EUREKA MOMENTS, TRAINING INSIGHTS

Insight can help us understand our horses better. Where does insight come from? Typically it results from experience tempered with thought leading to some fresh realization. So even those challenging moments we struggle through with our horses (everyone has them) can result in newfound wisdom…if we take the time to think them through.

We asked four experienced horsemen to share their own “eureka moments”—that is, the pivotal events that led to key horse-training insights. Read their stories—provided in their own words—and you’ll increase your ability to recognize and benefit from eureka moments of your own.

TOMMY GARLAND: Temper, Temper

A popular clinician as well as a show trainer, Powhatan, Virginia-based Tommy Garland is a past Western Pleasure Trainer of the Year for the Arabian Professional and Amateur Horseman’s Association. His eureka moment, which came when he was training and showing Quarter Horses with his father, helped set him up for success with Arabians—and all horses.

My dad could train anything. He knew when he had to correct a horse for something, but he was always easy-handed and quiet. He’d think his way through problem areas. He never lost his cool.

My eureka moment came when I was 21 and working with my dad. I was riding a 2-year-old green Quarter Horse gelding that was being difficult. I can’t remember now what I was trying to get him to do, only that he definitely wasn’t getting it. Frustrated, I began to get heavy-handed. My dad noticed.

“You got that?” he called.

“Yeah,” I grunted. I continued