Importance of Trainers in Horse Racing
Trainer is the one who has the responsibility to use different methods and techniques to train and coach. We see that there are Trainers in all fields of life like athletes, and racing animals.
Undoubtedly, there is much importance of trainers in Horse racing. They train horses for different types of races in which there are various techniques involved.
There are certain steps that the trainers follow during the training of their horses.
Horse training refers to a variety of practices that teach horses to perform certain behaviours when asked to do so by humans. Horses are trained to be manageable by humans for different purposes like for equestrian activities from horse racing to therapeutic horseback riding for people with disabilities. Historically, horses were trained for warfare, farm work, sport and transport. Today, most horse training is geared toward making horses useful for a variety of recreational and sporting equestrian pursuits.The basic animal training concepts apply to all forms of horse training. The initial goal of most types of training is to create a horse that is safe for humans to handle. Then comes Horse racing and other disciplines.
The trainers train the horse so that he behaves in ways that will not injure people or cause any accident. They try to go inside the mind of the horse, to understand the psychology of the horse, and then they use it to make the animal understand the goals of the human trainer. This is an extremely tough task that these trainers perform.
Horses are strongly social animals and when they are properly handled, they learn to follow and respect a human leader. Horses, as prey animals, have an inborn fight or flight instinct, which the trainer adapts first and then train the horse to rely upon him to determine when fear or flight is an appropriate response. The trainers mostly advise to get and train a young horse because that will more easily adapt to human expectations than an older one.
There are three major steps that the Trainers follow which include ‘the training of younger horses’, ‘Ground training’ and ‘Riding the young horse.’
In the training of younger horses, the trainers handle some at birth or few are dealt with after a number of days. While a foal is far too young to be ridden, it is still able to learn skills it will need later in life. At this stage he is trained to lead and is taught some basic skills. Rarer, but not uncommon even in the modern world, is the practice of leaving young foal completely unhandled until he grows old enough to be ridden. However, waiting until a horse is full grown to begin training is often far riskier for humans.
In the second stage after a young horse is already taught to lead and other basic skills, various tasks are introduced to the horse as it matures. However this is still not the stage to ride the horse because he is too young to be ridden. Several ground training techniques are commonly introduced at this stage to the horse like liberty work, Longeing, Long lining, desensitization. After this stage, the trainer makes the horse completely ready to be ridden.
Yet the horse still has to go through the last stage of training which is riding the young horse. The age that horses are first ridden varies by breed and discipline. The act of getting on a horse for the first time goes by many names, including backing, breaking, mounting, and simply riding. Most horses have a cart first put behind them at first in order to learn better discipline and to help develop stronger muscles with less stress, and then finally they are ready to be put under the saddle.
There is big controversy over various methods of horse trainings. Some techniques of the training are considered cruel, other methods are considered gentler and more humane. Some training techniques may appear cruel to people unused to horse behaviour, but in practice may not be as harsh as they appear.
However, the trainers do tremendous jobs by making this animal understand everything which is required of him. Whether, it is about the basic horse racing techniques or the advanced level performances. Trainers play an important role in the racing career of horses.
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