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The reviews are in and they are wonderful! Thank you to everyone who took the time to share.
The following reviews were originally posted on Amazon:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for horse trainers!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 28, 2023
I have been listening and learning from Alexandra Kurland for many years. She is one of my favorite voices in the training world and I have devoured hundreds of hours of her wonderful podcasts and classes. So much of my approach and philosophy to training I owe to her (and her mentors).
I initially bought this book to give to a friend because I neither own, ride or train horses. I train dogs.
BUT ..... when it arrived I wanted to peep at it myself so I carefully tried to turn the pages without curling or crinkling them so I could keep it looking nice. I rapidly realized that was just not going to work! I immediately wanted to read the whole thing cover to cover, I wanted to bookmark pages and to highlight sections of text. There was only one thing for it, I had to buy another copy for myself 😂
No matter what species you share your life with there is training gold withing these pages. I cannot recommend it enough!
Amy Stevenson
5.0 out of 5 stars My new go to horse training bible!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 30, 2023
Wow wow wow!!!! I’ve only been thumbing through Alexandra Kurland’s newest book that just arrived and I am blown away. After only a day I’ve barely touched the surface of what’s contained within. The depth and breadth of knowledge is astounding. Having personally begun working with Alexandra, I knew it would be good, but it is so much more than I expected.
Science based and accurate from cover to cover and still all the information is presented in a completely user friendly way. It’s so easy to read, understand, make a training plan and take it to your horse in a real world setting!
My first impression of the book is a culmination of Alexandra’s lifetime of working with and training horses and teaching their people. A legacy of her life’s work in education and her collaborations within the world of horses and the world of modern animal training.
This book is a MUST HAVE training manual for every horse owner, clicker trainer from novice to advanced and ANY traditional trainer looking to revise their horsemanship skills to solve any and all types of ground manners issues and teach husbandry and hoof care behaviors and so much more that horses need to understand in order to be safe and successful living in a humans world with us. It’s not possible to list all the important behaviors horses must know that are contained within. I am going to need some extra copies for myself and to gift to my horsey friends when they buy a new horse or their first horse!
If you’ve had a horse who was difficult to catch, halter, lead, lift feet for hoof care, there’s something for you.
If you would like to ride with softness and release from the slightest asking of aids and no escalation because your horse understands how to organize its body to give, this book is for you.
If you’re working with your first ever horse or have been a pony clubber riding since you were a three year old, this book is still for you.
I highly recommend to anyone caring for or working with horses in any capacity. It’s so good.
5.0 out of 5 stars My Best Friend
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 29, 2023
This is a terrific book. It is perfect for the experienced positive reinforcement trainer as well as those just seeking an introduction. The table of contents is very detailed making it very easy to find specific topics. I keep jumping around in the book. I want to learn some of the advanced behaviors, yet I want to review all the basics.
Seven months ago I started studying Alexandra Kurland’s training methods. She is so knowledgeable and an extremely good communicator. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to be their horse’s best friend or wants to learn more about positive reinforcement in general.
My best friend is pictured recommending the book. She wants me to learn more. She absolutely loves her training.
MC
5.0 out of 5 stars You will not find another trainer with this level of expertise, knowledge, skill and compassion
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 6, 2023
I really don't have the words to express not only the level of skill, knowledge and expertise of Alexandra Kurland, but also her overwhelming kindness and generosity in sharing her time to help me [and so many others] to rebuild not only my confidence, but also to build a relationship with my horse, which was of absolute paramount importance to me. I must add that this has all been completed online whilst she is in the USA, and I am in the UK.
I was a horse owner with dreams of bringing up and training a youngster, without the issues that I had encountered from previously trained 'ready made' horses. The youngster that I bought however, could not have been further from my dreams. My 2 year old knew no boundaries, he reared, he would bite and absolutely everything was aversive to him. I struggled for almost 3 years. I could not even put a head collar on him, and a former, well respected 'trainer', told me to buy a field safe head collar. I was devastated that I could not perform the most basic of husbandry requirements due to my horse's unpredictable and dangerous behaviour.
Frank features in Alex's book. You will see that I wear a safety helmet. I wore this helmet every time I was with Frank, even in his stable. Alex however, has given me the skills to teach Frank alternative behaviours, and she is also teaching me the skills to recognise when Frank needs help. Alex is teaching me how to help Frank and at the same time, she is very 'sneakily' helping me to regain my confidence.
I no longer wear a safety helmet to be with my horse, but I would do so, if I had to, because 'safety always comes first'.
Frank and I are still at the very early stages of our training. We are learning together and we enjoy each other's company. Alex has transformed our lives. She has no idea of the impact that she has had on us both, but having Alex as my mentor is a truly positively reinforcing experience.
My level of training will be completely different to everyone else's, however, I can honestly say that this book, in whatever format, will meet the needs of every single horse owner.
I can also say that I would argue vehemently, that you will not find a better trainer than Alex or the people that she has trained, anywhere in the world. Their compassion and expertise on the training of horses (and other animals) knows no boundaries.
Thank you Alex. Frank and I are forever grateful
5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book about Essential Horse Training!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 29, 2023
Alexandra Kurland has created the single most comprehensive, significant book on positive reinforcement training (i.e. Clicker Training). The science is solid, the writing is clear and engaging, the methods are 100% effective and fun to do! My horses all love learning and engaging in many different things via the clicker, and Alex really does a fantastic job in covering them all, from basic everyday behaviors to fun things to upper level training and riding. This is a completely updated book so even if one has her earlier books, this new one is a must-have! Suitable for beginners to advanced trainers and horse owners, and especially great for those that have some challenges in their horsemanship and are looking for a better way forward.
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Yet
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2023
I just purchased Alexandra Kurland’s most recent book “Modern Horse Training”.
If I were on a desert island and had only one horse training reference it would have been one of Alexandra’s previous books. Now, “Modern Horse Training”, will provide, enough updated, step-by-step individualized instruction to ensure that everyone who wants to can develop a solid foundation of equine training skills and a roadmap to anywhere they want training to take them.
Here are some principles gleaned from just the first two chapters:
“ For every behavior you teach, there is an opposite behavior you must teach to keep things in balance”
“The Old Focus: Command-based Training Puts the Focus on Behavior You Want to Stop.
The New Focus: Cue-based Positive Reinforcement Training Focuses on what You Want Your Horse TO DO”
“ For every step in the training, there is ALWAYS a smaller step that you can break the training down into. This is just good training practice.”
“You can’t ask for something and expect to get it on a consistent basis unless you have gone through a teaching process to teach it to your horse”
I’m sure that “Modern Horse Training” will be a worthy addition to both my home and “desert island” equine training library.
5.0 out of 5 stars Expect to be astonished, you will not be disappointed !
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 9, 2023
What a feeling! To hold a new book by Alexandra Kurland feels like a light warm refreshing breeze, a promise to feel inspired, to become curious and be rewarded by finding kindness. In her book, Alex summarizes 30 years of developing her unique original method of clicker training horses. But there is much more than mere “clicker training” to this work, expect to be astonished, you will not be disappointed.
If you ever felt like “it used to be so much fun to be with my horses, but now I struggle to find enjoyment”, this book is for you.
If you have horses with movement challenges (who doesn’t?), this book is for you.
If you have horses with health issues, this book is for you.
If you love to try new ideas, but are concerned about safety, this book is for you.
If you are curious about reward-based training, but you are worried that your horse may become “dangerous”, this book is for you.
Even if you are principally against food rewards, this book will provide you with a helpful safe and healthy framework that can be used in “pressure/release” type of training.
Alexandra Kurland is an educator. In that she is exceptional among horse trainers because she is interested in you, the person standing next to, or sitting on the horse. She published many prior books and DVDs, she regularly presents in conferences, webinars, and she cohosts the podcast “Equiosity”. Her “loopy training” method, is being celebrated by many trainers across different species, and is particularly appreciated by dog people of the positive reinforcement world. She recently co-authored a peer-reviewed article about loopy training in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB).
While Alex is a pathfinder at the cutting edge of behavior analysis and training methodology, her quest for a paradigm shift is gentle and kind. She aims to observe without judgment, and she fosters a mindset free of “pathologies”. Instead of defining what is wrong, she encourages you to visualize your perfect horse. She then guides you step by step into developing this perfection together with your horse. This is where relationship is fostered, because if you are not 100% thrilled with your current relationship, a change will require both ends of the partnership to adapt. Alex does not tell you to change, and this is the beauty and magic in her book. The change will occur when it is right for it to occur, and your progress toward it will be pain free.
To summarize, this book is a guide, a portable coach to support your journey to discover what is possible between you and your horse. Thank you, Alex, for such a gift to horse people and to horses. Making this book readily affordable, and available in different formats on Amazon, is the cherry on top.
5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive training guide
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 29, 2023
This EXCELLENT guide explains the components of effective training in clear, easy to understand language for everyone from beginners to professional trainers. If you want to know more about breaking things down into attainable steps and how to effectively communicate with your horse, this is the book for you! Highly recommend!
5.0 out of 5 stars A potentially life-saving investment
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 6, 2023
This book is the most comprehensive presentation yet of Alex’s thinking and methods. Her work is crucially important to improve the horse-human connection, so both may stay sound, fresh, and lively, in communication and in relationship.
Her objectives are to slow movement down through a super-light touch, to reduce effort to its essential minimum, to practice in smooth, easy, repeatable loops. Use of force, of “make it happen” power, is eliminated. It is all about finding patterns of movement and conversation other than what past injury or adverse conditions have led to.
When those adverse problems have become dangerous or painful, Alex’s methods can be nothing short of life-saving. She has created a concrete roadmap for how to find a way back to more functional, indeed more beautiful, behavior.
The results are nothing short of astounding. The before-and-after pictures in the book tell the story. They are living proof. The horses have been transformed. And these astonishing results have been achieved not by fancy and costly trainers over a long period, but, rather, by lay handlers who put Alex’s guidance into action with their own beloved horses – results that have been achieved, in some instances, by a mere three short sessions. Her work, gathered together in this most-thorough book, is accessible to all.
This could be the best and most consequential investment you will ever make.
Sabine Martini-Hansske
5.0 out of 5 stars packed with information and training ethics for the 21st century
Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on April 30, 2023
Anyone who knows Alexandra Kurland knows that she always speaks for horses and for people who not only want to work with their horses, but also want to live.
With its guiding principle “Safety always comes first — safety always comes first!” Is it easy to get involved in the principles of positive reinforcement training. The easy-to-read writing style makes the book a pleasure and is easy to understand even for readers whose native language is not English (but who have a fairly large vocabulary) (otherwise the translation function of the Kindle version helps).
If training is designed so that the horse knows what to do (and not what not to do), then there is scope for signal-based training (vs. command/punish-based training, which leaves no room for error). A horse that has learned to interact with people in this way is safe. Safe to handle people but also safe in his future, because the risk of this horse, due to uncontrollability (the word says it all!) Being sold drops drastically.
Modern Horse Training is based on over 20 years of experience by A. Kurlands. Even though someone like me, who has been working according to her method for 10 years, has already heard many things in other contexts, which are described in the book in a methodological way and (then also linked in the ebook). The methodology and the detail with which the basics of good training have just been presented make the book particularly
few pictures make the book ideal as a Kindle version, although I also bought the book version to jump back and forth between chapters. I would have liked a slightly larger font for my old eyes (but I can use the Kindle version for that).
The extensive table of contents may scare off some, but it makes it easier to find a specific training topic more quickly.
What the book is not is a collection of recipes for common problems according to the motto “for behavior/problem X, use solution Y”. A. Kurland is based on the saying about fish and fishing (give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he'll eat for the rest of his life). She teaches readers how to “fish” = how good, constructive training works and how to acquire the necessary skills to train in this way. This makes the book applicable to every facet of being with horses (and other animals) and therefore every horse owner who wants to train with positive reinforcement and scientifically based principles.
Mrs Eileen M Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Prompt delivery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 30, 2023
I have some small knowledge of Constructional Training. I hoped for years to learn more. This book is packed with positive information and I am so looking forward to working my way through it. I highly recommend it to those who want a special and safe relationship with their horses.
Denise
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 2, 2023
I knew this was going to be a great book and it surely exceeded my expectations. It is super clear and concise, easy to follow and understand. It’s an absolute must have for all horse clicker training enthusiasts.
