Customer Reviews

Lyons on Horses

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is the end all say all of horse training. Not onlydoes John Lyons take you step by step through the creation of anobedient and willing partner, but he does it with out ever hurting or threatening to hurt the horse. By using John Lyons methods your horse becomes willing and eager to do what you ask of him, not bullied into listening through fear of punishment. I would heartily recomend this book to any horse owner who wants thier horse to be a life partner, and not just a beast of burden bullied into cooperating.

I felt like this book had a very generic outlook on things. It just didn't go in depth enough to satisfy what I wanted to learn. If you are truly looking to get a better partnership with you and your horse, I recommend Pat Parelli's book: Natural Horsemanship. It just has a more easy to read and more horse savvy format than this book seemed to.

I have been using this book as I work with my 7 year old gelding and see a big improvement in his behavior. This book does not replace a clinic or working with a trainer, but it is a good addition to any equistrian's library.

John teaches concept as much as technique and that is important. John encourages you consider broad principals and define your goals. Having participated in several symposiums and a clinic, most of everything I do was influenced by John Lyons and this book was an important part of that. The foundation for training my own Andalusian Stallion is largely based on concepts from this book. I believe you also need two important videos by John: "Round Pen Reasoning" and "Leading and Loading". John never claims to be the only enlightened trainer, but in my view he is one of the best. You can dedicate a lifetime to learning about horses, and this book is a great starter. But in the end, you will learn the most from your horse not from other books. I believe John would agree.

Lyon's practical, everyday approach to horses & life in general takes the mystery out of dealing with horses. In addition his emphasis is on *enjoying* your horse and developing the relationship between the two of you. He's a breath of fresh air in a world full of horse trainers & competition-hunger specialists. In addition, he has a monthly newsletter where he covers immediate issues and reader questions.

The book covers a lot of information and I intentionally read it slowly so that I could take time to absorb & put to use the lessons there. It is well organized for easy access & referral when trying to resolve a specific problem. His position attitude makes the book very inspiring. His motto sums it up nicely, "The perfect horse is the horse in your back yard!"

After more than 20 years of not riding or owning a horse, and switching from English to Western, I was very nervous and intimidate when I bought my 3-yr old Missouri Fox Trotter mare!! The very first chapter's section on "The Importance Of Goals" set the perimeters by which I began my quest to become the leader of this two-part "herd" and become trusting "partners".

The pages to chapter two - "Round-Pen Reasoning" - are dog-eared from re-reading it over and over. Whenever my horse does not perform a particular lesson as I am requesting, I go back to the book and realize that it is because I am not asking in the right way! Although my horse had already been gently broken and trained, I felt that by taking both of us back to the basic beginings would be the best way for both horse and rider to become consistant in understanding of cues and develop trust.

The "Advanced Leading" chapter has put an end to the arm-jerking and pulling/grass eating. I"m still not sure which one of us benefited most from the "Facing Fear" chapter; and the "First Ride" chapter has made me revert back to the gentle snaffle bit and greatly lighten up with my hands! I consider myself to be a novice in the horse "arena" and I was so please to find a book that was not only extremely helpful; but written in language that I could readily understand. I would definately recommend "Lyons On Horses" to anyone who wishes to build a partnership with their horse through rational conditioned-responsive training rather than through intimidation!!

If you are just getting into horses or have had a horse all your life, this is a book from which you can learn. Full of wonderful insights and not just a "touchy feely" book, but a hands on practical guide to living with and training your own horse. A must have for any horse lover or owner. Worth twice the price! Get this book!!

I purchased this John Lyons publication for myself and my husband. My husband has limited experience with horses and he found the book extremely informative. We were currently training a yearling colt. With Lyons suggestions and techniques, my husband now has that colt working like a champ. We found the book to be helpful in trouble areas as well as helpful in starting the next steps of training. I would highly recommend it to anyone whether they are novices or professionals.

I am not a horse trainer, and had never trained a horse before. However, I applied John Lyon's methods and had very satisfying results. I trained two horses, one of them is now a competition horse which because of its size and conformation (arabian like) would never have been expected to give what it does (its jumping far more than my experienced 10 year old jumper, and he's only 5 and only learning). The trainer has told us its because this horse has such a good disposition towards people and is so attentive and always willing, results of its initial training program, I'm convinced. And it wasn't even done by a proffesional! I highly recommend Lyon's methods. However, I had to read the book twice! Once to get the idea of what the system pointed at and to see what the puzzle looked like with all its pieces in place. Only in the second reading, done mostly in small parts at a time and just before practice was I able to go ahead and be sure of what I was doing and how I should do it. If you are not patient and do not have the time to slowly try to grab the meaning of this, perhaps the video should be a smarter choice.

This is the bible of horse training. I felt like John wrote this book about MY horse. Everything he said worked wonderfully. This man really knows how horses think and how to comunicate with them. It really helped my to understand what my horse was thinking and how to deal with certain problems. I highly recommend this book!!