The Better Deal: Practical Horsemanship Training for You and Your Horse - Paperback

by Ona Kiser (Author), Margaret Beeman (Author)

A true partnership with your horse is built on a bond of trust created through understanding and mutual respect. The Better Deal is about helping you get there. Margaret Beeman, drawing on decades of experience working with horsemen and women in multiple disciplines, including national and international competitors, begins with the basics: the facts about the nature of the horse and the herd rules. She then demonstrates the things you need to learn about yourself: how to move your body, control your emotions, and understand the language you will use to communicate clearly with your horse. Finally she describes a comprehensive series of ground exercises which apply this new understanding and can be used to evaluate and address problems at all levels. The exercises are explained step by step and illustrated with photos. Margaret's methods are designed to help both the competitor who wants to get to the next level and the pleasure rider or driver who wants to have more fun and feel safer with their horse. Her approach is designed to help people who don't want to keep handing their horse to a trainer to be fixed, but want to understand how to develop their own horsemanship skills to work and progress independently. Developing a partnership based on respect and understanding not only brings greater satisfaction and pleasure to anyone working with horses, but also makes working with horses much safer. Feeling safer with your horse is a huge step to having more fun and greater success, whatever your discipline.

Author Biography

Margaret Beeman is a third generation horsewoman. She grew up in rural New England learning the skill of horsemanship from her father, who taught her the then-popular methods of Professor Beery from Ohio. Her family owned Broken Wheel Ranch where Margaret and her brother, under the guidance of their father, trained ponies for children. The ranch also operated a logging and sawmill business and used wood for heat. The bulk of the ponies' basic training was applied while learning to drive single and double, working in the woods skidding in logs for the mill and firewood. They were then put under saddle, trail ridden and taught the lessons of child ownership and performance. Margaret traveled the tri-state horse show and rodeo circut performing in English and Western events, driving and trick riding. In her later life, Margaret found the techniques she had grown up with were not always sufficient or safe enough for an adult with more sense and less flexibility than a fearless child. After a serious accident at the age of 25 she turned to the horsemanship tradition taught by trainers like Ray Hunt, the Dorrance Brothers, John Lyons, Buck Brannaman and Peter Campbell. This approach of horsemanship - as opposed to just discipline-specific training - transformed her work with horses and people. She discovered she had a knack for seeing where horses and their owners become stuck and was now able to help them understand where the problem was coming from and how to approach it in a safer, more effective way. She has since worked successfully with people in many disciplines and horses of many breeds. From 1995 to 2006 she was trainer and coach for USET member and two-time national champion Scott Monroe and his horse Shadow, from training level through two World Championship singles combined driving competitions. Her program is based on actual facts about the horse and how to work within the horse's limited capacity of understanding to achieve results. This book is a record of the basic training program she applies to all horses and people of every level and that she considers the foundation of communication between horse and person. Margaret Beeman owns and operates Broken Wheel Ranch where she offers private training, workshops and clinics in riding and driving. Her DVD The Better Deal was released in 2004. Visit www.beemansbetterdeal.com for news, clinic schedules, articles and more information.