Training Your Own Young Horse

By Jan Dickerson

Book Overview

Whether raising a homebred foal or buying a young horse, here are specific procedures for achieving a well-mannered, smooth-gaited mount that is a pleasure to ride. This book is an invaluable resource... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385022220
• ISBN13: 9780385022224
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Practical, not cultish

I stumbled upon this book long ago when I purchased a young horse. I ended up using the tips in this book to do a better job riding said horse and to teach many horses to load in a trailer. It might be 30 years old but it is one practical book. It teaches respect for the horse, but doesn't go overboard like some natural horsemanship approaches. So glad to see that it is available again.

Everyone should own this book!

I had the great honor of being one of Jan Dickerson's students in the 1970's and 1980's. I have read both of the books so many times and refer to them constantly. I have used them to train my own horse and now use them to help people train their horses. They are very readable and filled with very appropriate information and techniques. I can not express my respect for her and her work!

A great book! A classic on humane and effective horse training

Like an idiot at 34, not having ridden since I was 16, I bought an untrained horse. Thank heavens I found this dusty book in my university library and carefully followed its instructions step by step. That was 26 years and several more horses ago, and I have used this book again and again with great success. There were parts I learned by memory. Her step by step approach is gentle but no-nonsense. In the 1960s there were no books by Lyons or Parelli. Few people seem now to know about Jan Dickerson, but she was a real trail blazer in the field of sensible and humane horse training. Dated? Perhaps. But horses remain horses and if you read this book you will understand them a lot better. And since every time you ride a horse you are training it, it is the type of book everyone who rides, not just trainers needs to have read.

The best horse training book I've ever read

I bought a 4 yr old unbroke mare as a project horse when I was a teenager and used this book, chapter by chapter, to train her. She turned out to be a wonderful, well-broke, well-mannered mount. I have lots of fond memories of that mare, due in large part to the training she received as a direct result of this book. I would read sections as I worked on them, and if I was having trouble go back and re-read them! One of the things that helped me the most was the tips about what to watch out for - then I'd be ready with the PROPER response to make sure problems never developed. Now that I'm older, I realize that this book was telling me a lot more than how to train young horses - it was explaining how horses think and how to be successful training at any level. It teaches a mindset. Wonderful, wonderful book! I'm so glad it's available in print again.

Plenty good info

this book had helpful information on horses and training, even for people who own older horses. It stayed entertaining while being a how-to book. Though it may look outdated, I think most of the techniques in the book are acceptable and clear-cut. [though i don't have a horse of my own to try them out on!] here are the contents so you can get a feel for what the book covers: *Preface 1. Your Role as a Trainer 2. The Horse You Want to Train 3. Satllions, Mares, and Geldings 4. First Handling and Halter-Breaking 5. Sacking and Gentling 6. Refining Ground Manners 7. Longeing and Line-Driving 8. Trailer Training 9. First Saddling and Riding 10. Establishing Basic Controls 11. Riding Cross-Country each chapter is broken into smaller parts. i recommend this book for anyone who is interested in training young horses.