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How does your day begin?
My day begins early with the first lessons at 8:00 AM. All instruction with horses or humans have the same goal. "To create a clear mental and physical communication with the horse."
Who is your mentor and why?
My mentor is my father. His enthusiasm and love for horses was very important to me. I was truly born fascinated by the horse. I thought for many years I was the only one who felt this way, but my Dad did too. I can remember going to the movies and seeing Roy Rogers, Steve Reeves and all the other heroes of the Silver Screen. Everyone else in the theater was enjoying the scenery, the heroes and the acting. I was fascinated and interested only in the horses. I was amazed that the people, who were watching the movie with me, were not even aware of the horses. The horses were all I could see. I had eyes only for them. I remember this very clearly.
Formal training. Did you study with someone in the beginning or does your gift come naturally?
Everything I have learned about horse training was from people who knew nothing about horses. The horses themselves filled the rest in. My greatest influence has come from very talented, educated, logical and systematic people who knew nothing about horses. My Mother, Olga Ariss, and my brothers all contributed greatly in different ways.
What do you enjoy most about your career? What are the most rewarding aspects?
The thing I enjoy most is probably the urgency I feel for each night to be over; so I can get started the next day. The most rewarding experience for me is knowing that everything I do with horses pays off; not just in my eyes but most importantly, in the eyes of the owners. To see progress is really great, but to see improvement reflected in the eyes of the owners, it's tenfold. It is so rewarding to see the happiness in their eyes and to hear them make such a big deal out of "what might seem" small achievements. Many times the changes they see; far exceed the goals they were trying to reach."
How did you discover the training technique of letting your horses choose positive choices, never punishing them for mistakes and reinforcing positive behavior?
"Every time I would ask a horse to do something the horse would say No. I discovered that the answer I expected or demanded always seemed to be consistently anything "other" that what I wanted. It was then I realized that what I wanted had no value or importance to the horse. It almost seemed like, if I asked a horse to stop he would choose not to. If I asked a horse to drop his head he would do anything but drop his head. If I asked a horse to back up he would shut down. If I asked he horse to stand still he would prance instead, and so on. Soon after this, I set forth the challenge of finding a system that never directly asked anything of a horse so that the possibility of the reply of saying "not wouldn't happen again."
You have a gift. What or who do you attribute this special talent to? Are you still leaning new ways to achieve success with your students and horses? Do you learn from your students?
I don't believe it is a gift. It is more like the need to identify, to understand and to communicate with horses. This satisfied my need to know the answers to "what worked or didn't work." Horses are so sensitive, so reactive, and so consistent; that in other words, the gift of horses made me more aware. I received an education in "horse sense". For example, I began to recognize things, that are so extremely obvious to me, how horses learn, accept and react is consistently logical. By observing horses critically, I came to understand myself and other's better. I suspect my learning will never end. My human students are my second best teaches.
Do you plan to write a book or do a video?
It is not a mater of, Will I? It is a matter of when.
What does the future hold? Are there any new stars on the horizon Do you have a protégé?
Hope fully the future will hold more of the same with a few twists and turns to keep it spontaneous and interesting. There is not much I would want to change. My future stars would definitely be my girls, Jessica 6 and Carena 4. They have already been infected with the incurable, life-time disease of horses.
How does your day end? And...what is a good day?
My day ends on an average at 6:00 to 7:00 PM. Before the end of every
session, not just the day, knowing that I have been understood and that the
experience was valuable to everyone, horse and student. That is a true
accomplishment.
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