Do you think Agility is harder than Horses?
- Thread starter adojrts
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I've grown up with horses. Before I got Riot - I taught lessons and trained horses. basically was a freelance coach/trainer..
Training horses is WAYY EASIER then training a dog!! lol
Horses dont need to hear your voice, they dont need to see your hands for directions..
They go all by body language. Its much eaiser to speak to a horse with body language and get them to understand exactly what you'd like - then it is to teach a dog to down or stay lol
Flight animals always seemed to have a quicker response to movement as well..
Horses have specific targets on them, if your energy pushes into a certain one - it makes the horse move a certain way.
.. dogs are a little more difficult! lol
Training horses is WAYY EASIER then training a dog!! lol
Horses dont need to hear your voice, they dont need to see your hands for directions..
They go all by body language. Its much eaiser to speak to a horse with body language and get them to understand exactly what you'd like - then it is to teach a dog to down or stay lol
Flight animals always seemed to have a quicker response to movement as well..
Horses have specific targets on them, if your energy pushes into a certain one - it makes the horse move a certain way.
.. dogs are a little more difficult! lol
I think its about par for the basic stuff. At that level one isn't anymore difficult than the other. But I firmly believe training a horse to become a show jumper or hunter is much easier than training a dog to compete in agility.
I have a reasonable history with horses as well with training/showing/coaching.
Lynn
I have a reasonable history with horses as well with training/showing/coaching.
Lynn
I think it depends on comparing apples to apples so to speak.. Training a horse to GP dressage I think is every bit as hard as training a world caliber agility dog. But I think it is a lot easier to train a horse to do basic showing stuff. But the horses have been bred for thousands upon thousands of years to let us ride them. Very few breeds of dogs have needed to have the sheer number of skills as there is to be proficient in agility.
It takes a good 5 years to get a horse to the upper echelons of Dressage (if you are good, and your horse is talented) Most horses don't hit their prime in the ring for another few years after that. It doesn't take 7 years to make most agility dogs, if you are a great trainer.
But agility sure isnt' as easy as it looks. 3 runs today, no Qs lol.
It takes a good 5 years to get a horse to the upper echelons of Dressage (if you are good, and your horse is talented) Most horses don't hit their prime in the ring for another few years after that. It doesn't take 7 years to make most agility dogs, if you are a great trainer.
But agility sure isnt' as easy as it looks. 3 runs today, no Qs lol.
Horses also live 2-3 times longer than dogs, you can't compare time lines.
Considering that one can start foundation skills with a puppy. Which prepares them for agility, foals and yearlings and even 2 yr olds have very little done with them except for basic handling...........
And although there is liberty horses that do perform riderless and tackless, and yes they jump etc, I would love to see a horse be able to perform a cantering pirouette or several of them with a rider.............
Considering that one can start foundation skills with a puppy. Which prepares them for agility, foals and yearlings and even 2 yr olds have very little done with them except for basic handling...........
And although there is liberty horses that do perform riderless and tackless, and yes they jump etc, I would love to see a horse be able to perform a cantering pirouette or several of them with a rider.............
I was talking training time. I think it does compare. If it takes 5 years to get a horse going well (so horse is now 8 which would be very young for an upper level horse) IT doesn't take 5 years to train a dog.
I I do think if the same methods were used to train horses, liberty performances would be the same. LOL just wait. We are working on having a horse that does all the GP dressage stuff riderless. (tackless too)
I I do think if the same methods were used to train horses, liberty performances would be the same. LOL just wait. We are working on having a horse that does all the GP dressage stuff riderless. (tackless too)
I'm going to go against the crowd and say horses are harder. Mainly because you are adding the rider's own physical limitations and mental issues to those of the horse. Obviously, some of that comes into play with agility as well, but not nearly as much.
My own left arm is not nearly as well connected to my brain as my right arm is. So with agility, I have a really hard time "flipping" Meg from my right side to my left; the left arm doesn't pick her up as well as my right, and I end up turning into her too much and she panics. I've quickly learned to counteract the effect by using a different motion with my right arm, and teaching her the verbal cue.
With the horse, I can't make those changes. Verbal means little to him, and is illegal in the dressage ring. Nothing is going to change the fact that I have a hard time allowing his left hindleg to step under because my arm isn't good, other than improving my arm. I think with dogs you are able to make more adjustments to suit the dog and handler; with horses, a lot less options are open.
Riding my horse around the Saratoga racetrack, there is always a bit of concern in the back of my mind that the speakers are going to blast, one of the baby racehorses is going to bolt past, or the carriages are going to go by, and my horse will have a meltdown. At least I never worry about returning alive from agility trials! My friend asked me why I don't get nervous at trials; it is so much less stressful than horseshows for me!
So, as a long suffering dressage rider and a newer agility competitor, that is my opinion. Take it with one of those big blocks of salt.
My own left arm is not nearly as well connected to my brain as my right arm is. So with agility, I have a really hard time "flipping" Meg from my right side to my left; the left arm doesn't pick her up as well as my right, and I end up turning into her too much and she panics. I've quickly learned to counteract the effect by using a different motion with my right arm, and teaching her the verbal cue.
With the horse, I can't make those changes. Verbal means little to him, and is illegal in the dressage ring. Nothing is going to change the fact that I have a hard time allowing his left hindleg to step under because my arm isn't good, other than improving my arm. I think with dogs you are able to make more adjustments to suit the dog and handler; with horses, a lot less options are open.
Riding my horse around the Saratoga racetrack, there is always a bit of concern in the back of my mind that the speakers are going to blast, one of the baby racehorses is going to bolt past, or the carriages are going to go by, and my horse will have a meltdown. At least I never worry about returning alive from agility trials! My friend asked me why I don't get nervous at trials; it is so much less stressful than horseshows for me!
So, as a long suffering dressage rider and a newer agility competitor, that is my opinion. Take it with one of those big blocks of salt.
I think that horses are harder... I find that working with a flight-minded animal is much more challenging. Having said that, I exclusively rode/trained rescue horses so that likely has something to do with it (been out of the horse circuit for 5 years). I put way more training into riding because without precision (in your own carriage as well as your horse) you end up with refusals or on your bum! Its so much harder to compensate for less than perfect conformation or movement with horses as well IMO.
I could be off base since Dodger is my first performance dog and is incrediby easy (even though he's a hound). But I think that if you understand motivation, you can pretty much find success (relatively speaking) with any dog. And also, Dodger barely needed any stride/jump/gymnastic training - whereas the horses I've ridden have been far from natural movers.
I could be off base since Dodger is my first performance dog and is incrediby easy (even though he's a hound). But I think that if you understand motivation, you can pretty much find success (relatively speaking) with any dog. And also, Dodger barely needed any stride/jump/gymnastic training - whereas the horses I've ridden have been far from natural movers.
I agree that horses are harder. I belive horses are harder for *me* because I have a very poor seat at the moment (I am wokring on it!) and I find riding requires a lot more out of me...
If you have broke a horse for scratch, and trained a dog from a puppy, then some will know dogs are easier and way safer - well thats my opinion anyways.
If you have broke a horse for scratch, and trained a dog from a puppy, then some will know dogs are easier and way safer - well thats my opinion anyways.
I'm not talking about raising puppy/dog vs raising a foal. I have started probably about a 1000 horses in my life. And I ended up working with problem horses, at first I didn't seek them out but I was always willing to take them on.......then I looked for them because they always had such a hard time and I felt bad for them.
I had an interesting job as a kid (11 yrs to 14 yrs), we had a local horse dealer and it was my job to get on everything he purchased and find out what they knew and didn't know. He often purchased horses without seeing them rode and took the sellers word :yikes: of how well trained they were.
I figure as a kid I rode nothng less than 350 horses of all sizes, breeds and types. Those horses taught me so much, to say it was an education in body language, behaviour, training methods, patience and how to save ones neck would be an under statment lol.
I am not going to bore everybody with my resume (lol pm me if you want to know, still love chatting about horses too). But its been a long road and to different levels of training and in my opinion training and running agility is generally harder. And just because we are directly connected to the horse, because we don't have to remember the path we want the horse to take which is different than our own lol.
Although I do have to say understanding and using body language with dogs has been much easier for me, because of all the studying that I did on horse's body language. Yes its different, but you learn with a flight animal to be come so aware of it, how it works and why etc.
Lynn
I had an interesting job as a kid (11 yrs to 14 yrs), we had a local horse dealer and it was my job to get on everything he purchased and find out what they knew and didn't know. He often purchased horses without seeing them rode and took the sellers word :yikes: of how well trained they were.
I figure as a kid I rode nothng less than 350 horses of all sizes, breeds and types. Those horses taught me so much, to say it was an education in body language, behaviour, training methods, patience and how to save ones neck would be an under statment lol.
I am not going to bore everybody with my resume (lol pm me if you want to know, still love chatting about horses too). But its been a long road and to different levels of training and in my opinion training and running agility is generally harder. And just because we are directly connected to the horse, because we don't have to remember the path we want the horse to take which is different than our own lol.
Although I do have to say understanding and using body language with dogs has been much easier for me, because of all the studying that I did on horse's body language. Yes its different, but you learn with a flight animal to be come so aware of it, how it works and why etc.
Lynn
I would have to agree with those that say horses are harder than dogs. I think both sports require the same amount of dedication in order to really excel, but I think with dogs its easier in the sense that you can work with your dog in short sessions several times a day and possibly see results a bit quicker. With horses that can be a bit more difficult.
There is also the safety factor. While yes, you can most definitely fall down, trip over your dog, etc while doing rally, agility or obedience, getting hurt training a young horse is pretty common. My last horse was off the track and she threw me for a loop on several occasions (literally).
I have a couple of broken bones, head injuries and scrapes and scratches from training horses but so far (knock on wood) none from training my agility dogs.
There is also the safety factor. While yes, you can most definitely fall down, trip over your dog, etc while doing rally, agility or obedience, getting hurt training a young horse is pretty common. My last horse was off the track and she threw me for a loop on several occasions (literally).
I have a couple of broken bones, head injuries and scrapes and scratches from training horses but so far (knock on wood) none from training my agility dogs.