Dear Franklin,

I am an eight grade student at Northwood Middle School, I have just started a large project on becoming a horse trainer and what they do. I am doing a 4 month investigation on this career and I am enjoying very much. I was just wondering if you could answer a few questions as an interview.

Well I hope to hear from you soon, and I hope that these questions aren't to big of a hassle. If you know of any one else I could email or write to please let me know!

Thank you so much for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely,
Megan

1. Are there colleges and courses you can take for becoming a horse trainer.

[Franklin] You can easily research this yourself at a library or by looking in the backs of a few horse magazines.

2. What is the hardest part of this job?

[Franklin] Getting humans to change their minds about who they think horses are.

3. Do you have any technique's to training a horse?

[Franklin] Be compassionate and kind, be precise and clear in requests, be like a great parent who leads and guides their child to feelings of safety and trust. Be consistant and empathetic (horses are very empathetic). Never seek to punish or control. Always seek to guide as a great danceer guides his dance partner into the steps and changes of the dance. Be balanced in how you are with the horse. Horses, like children, can make mistakes but are always innocent.

4. How many hours in a week does a horse trainer work?

[Franklin] It really varies tremendously. But if you love it, you tend to put in more hours.
5. In your opinion what is the easiest breed to train? They are all easy if communicated with properly. Just like people, some individuals are smarter or more able to learn than others.

6. When you get a yearling what is the first thing you look at and why?

[Franklin] I look at the stallion and mare (it's parents) long before I look at the yearling. They will tell me a lot about what kind of a horse this yearing will turn out to be. Then I look at conformation and temporment of the baby. Conformation tells me the physical potentials and proclivity of the horse for various activities. Then I look for a calm and pleasant temperment.

7. What is the easiest part of your job and what is the hardest?

[Franklin] Training horses is the easy part, getting the humans to step up to the plate and not live from their judgements and projections is the hardest. The horse is very straight forward and always innocent. The human is very judgemental, opinionated and attached to their points of view.

8. What do you enjoy most?

[Franklin] Seeing a fearful horse come around to become a trusting horse.

9. On an average how long does it take to fully train a horse.

[Franklin] Depends what you mean by 'fully' train. By the time a horse has reached 5 or 6 years of age he is mature. If he has had the proper training, he may be considered 'fully' trained at that age.

10. How did you get started in this business?

[Franklin] I was lucky. My Dad was a polo player and I started out with horses at about 7 years of age.

Blassings to you!

Franklin