Date: Mon 22-Sep-1997

Author: BILLB

Illustration: I

Full Text:

B Y B ILL B RASSARD, J R.

SOUTHBURY - To some, he is the real-life version of the Horse Whisperer, to

others a cowboy who simply understands horses. He's John Lyons, one of the

most famous horse trainers in the country.

Wearing a polo shirt, Wrangler jeans, and paddock boots, Lyons strolled among

17 riders on the last day of his clinic at Mountain Valley Equestrian Center,

where from August 22 to 27 he taught his method of training horses.

His approach involves teaching riders to understand how a horse thinks and how

to communicate a request to the horse through the reins. He advocates a

step-by-step training process that, he says, works with all horses, and he

travels the country dispensing his knowledge to those who attend his John

Lyons Symposiums.

On this day he showed riders exercises that would relax muscles in the horse's

jaw, neck, and shoulder. In one exercise, he picked up the rein and brought

the horse's head toward its shoulder. "That's a pull," he said, noting the

horse's resistance to the tension he applied to the rein. "That's a give," he

added, when the horse decided to follow his motion.

Lyons calls this his "conditioned-response" method.

To illustrate the lesson, Lyons used an orange chalk stick to draw two lines

on the horse, one along the neck that was parallel to the ground, and another

from the withers down along the horse's shoulder that ended in an arrow. The

horse's head needed to reach an imaginary point in front of that arrow for the

exercise to work correctly, he said.

Big Weekend Crowd

His instructions to each rider were broadcast by wireless microphone to

auditors sitting in bleacher seats. On Wednesday, there were about 50

auditors. Monday and Tuesday's sessions attracted about 75 each day. On

Saturday, and again on Sunday, 500 people packed Mountain Valley's indoor

arena for the symposium portion of Lyons's program. In the symposium, Lyons

demonstrated his training techniques using a son of his famous horse, Bright

Zip, who is now blind.

Lyons, who has a dedicated following, has built his business, John Lyons

Symposiums, into a successful enterprise that, in addition to clinics, offers

instruction videotapes, books, products, and intensive training programs.

Based in Parachute, Colorado, Lyons doesn't come to Connecticut often. In

fact, the trainer said he couldn't remember the last time he had visited the

state. "Sometimes we give 42 symposiums a year and we lose track where we've

been," he said. "There's only three states I haven't given a symposium in:

Maine, Hawaii, and Alaska."

Clinic Participants

The clinic participants each paid $1,000 for three days of work with Lyons.

They brought their own horses and rode in their own saddles, some English,

others Western.

Dave Owens, a novice rider, came all the way from Stamfordville, N.Y., with

his horse Moonwalker, a ten-year-old Appaloosa mix. "I'm real impressed," said

Owens during a lunch break." I've been riding for less than six months and I'm

learning a lot. I like the lack of punishment that's involved with his

system." Lisa Henry, of Southbury, brought her preliminary jumper Creme de la

Creme. "It's so foreign from what we've been trained to do," she said. "It's

communicating in a different way. I plan to practice this more and more."

Henry, who was on a waiting list before an opening came up, said Lyons

happened to be talking about a difficulty she's had with her horse. "The

problem I've had is unlocking his shoulder area and that's what we've been

working on here," she said.

One rider fell during the Wednesday morning program. The person asked not to

be identified and wanted to reserve judgment about the Lyons method until

after the clinic was over. "I need to think about it," the rider said.

All participants worked in the same bridle, full-cheek snaffle bit, and

continuous-loop rope rein. These were supplied by Lyons and the riders were to

keep them to use in their training at home.

In the arena, the trainer encouraged participants to work on the lesson by

themselves or with his assistants, which included his son, Josh, while he

moved from rider to rider to give each one special attention. He explained the

lesson to every individual and occasionally interposed some of the Lyons

philosophy he's known for. "Maybe instead of always working on problems we

should just train the horse and the problems will go away," he said. "Maybe

that's a lesson for life. Work on the good things and the bad things will

disappear.

"Don't overcomplicate things," he added. "Keep it simple. Work on one part of

the horse at a time.

"When we talk about `giving to the bit,' we're talking about recognition,

response, and control."

Becoming A Teacher

Lyons arrived in Southbury on Thursday from New Hampshire, where he had given

a clinic. He presented a Friday evening lecture in a round pen with Bright

Zip. At the weekend symposium, he was in the round pen again with Seattle, a

three-year-old stallion by Bright Zip. He talked about starting the training

of a young horse and dealing with problems such as biting or crossing over

water. In describing his training method, Lyons said, "We try to teach people

how to become school teachers [for their horses]. We teach them how to build a

language to talk to their horses, and we want to keep them safe and their

horses safe. The methods for the most part are non-aggressive,

non-aggravating. We use a mild bit, and we treat all the horses the same."

Stallions, mares, and geldings were in the ring at the same time. "The style

of riding or what type of saddle they ride in is completely unimportant," said

Lyons. "It's all about performance."

More English Riders

Over the years Lyons has noticed a change in the type of rider in his clinics.

"They used to be about 95 percent Western riders," he said. "Now about 50 to

60 percent of all the riders I work with are English riders - dressage and

hunter-jumper people."

Lyons said dressage is his second favorite style of riding; reining, which is

often called "western dressage," is first.

The trainer said he enjoyed his experience at Mountain Valley Equestrian

Center and would like to return next year.

"The people who came to the symposium were super nice, and the people at the

facility could not have been nicer," said Lyons. "They've bent over backward

to make sure that everybody was comfortable. I would recommend this facility

to anybody."

And clearly there were a lot of people who would recommend John Lyons to

anybody.