How has training horses evolved over the past 100 years

First let me start by saying I know nothing off horses, but I am a dog behaviorist and trainer and I find all training of any animal fascinating. Lately I’ve been trying to prove my case to people about more ethical ways to rid nuisance barking in dogs. From what I understand back in the day it was a common practice to break in a horses, now looking back many people agree that this method for training a horses is now wrong and there are for more appropriate means to train a horses. (if I’m putting my foot in my mouth with this one let me know)… anyway I was just curious on how training horses has evolved over the past hundred year??? (books, resources, links are all helpful) I’m hoping to use this information to prove a point, that just because something has been done a certain way for years doesn’t mean that there isn’t a better method available and a change can be made.

Thanks for the help

'Breaking in', simply, is just a term for beginning the training in a horse, not a method. There are so many methods used today that were used centuries ago, there are many in which have mostly been snuffed out, and there are new developing ones. "The Art of Horsemanship" written by Xenophon (between 400 and 360 BC) is a wonderful book, so I've heard. Many people today still use his methods.

Some trainers that you could look at are Anky van Grunsven, Clinton Anderson, Pat Parelli, and Montey Roberts just to see different methods of training. I'm sure the other members on the Forum can think of more, those are just the ones that came off of the top of my head.

Note: I do not agree with all of their training methods, I personally like Montey Roberts and I've heard that Clinton Anderson is wonderful.

"The afternoon's tasks are usually much the same as the morning's, but this time is often spent in doing the odds and ends; as, for instance, it may be devoted to breaking-in a new horse. Large outfits generally hire a bronco-buster to do this; but we ourselves almost always break our own horses, two or three of my men being pretty good riders, although none of them can claim to be anything out of the common. A first-class flash rider or bronco-buster receives high wages, and deserves them, for he follows a most dangerous trade, at which no man can hope to grow old; his work being infinitely harder than that of an Eastern horsebreaker or rough-rider, because he has to do it in such a limited time. A good rider is a good rider all the world over; but an Eastern or English horse-breaker and Western bronco-buster have so little in common with each other as regards style or surroundings, and are so totally out of place in doing each other's work, that it is almost impossible to get either to admit that the other has any merits at all as a horseman, for neither could sit in the saddle of the other or could without great difficulty perform his task...

...Some of the things he teaches his horse would be wholly useless to an Eastern equestrian : for example, one of the first lessons the newly-caught animal has to learn is not to "run on a rope "; and he is taught this by being violently snubbed up, probably turning a somersault, the first two or three times that he feels the noose settle round his neck, and makes a mad rush for liberty. The snubbingpost is the usual adjunct in teaching such a lesson; but a skillful man can do without any help and throw a horse clean over by holding the rope tight against the left haunch, at the same time leaning so far back, with the legs straight in front, that the heels dig deep into the ground when the strain comes, and the horse, running out with the slack of the rope, is brought up standing, or even turned head over heels by the shock...

...A bronco-buster has to work by such violent methods in consequence of the short amount of time at his command. Horses are cheap, each outfit has a great many, and the wages for breaking an animal are but five or ten dollars. Three rides, of an hour or two each, on as many consecutive days, are the outside number a bronco-buster deems necessary before turning an animal over as "broken." The average bronco-buster, however, handles horses so very rudely that we prefer, aside from motives of economy, to break our own; and this is always possible, if we take enough time. The best and quietest horses on the ranch are far from being those broken by the best riders; on the contrary, they are those that have been handled most gently, although firmly, and that have had the greatest number of days devoted to their education." - Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail By Theodore Roosevelt (1888)

Sounds like an interesting book by an interesting man. Wouldn't you have loved to have met him ? TR?

^agreed