time-tested and proven effective. This goes for the understanding of behavior: teach- ing a horse to move on the lunge line respects the most basic tenet of herd behavior: who creates and controls movement is the dominant one and the more precise the movement, the deeper the influence we gain over the horse’s mind through the control of his body. One big step forward in that progression is inherent to piaffe: it is the maximum mobility with- out forward movement, mixing calm and energy without force from the rider (domi- nant). Piaffe, when done correctly (see ar- ticle on lightness in the previous issue) com- pletely replaces the “fight or flee” reaction with a movement that offers the advantage of freeing completely the horse’s body and preparing him for col- lection in all the other gaits. Operant conditioning is the most intelligent form
of teaching an animal by motivating his responses the right way (he gets to determine a rewarding outcome by performing the desired behavior). Baucher was a pioneer in the science of apprenticeship, saying: “De- mand often, be satisfied with a little [progress], reward lavishly.” The relaxation of muscles that are too tight (from spasm) or the stimulation of the ones that are too lazy (from lack of tone), can correct a defective gesture by im- proving the range of motion and the timing of individual limbs. This in turn, can correct the horse’s gait, his posture and his balance. Better balance always leads to greater physical and emotional comfort and produces a positive effect on behavior. A relaxed horse will be much more willing to do what is asked of him than a tense horse who feels incapable of performing any movement in a sym- metrical posture that will feel completely unnatural to him at first. Those are the elements that must guide the train-
er, particularly in the early phase of the education, as the first rides have the most impact on the horse’s fu- ture behavior and cooperation with his rider. This can- not be done in a day, as it takes a month or so to get a horse physically organized to understand the job of
66 November/December 2017
carrying a rider, strengthen and supple his body, get rid of his most flagrant asymmetries, get him used to all the forms of contact that horsemanship is going to impose on him and transform innate reactions into predictable responses.
Baucher was a
pioneer in the science of apprenticeship, saying: “Demand
often, be satisfied with a little [progress], reward lavishly.”
Endotapping In 1992, I stumbled into the fact that repetitive, rapid, non-painful tapping would relax any horse in very short order. I developed that method into a systematic “school of the aids” that I named (and trademarked as) Endo- tapping, which is based on different rhythms of tapping. Progress is guided by the following prin- ciple: the horse first resists any contact by pushing against it or freezing, then once used to it, he ignores it for a moment. If the tapping continues, he shows all the signs of relaxation (lowering the head, relaxing the topline, slower breathing, chewing and licking, etc.). After that stage, single taps associated with forward requests at the walk (clucks) start to modify the horse’s gait (longer steps or quicker lift offs). It is
those steps that help “reprogram” the horse’s movements. The horse learns to turn, start walking or trotting for- ward, rein back, step sideways, lengthen the stride, slow down the tempo, halt on a steady pressure of the stick on various parts of the body (under the neck, the back, etc.), relax on command and diagonalize the stride in walk. This work is a perfect preparation for starting a horse and can be done on a colt as young as three months. After that, regular lunging, desensitization to tack, long lining and eventually riding are greatly facilitated. When the horse knows how to relax on command, the backing pro- cess is both simplified and made safer. I have seen many methods of starting horses in Eu-
rope, the U.S. and Australia, orchestrated by very talented people. I truly believe in the system I have developed for my horses, a combination of methods I learned from many “masters.” Horses stay sound and happy; riders are safe. These are always the most important things—the goals we must never lose sight of.
JP Giacomini has trained close to 20 Grand Prix horses and worked on thousands of remedial horses of various breeds. He studied un- der Nuno Oliveira and later at the National Portuguese Stud of Alter Real. He has produced international winners in all three disciplines and invented a unique training method called “Endotapping.” JP breeds and trains Iberian Sport Horses at his and his wife Shelley’s Baroque Farms USA in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. JP can be reached at
jpgiacomini@gmail.com.
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