The Making of an EAL Horse
Developing EAL Horses: The Journey from Training to EAL Program Success
We are often asked “how do you train your horses for the program?”
Having safe, friendly horses that like to teach is a top priority for us at Dreamwinds. They are the masters in the arena and have the greatest impact on our client experience. It’s important that they embrace their role and help our clients have the most positive experience so they can learn and feel safe.
When it comes to creating excellent teachers, it’s not really about training them to do the program per se because we want our horses to naturally respond and it’s their instincts and natural behaviors that we interpret to share insights with our clients. But we do need to get them comfortable with the various obstacles they’ll encounter in our program and we need to help them accumulate the appropriate life experience to be effective teachers. There are a few key steps we follow along the way.
STEP 1: Choose Wisely
It all begins with selecting a suitable horse. Not all horses are cut out for this work and being able to identify the personality, temperament and behaviors that will work well is both a science and an art! The first thing we look for is a horse that is genuinely interested in us when we approach. Dreamwinds’ teachers MUST love people! If they pass that first test, we go on to assess their curiosity, confidence and energy. What we really need to know is if they are respectful and safe. Safety is always the #1 consideration in selecting or developing an EAL horse.
STEP 2: The Evaluation
When we find a horse that has potential, we complete a comprehensive evaluation of their behavior and reactions in different situations using our EAL Equine Evaluation Survey developed by the founders of the Cartier EAL Certification Program. This includes testing how they react and respond to pressure, their navigation of obstacles and tolerance of movement, noise and human “interference”. We simulate activities and interactions that we expect them to see in our programs to understand how they respond, behave and teach.
STEP 3: The Homecoming
If all goes well, we bring our new teaching candidate home. Ideally, we have a trial period or a lease agreement that gives us time to test the horse in the program for a period of time. Of course, we love them and want to keep them all, BUT if EAL isn’t their calling we know it is better to discover that early and allow them the opportunity to find a home that better meets their needs. During this trial phase, we give them a little time to settle into their new environment and join the herd. Then we begin groundwork sessions and getting them accustomed to the arena and obstacles. If this is an older horse with life experience, it may not take very long to deem them suitable for some client exposure. With a younger horse, this may be just the beginning of their development to prepare them for their new career. Whatever their age, this period will always include the following activities that continue throughout their life:
- Trust Building – Establishing a strong bond of trust between the horse and the trainer is essential. This involves spending time together, grooming, and engaging in activities that promote mutual understanding and respect. We also take our teachers to different environments, around home and away, to further build trust and confidence in unknown places and situations.
- Basic Obedience/Handling Safety – Ensuring the horse is well-trained in basic commands such as walking, stopping, turning, and standing still. This lays the foundation for more advanced training. Many of our horses have riding careers as well, so this part of the training may start to get specific to their respective disciplines, be it jumping, dressage or trail riding.
- Desensitization – Exposure to various stimuli (such as different sounds, objects, and environments) helps the horse become more tolerant and less reactive, which is crucial when working with different individuals during EAL sessions. Having just constructed our new facility we had lots of opportunity to expose our horses to the sights and sounds of an active construction site!
- Exposure to Props – Introducing the horse to various props used in EAL activities, such as cones, poles, and obstacles, helps familiarize them with the equipment they may encounter during sessions. We are Dollar General junkies when it comes to props and obstacles. There is no end to the weird things they may encounter in our arena!
STEP 4: Program Introduction
- After successful exposure to all the things, we begin to introduce them to program work. The first opportunity is always a fun, low-stress, non-client event. We invite horse-savvy friends to join us for some exercises with multiple people and multiple horses to simulate a live program. This ensures the horse’s first experience is with a confident handler who can reassure them and be the leader they need them to be. This also helps ensure that any of the horse’s questions are answered with patience, confidence and consistency to make it a positive learning experience for them as well. We want them to know that EAL is fun and they get to have an opinion while we guide them to share those opinions in a calm, safe manner. After some positive practice sessions, they are ready to meet and wow our clients!
It’s important to keep in mind that there is no prescribed timeline for all of this, every horse is different based on who they are and where they are starting from. Liv, our young jumper, was a calm, quiet yearling who went through all these steps and handled the obstacles and excitement with ease. She is now being exposed to occasional client sessions at 5 years old. Luke and Simon were seasoned professionals with lots of life experience when they joined the herd. It wasn’t long before they were #1 teachers in our herd. Echo is our new 6 year-old thoroughbred who still isn’t quite sure of his place here, so he’s getting more time to settle in and build trust. We’ll stay in that phase until he shows he’s ready for more. And also be mindful that this is a lifelong process. As teachers, they are faced with mixed messages and can get confused. Providing opportunities for them to reset and rebuild their confidence and boundaries between sessions is key to a long-term enjoyable career for them.
It takes patience, respect and consistency to help the horse blossom into their role as teacher and it is time very well spent. This is noble work these beautiful animals do for us and when we put the horse first they shine in our experience. All of these steps have helped Dreamwinds develop a wonderful team of teachers who enjoy their work. Each horse will develop their own teaching style. It’s incredibly gratifying to see a new horse evolve, begin to play and have fun teaching in our programs. They too enjoy the journey!
