To be a good trainer you need to study your subject but also you need to study what makes a person respond to your training. You are more than a horse trainer you are a promoter, either for yourself , your location, services, discipline, or breed. As a trainer or clients of trainers you should be looking for the thing that you are really selling or what is really being sold to you by your trainer. Your lesson trainer might be really looking for person interested in investing in showing or person wanting to buy breeding or racing stock. Once your barn is full of paying boarders you look to upgrade your business by get it filled with training horses who pay board plus training , if your barn is full of training horses you look for people who keep their horse with a trainer and come take lessons twice a week , or clients that haul to shows . This is building up your business 101. The problem is if you have a barn full of boarders do you just wait till someone moves out and then then sell your stall to a training customer or do you ask clients to move out to free up a stall for higher paying deal? As a client you need to find out if you have a place in trainers plans. You are either part of the problem or part of the answer. If you are not in a compatable, comfortable place you are not going to get the most for your money. Dont be the odd man out. As a young trainer you sometimes find yourself working at a place you cant see a future with. Sometimes you can promote yourself to another position by doing a great job even in difficult conditions. When I was starting in horses my trainer was away and another trainer came by who I showed around. When she talked to my trainer the next day she said 'Id take that employe off your hands anytime you dont need her, because she showed me every horses in the place and didnt have a bad thing to say about any of them.' Your ethical behavior as a trainer will win you clients. I always worked towards getting hired by a barn that was winning more than where I was working. Always worked like I was at a ROYAL stables and always treated my students like they were members of the ROYAL family. Trainer or student you have your part to do to make a partnership work. Check a persons references, talk to other clients, do some reaserch and then go observe and use your own judgement.

While I recomend the Happy Horsemanship book for trainers of beginers to teach out of I take just as carefull thought on the recomended books I have listed here for more advanced education of trainers. Trainers job is to OBSERVE. In every job you must be observent, grooms looks for signs of health and fitness related issues and reports to trainer thus becoming valued empolye over others who inderferently go about their jobs. Just as a race trainer does better with feedback of a top professional groom, a coach or instructor does better with an educated person than complacent individul. While part of being instructor is done at blackboard or looking at films you will find the prepared student leaps ahead of the rest. Long explinations in field are not as usefull as a time spent in action in your lesson. Bare bones explinations given in field compared to hours of carefull examination of differing theorys and thought as to desired outcome. In next 3 books you can get information about how to start a horse to get greatest harmony thru out life. As stated above John Lyons lives up to his name and brag 'Americas most trusted horseman' you cant go wrong with his book. If your horse is not a foal you may well descover a key missing in his early learning that you need to address before he starts being ridden or before you advance in his ridden training.
Lounging is a art and Cherry Hill writes on it so inteligently you cant help but be inspired. I grew up studing lunging as english art from British Horse Society Horsemasters program.WE HAD 35 FT LUNGE LINES. These were very strict and progressive and lots of time was spent getting it right. In her program you lunge to a circle Slightly Larger than your standard 60 ft round pen Because a 20 meter dressage circle is 66 feet across. To be acurate you need to practice in the larger size ring. Perfect practice makes perfect sense. Your 20 meter circle will be the same bend, number of strides etc giving you a winning advantage. She is one of the only writers addressing this ring size diference and her influence has made 'dressage size' lungelines a top selling leangth. More than a few clienhts of mine when told of this went out and bought an aditional piece to enlarge their lunge ring. Buy recomended R.R.A.A. books from our list today. Your purchase off this page will help Royal Riding Academy Association