The Art of Proper Training
Al Ragusin’s Lessons on Precision Training
Over the years, Al Ragusin’s precision horse training has been based on the belief that the training must involve the knowledge of the horse’s capabilities, state of mind, and exactly how much training he can endure at any given time.
As an expert trainer, Al works hard to get inside the horse’s mind. He wants to know when his horse is learning and if the horse understands the instructions given. Al believes that he needs to know whether the horse has become mentally tired or is refusing to follow instructions. One actually needs to get inside the horse’s mind: to know the horse as he knows his own children.
Teaching a horse a dance, and the horse understanding the cues he is given, takes time. The horse then must be able to do it so quickly that it becomes routine.
Reacting to the cues and developing the muscles that make him move contrary to his natural movements takes a lot of the horse’s energy. Sometimes 2 to 3 times a training session is all he can take. In order to perfect this movement, it must be done 1,000 to 2,000 times. Given that you ride him 5 days a week (which is a lot), 2 to 3 times a session, approximately 15 times a week for each dance step, one can see that in order to practice a movement 1,000 to 2,000 times involves years of training. In a show, more than 20 dance steps are used with all the horses involved and each dance step must be coordinated with each beat of each song for it to match perfectly.
With all this, surely the reason why horse training is not being done on a wide scale is that it takes a lifetime to accomplish. And that’s exactly what Al Ragusin has done. He has dedicated his life to his art for the sole reason of sharing a small amount of time with you in horsemanship and tradition.