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I have been traing horses since I was ten years old, and I was taught by my father who was a trick rider in a wils west show. Fathe never taught me how to teach a horse to lay down, because he thought it was too dangerous for a youth to try alone. I have wanted to learn this for years and would like to find some comments on the subject.
- Rarey discusses his method in his book, which is on line. It looks to me to be more like the way a horse lies down naturally than the way that a family friend of mine trained his "trick" horse. There may be a record somewhere of how the desert tribes in Arabia train their horses. I've observed with my own horse, who was four when I got her and a little wild, that she felt very vulnerable when lying down and when she saw me coming toward her she would always quickly get up. Later, as she got to know me better, she became less worried about my presence, and finally she would remain lying even when I had come to move her from one pasture to the other. I think at this point, if I cared to try to mount her as a rider wounded in battle might do, she might not get too upset.
- I was very successful in mounting her the first time because I had a way of not putting my weight on her suddenly or making any sudden movements. I think the road to success in getting a horse to lie down on command must be to avoid fear and struggling to escape. P0M 15:47, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
