After I bought my first fox trotter I wanted to learn correct horsemanship for this breed and how to train my own horse. I had horses when I was growing up but hadn't had any formal training. For this training I relied on someone I knew to have trained horses and taught horsemanship for many years. This was Bob Blackwell and his training method is called "HossLogic."  It is a force free method that had its origins before force free training became commercialized.  He had been teaching since the 1950's before there was glamour in being a "horse whisperer" so I knew I would be getting genuine horsemanship instruction. He had even ridden for the Queen of England and taught his method of horsemanship and shoeing there.

He has done a lot to explain why the things I do that are right work and why some things I have been doing wrong all these years didn't.  I learned better ways to ride, better ways to balance, better ways than trying to use a bit to make a horse stop, better ways to safely accustom horses to new sights and sounds, how to imprint my mare's filly from before birth, and many other training and horsemanship techniques that really worked. One reason they worked, Bob keeps reminding me, is because they are based on knowing what the horse will do as a result of of what I do. Another aid is to know how a horse will react to what is and what happens around it due to instinct. Both are common sense approach in using "HossLogic."
I am including some pics of myself doing some of the things I have learned.
 

I've now ridden green horses that have never been ridden, safely.  I have learned round pen training as a way of prepare for and aid in our training.
I've learned how easy it is to halter break a horse and have watched Bob "talk" an unhandled horse into a trailer. I've learned to handle young horses and teach them to give to pressure which makes any kind of training easier when they get older.
 
 
 
 

I have learned that in trail training there is no substitute for riding in the same environment that is generally encountered on an average trail ride.
 
 
 
 
 

I've learned a lot of common sense approaches to problems I have needed to solve.  Bob shows me and suggests but lets me think it through. Understanding "why" things work helps a lot. I am also learning about rider error when it comes to gait, methods that work to correct a horse that paces and much more.

Tamara
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