A Yornup-based horse instructor is helping people build a better relationship with their horses with horsemanship for recreational riders to performance trainers a focus.
Passionate about working with owners to give their horses a sense of purpose, equine behaviourist, instructor and horse development specialist Sam Caporn said it was up to people to help their animals progress.
“If horses don’t keep progressing, their comfort zone slowly gets smaller,” he told the Times.
“If people have the responsibility of owning the horses, they probably have the responsibility of keeping their mental, emotional and physical growth going forward — that’s part of your deal as being a good leader.”
Starting his business in 2009 after years of training on ranches around the world, Mr Caporn found “horsemanship” resonated most with him a natural way to train.
He said people “unintentionally” fell into the trap of foundation training their “horses to death” and he was motivated to show people how to move past the basics.
“I got involved in thoroughbred racing in my later teenage years, and then I got a bit too tall and a little bit too heavy to be a jockey,” Mr Caporn said.
“I was mainly involved with agriculture, but I kept coming back to the horses.
“There was a bit of a mystique of people being able to ride around with no bridle and saddle on. I’ve since realised that’s just good fundamentals in a horse, but it was pretty appealing when I was younger.”
Mr Caporn said as a teen, there wasn’t much of an industry besides thoroughbreds which wasn’t his area of passion.
Curious to build an understanding of how humans can better interact with horses, Mr Caporn persevered and transformed his passion into his livelihood.
He now brings together people on his property in Yornup, and in the wider South West, to learn more.
Through physical and online programs, Mr Caporn teaches people about the nature and behaviour of horses, through to the fundamentals of performance, as well as running camp trips.
“It’s all very much about looking at it from the horse’s perspective,” he said.
“Just because we own them or we’ve purchased them, they shouldn’t just do what they’re told.
“The whole overarching thing is to try to get people to become better horsemen, which is about understanding the psychology and the nature of horses.”
