 |
Horse Training
Kris has been riding, roping, and training horses his entire life. People that know him will tell you: he has an eye for picking good horses and a natural talent for putting the animals at ease and coaxing them to do just what he wants. His passion is starting and training young horses that he has hand picked as yearlings. Although he doesn’t advertise the fact, on occasion he will work for others, training horses that have developed bad habits or need extra work to improve their performance, whether it's in the arena or on the ranch.
What method of horse training does Kris advocate?
These days, there are lots of specific terms, buzz words, about specific methods for horse training. In fact, some methods have been labeled by copyrighted terms that the originators want to protect from being used by other trainers. Bring any of those terms up in conversation with Kris and you get a sense of a little uneasiness on his part. It’s not that he doesn’t agree with the methods. In fact he uses some of them and is very skilled in the techniques. Rather, it’s that he doesn’t take a fancy book approach to anything, over a practical common sense approach — especially not with horses. What's more, every horse is a little different and what works on one doesn’t necessarily work on the next. So he explains: "You adapt as you learn the horses personality. So much of it is common sense, correcting behaviors or teaching new skills comes through trust built between the trainer and the animal — how do you put a label on that and then name it as a specific method?
One advantage Kris applies in training ranch horses.
As horses on the Vitt Ranch come along in the training process, there are plenty of opportunities to put them through the paces of real ranch work. The Vitt Ranch is home to a contract cattle preconditioning and backgrounding operation designed to handle about five-hundred cattle at a time. So these horses see real work gathering, sorting, cutting, roping, and doctoring cattle.
Horse Training Goals
Ask Kris about his goals for training horses, expecting that he might rattle off a list of specific trained moves, and instead you get a simple, practical answer that beats any list you'll ever read on other trainer’s web sites: “A ranch horse should be able to do anything you need it to do while working on the ranch, from something as simple as opening a gate while you're on it, to roping and cutting. You’d be able to show up for work with one of these horses and a ranch boss isn’t going to watch you for a little bit and then ask: why’d you bring that horse?”
Although many of Kris’ horses have gone on to be ridden in competitions, that’s not where his mind is at when he starts them. He puts it this way: “We start these horses with ranch work in mind. Riding them everyday while we work cattle and maintain the ranch gives them a good solid foundation to go on to do other things that someone who buys them might have in mind. It’s going to be an easy transition from ranch work to trail riding; or it’s not any stretch to take one of my horses and, with just a little experience on the road, develop it into a serious competitor in roping, cutting, barrels, or any other competitive event. Tell me what you want to do with your horse, I’ll help you pick the right one.”
See the horses we have for sale right now.
|
|
