Re: Horse tricks? : / hmmm Spoiling horses or harmless fun?
This thread absolutely fascinated me when I saw it and I signed up just so I could reply!
I do trick training with my two Shetland ponies; my daughters Welsh Section A and my Lippizanner stallion -Escalaba.
The Spanish Riding School did not in fact create the Airs Above the Ground for the purpose of war. Renaissance riding, and the time when the airs, piaffe, passage, and lateral work came about- was when French, Austrian, Italian and Portuguese noble men ( aristocrats, the Kings Trainers etc); developed riding horses to becoming a past time, apposed to horses being a prerequisite to war.
It was within the walls of the High Schools (Vienna, School of Versailles, Jerez, Lisbon, and many other lost academies), where the introduction of turning work displayed by horses in the field was transferred over to riding. The idea of horses rearing ( levade, corbette, capriole, pesade etc) was perhaps something for them to demonstrate in front of the Kings and other noble men; they began transferring behaviours and using stimuli to condition horses to respond to cues and instead of manipulating them- creating an Art out of something which is already beautiful.
The only issue with trick training is if their is a lack of consistency, the handler does not understand the correct principles of training horses and the trick is not cued appropriately.