Natural Horsemanship
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What inspired Paul Walker to transition from training sheepdogs to training horses?
Well, we're gonna go from school buses in Cork to uh horses in Mayo. Paul Walker is well known in the business for breeding, training, and trialling sheepdogs, but now the Chilean English trainer has turned his hand to horses at the homey shares with his partner Leah Henry in Mayo. They follow a method developed in America, and the guiding idea is that the horse wants to be at peace with you, and it'll change its behaviour. behaviour to get there. Sounds absolutely utopian. When Lorna Siggins went to meet Paul in a field above Mulrani Beach, looking out over Clue Bay, where he was working with an unbroken filly called Gretel.
Okay. So this is Gretel.
Gretel.
Gretel.
And tell me about Gretel.
How does Paul use pressure and release with a rope to guide an unbroken filly?
What age is she's
She's a draft horse, draft mare. She's three years old, she's unbroken. So I'm gonna go through a little bit of the exercises that she can do and how this method is simple and everybody can do it. So it is it is all based in the language of how the mare educates the foal. And it's focused on uh imagining three different spots of the horse at each side. The hip, the shoulder, and the nose. The first thing we're gonna get is a horse moving towards the left. So for that.
So we're inside the pen and Gretel is running in the opposite direction.
I focus on the on her hip.
What are the inside and outside turn exercises and why are they important for safe riding?
А ви май кейс. I make a move. I put pressure on her to speed her up. And then I take the pressure off.
So the idea of throwing the rope is
Pressure.
Pressure.
Pressure.
Just to give her a little touch. Yeah. With the rope.
Yeah.
How did a serious injury and the book *Lions and Horses* reshape Paul’s training philosophy?
If she goes at five kilometers, I'll ask six or seven. Not twenty but just a little bit more. So now to the right.
Another little tip with the rope.
I take the pressure off. Now I start with two types of turns, inside turns and outside turns. My objective with all this groundwork is to be able to ride the horse safely. And to ride the horse safely, the horse has to accept that I approach him. with my hands, my saddle blanket and my ropes and my saddle eventually without moving. So the more I can control her movements in the pen, the more she's gonna understand how lovely it is to stand still and accept me to touch her so I can saddle her and eventually get on her safely. So the two types of turns we have outside turns and inside turns
What does a full training session look like—from rope work to saddling and mounting?
Outside turns means the nose of the horse goes to the outside of the pen and inside turns means the nose goes to the center of the pen.
She's been listening to everything you're saying, by the way. She is judging from her ears.
While Atlantic Horsemanship is a two-people project, it was originally thought by Leah Henry, my partner, and myself. It came out as an idea of sharing a method of training horses. We go through all the stages of a training method that was originally thought by a man named John Lyons. I used to train horses since I was a kid. in in my own traditional way of Chile which was a bit rough but it was the only way that I knew until I had an accident. They forced me to be in bed for a good few months and then I got hold of a book that I started reading and reading and reading and reading. The book is called Lions and Horses and he talks about a very simple way to look at a very complex thing. It's very step by step
Why does Paul claim that any horse of any breed or age can be worked with using his method?
and I got fascinated about it and then I changed completely my training method. I developed a very successful career of training horses in Chile and Argentina and I would give workshops all over the country and uh a simple language for everybody to understand.
There's something quite hypnotic about watching Paul taking Gretel gently through the various stages, building up trust by touching her rump with his rope repeatedly on both sides, roughing her forehead, introducing the bridle with its bit, she has a good gallop around the pen, and the final stage is where he takes time to introduce the saddle, put his foot in the stirrup, and repeatedly mount and dismount her to help her relax.
Yeah.
People working with all types of horses would find something of great interest at this workshop.
This method works for any horse of any reed of any age.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What inspired Paul Walker to transition from training sheepdogs to training horses?
0:00–0:49
2
How does Paul use pressure and release with a rope to guide an unbroken filly?
0:49–1:32
3
What are the inside and outside turn exercises and why are they important for safe riding?
1:32–1:55
4
How did a serious injury and the book *Lions and Horses* reshape Paul’s training philosophy?
1:55–2:57
5
What does a full training session look like—from rope work to saddling and mounting?
2:57–4:01
6
Why does Paul claim that any horse of any breed or age can be worked with using his method?
4:01–5:45