Safety For Horse and Rider

Gentle Handling Improves Safety For Horse and Rider

CLAYTON – When Chris Mitchell found himself on the ground with a horse on top, he knew it was time to find a better way to handle horses.

Through research on the Internet, Mitchell discovered the work of Frank Bell, a master trainer who specializes in techniques for natural horsemanship that emphasizes safety for both the rider and horse. Bell shared his skill at a clinic organized by Mitchell at the Barbour County Farm Center, then continued instruction with private lessons Monday.

“It’s all about risk management,” Bell explained. “What we’re trying to do is take the risk out of the equation and get things going in our direction so we’ve got a fighting chance. Horses are very unpredictable by nature. A lot of horses are on the verge of blowing up.”

Just as pilots, scuba divers and mountain climbers rely on a safety checklist to reduce risk, people who handle horses should do the same, he said.

“My dream is to have this safety system in every barn in the world. There’s a lot of people out there getting hurt,” Bell continued, adding that the number of injuries from horseback riding is the “dirty little secret” of the horse industry.

Mitchell’s story is hardly unique. He stumbled into buying a horse the first time after purchasing a house with a barn. As weeds grew taller around the empty barn, the Mitchell’s decided to buy a horse. Friends tried to warn them about how dangerous horses can be, but Mitchell considered himself experienced after riding about 10 years. Now he understands the difference between riding well-trained horses and ones that have “issues.”

“It’s just my personality to jump into things too quick. That’s exactly what I did with the horse. I decided the best way for me to learn is to go out and get one,” Mitchell admitted in an interview at the Farm Center Monday while Bell gave private lessons in the background.

When Mitchell bought his first horse a year ago, the gaited saddle horse seemed docile enough. But after he got the horse home, Mitchell climbed in the saddle and the horse bolted. Friends offered advice for handling the horse, but none of it worked. When the horse ended up on top of him, Mitchell decided, “There’s not too many more of these times that I have left. I need to look into some programs.”

He tried a variety of horse training techniques before choosing Bell’s 7-Step Safety System.

“I settled on Frank’s program mainly because it just really seems to create a bond between the rider and the horse and really settles the horse down, so it loses that explosive personality,” Mitchell explained.

Bell’s practical method addresses a number of points for horse owners that other trainers don’t address, he continued. For example, how do you keep the horse out of your space while putting feed down? How do you get a horse prepared so a ferrier can shoe the horse without getting kicked? These are problems Mitchell didn’t consider before buying a horse.

Mitchell bought four more horses, including three mustangs that he’s still training. He is also the most recently accredited trainer in Frank Bell’s 7-Step Safety System which includes bonding with the horse, learning to take and give, developing intimacy and generally building confidence for the horse, handler and rider.

At last weekend’s clinic, Mitchell said owners who didn’t respect their horse’s space turned out to be the main problem. “You didn’t know who was leading who, whether the horse was leading the person or the person was leading the horse,” he said. “That can be a really dangerous situation because the horse can run over on top of the handler.”

Mustangs adopted from the wild can cause problems because they tend to revert to fight or flight mode, Mitchell said. “You have to slowly break it down for the horse, so the horse understands what you’re wanting and rewarding for the right answers while discouraging it for the wrong answers by making it uncomfortable.”

Bell said most people who adopt mustangs don’t realize what they’re getting into. “Ninety percent of people that buy mustangs are first-time horse owners. It’s borderline crazy. It’s like buying a tiger,” he said. They’re (mustangs) wonderful animals, they’re just a little more complicated.”

He developed his system after getting “busted up” and breaking his collarbone in an accident with a horse. “I promised myself that if I was going to train horses, I would develop a ground system that dramatically raised my safety level.”

As he started healing, Bell began different “manipulations” with horses to find out what positions and actions bothered them most. Without realizing it, he was becoming a “horse whisperer,” the term given to a successful trainer in Ireland named Dan Sullivan in the 1800s.

Before long, Bell was turning out nice horses, which led to people bringing him really difficult horses. Soon he started asking people to bring him difficult horses because he was so “blown away” by how well the system worked. Then he started teaching his system to others.

“I feel like I’m here to give something back,” Bell said. “If you’re given something that you can do well, it can make a difference, especially in a world that’s as crazy as the world we’re living in. … If we can do something that’s really positive, I think it’s good for mankind.”

Bell’s reputation soared after Western Horseman Magazine published a three-part series on his safety system. Coincidentally, Robert Redford’s movie “The Horse Whisperer” based on a book by Nicholas Evans, came out about the same time.

Bell said he’s still amazed to get paid for doing work he loves so much.

“I just think it’s intriguing that horses are basically a wild animal but we can get them to where they will take us places safely. We can get on their back and do all kinds of things. It’s unbelievable,” Bell said, mentioning horses that work in riot control as an example.

“They’re incredibly receptive to learning and growing and getting along well with humans. Horses like to learn.”