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Understanding is the Key: A Comprehensive Guide to Creating a Partnership for Life with Your Young Horse
Understanding is the Key is not just another How-To-Train-Your-Horse book. Rather, it lays out all elements you need to develop your young horse into your dream horse, whatever it’s breed, personality or the discipline you prefer.
If your goal is that your horse enjoys the time you spend together and at the same time is well educated and reliable, this book will give you the keys to achieve just that.
With Understanding is the Key you will learn:
- how you can win the heart of your horse and create with awareness the wonderful relationship you wish to have
- to understand how horses learn, think and perceive the world around them so that you can avoid all those little everyday problems
- to understand what your part is on this journey together with your horse so that you can develop into the clear and loving leader your horse appreciates
- to understand the principles of fair horse training so that you will be able to educate your horse in a kind and clear way into a confident partner that is willing to please
- the ingredients and the road-map from foal to well-educated horse to make sure you don’t miss a step in the development of your youngster.
As a result, you will be able to decide for yourself what works and what doesn’t work for your horse and your goals and become independent of any horse training method out there.
The ultimate goal is that you and your horse enjoy every moment you spend together, no matter where you are in your journey.
If your goal is that your horse enjoys the time you spend together and at the same time is well educated and reliable, this book will give you the keys to achieve just that.
With Understanding is the Key you will learn:
- how you can win the heart of your horse and create with awareness the wonderful relationship you wish to have
- to understand how horses learn, think and perceive the world around them so that you can avoid all those little everyday problems
- to understand what your part is on this journey together with your horse so that you can develop into the clear and loving leader your horse appreciates
- to understand the principles of fair horse training so that you will be able to educate your horse in a kind and clear way into a confident partner that is willing to please
- the ingredients and the road-map from foal to well-educated horse to make sure you don’t miss a step in the development of your youngster.
As a result, you will be able to decide for yourself what works and what doesn’t work for your horse and your goals and become independent of any horse training method out there.
The ultimate goal is that you and your horse enjoy every moment you spend together, no matter where you are in your journey.
229 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 14, 2019
196 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 28, 2020
Let me start by saying I HIGHLY recommend this book if you are training your own horse and things are not going well. This book doesn't give specific solutions for horse or training problems, but rather shows you that everything can be fixed if you have a better understanding of your horse and the way you should be approaching your training.
I was a little skeptical at first. The first 1/3rd of the book seemed to be mostly horse training philosophy peppered with inspiration and encouragement. It was nice, but not what I was after.
However, once she got into the meat of the book, I was so glad I had purchased it. This book really enlightened me on some ideas and horse concepts that I had never realized.
I'm new to training my own horse, and he is proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. Honestly, I bought this book out of desperation. I have read, watched and sought training information for a solid year before I got my untrained horse. I thought I had it all figured out. But he just wasn't responding to the training methods that had proven to work for thousands of other horses. After a month together, I was frustrated and confused and considering sending him to a trainer and giving up on my dream.
But thanks to this book, I have turned it all around.
Her description of the different horse personalities--and how you should train each one differently--took us from fearful explosions and frustration to calm understanding. He now nickers and comes to the gate every morning when I come to work with him. His whole attitude towards learning and experiencing new things has become focused and engaged rather than the spooky dance it used to be. That is because of two main take-aways: I have worked on our relationship using some of the advice and methods in this book, and I have adapted my methods to better suit his personality. Our relationship is based on trust and clear understanding. He has a better idea of what I expect from him, and he trusts me enough to know that each new thing I introduce isn't something to be feared.
The author makes the concepts and ideas very clear, and I now better understand how to teach his specific personality. I am also aware of the type of horse that will not be a good fit for me, and will avoid the potential anxiety and heartache that comes with that. Overall, this book is well worth purchasing, and will be helpful with every horse that I bring into my life.
I was a little skeptical at first. The first 1/3rd of the book seemed to be mostly horse training philosophy peppered with inspiration and encouragement. It was nice, but not what I was after.
However, once she got into the meat of the book, I was so glad I had purchased it. This book really enlightened me on some ideas and horse concepts that I had never realized.
I'm new to training my own horse, and he is proving to be more difficult than I anticipated. Honestly, I bought this book out of desperation. I have read, watched and sought training information for a solid year before I got my untrained horse. I thought I had it all figured out. But he just wasn't responding to the training methods that had proven to work for thousands of other horses. After a month together, I was frustrated and confused and considering sending him to a trainer and giving up on my dream.
But thanks to this book, I have turned it all around.
Her description of the different horse personalities--and how you should train each one differently--took us from fearful explosions and frustration to calm understanding. He now nickers and comes to the gate every morning when I come to work with him. His whole attitude towards learning and experiencing new things has become focused and engaged rather than the spooky dance it used to be. That is because of two main take-aways: I have worked on our relationship using some of the advice and methods in this book, and I have adapted my methods to better suit his personality. Our relationship is based on trust and clear understanding. He has a better idea of what I expect from him, and he trusts me enough to know that each new thing I introduce isn't something to be feared.
The author makes the concepts and ideas very clear, and I now better understand how to teach his specific personality. I am also aware of the type of horse that will not be a good fit for me, and will avoid the potential anxiety and heartache that comes with that. Overall, this book is well worth purchasing, and will be helpful with every horse that I bring into my life.
July 18, 2022
I had the privilege of working together with Gabi for several months, training young horses. She is a wonderfully talented horse woman, and an exceptional instructor.
I'd recommend Understanding is the Key to anyone looking to start their young horse, or wanting to improve their relationship with their horse no matter the horse's age.
This book provides easy to understand examples and important theory about the way horses think, learn and communicate and how we can improve our own horsemanship.
I'd recommend Understanding is the Key to anyone looking to start their young horse, or wanting to improve their relationship with their horse no matter the horse's age.
This book provides easy to understand examples and important theory about the way horses think, learn and communicate and how we can improve our own horsemanship.
February 20, 2021
Gabi has great way of explaining how to create a life long relationship with your horse. I love that she focuses on different personalities of horse and rider and not just techniques. Also, she is very communicative via Facebook, and even emailed me personally! I highly recommend this book if you are starting a young horse.
July 30, 2022
I loved this book, Gabi really explains thing well. The confident/ unconfident and the extroverted/ introverted horse types really got me understanding my horses and how the best training methods are. She uses real life examples in her situations showing that she has done this and she knows what horse types work for what training methods.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2025
essential
The essential foundational knowledge for success with your horse. Approachable and easily understandable, I’d recommend every ammie with a horse to have it.
The essential foundational knowledge for success with your horse. Approachable and easily understandable, I’d recommend every ammie with a horse to have it.
September 22, 2019
I love horses and I always wanted one since I was a child. Never got one but read the book any how. I advise anyone buying a horse to read something like this if you have no knowledge what all it takes to own a horse. Lots more than I really thought about and now at my old age its to late to hope for one now. I did some riding in my early teens but thats all . Nothing to do with their care or health and other needs. I still love horses . I know that they have groups that use horses as help for emotional needs for people too. I love to watch them run and free in the pastures.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews