Biography

I enjoy meeting a wide variety of people in my travels and the most interesting thing I notice about horse people is the differences in their approach to horses and the training techniques that they use. I notice that horses reveal an impressive capacity to adapt to different training methods, presentations and challenging situations.

I am a horse trainer and a student of the horse, too, so my main goal in recent years has been to correctly assess the most effective components in the lessons I observe from watching others train, coach and ride, so I can integrate that new knowledge with the approach I was brought up with. In this way, I continue to improve what I can offer to horses and their owners.

Of course, it is easy to “collect” many different techniques and training strategies . . . that is not the hard part, or the point. I’ve found that many approaches work, and it seems that most ways that people train horses are more similar than not. This fact intensified my commitment to understand precisely what it is in so many apparently different approaches that is clearly understood by all the horses that are successfully trained.

Finally, I realized that the true partnership I develop in the horses I own, and also in the horses that I help others train, depends on a crucial, single element, called “feel”.

HORSES IN HIS BACKGROUND

Svante got an early start with horses. As a youngster of 5 years, his mother boosted him up regularly on the racehorses the family kept in Sollentuna, just north of Stockholm. Meanwhile, his father got him out on the soccer field in the early grades. As a serious contender in the minor leagues, the discipline he acquired from this foundation prepared him mentally and physically to develop himself a little bit later in life as a versatile, athlete. He trained seriously in boxing, skiing, soccer and martial arts for many years.

Svante, now a Stockholm resident, found his way back to horses. Through a mutual friend, “Rikard Öhman of Udda Ãventyr of Ãlvsbyn, Sweden, he was introduced to Leslie Desmond, an international horse trainer and coach, formerly from California. “I thought it was a good idea for Svante and Leslie to compare notes on horses,” Öhman said. “I knew they shared a deep appreciation and understanding of the horses’ point of view.”

A FEEL – BASED APPROACH TO RIDING & HANDLING HORSES

In a recent interview, Svante Andersson was asked to talk about his approach to horses and the reasons that “horsemanship through feel” works well for him.

“Feel is the language of the horse. Horses understand many kinds of feel, such as direct feel of a brush or your hand, your bridle rein or your leg against their side; they also understand indirect feel, which includes things like variations in tonality of the spoken word, and body language. Examples of this include things like the pace of your step, the speed and feel of your touch and spoken word and less obvious things, too. For example, your eye contact, and the position of your face and hands and feet in relations to a horse’s eye, elbow or hip when asking for a manoeuvre on the ground. This applies when the rider is in the saddle, too. I think the most important aspect of feel that exists, however, is the horse’s ability, in most cases, to understand your real intent!”

How can lessons with Svante improve your understanding of feel?

“Svante is a careful listener and a keen observer,” according to his mentor, Leslie Desmond. “He understands horses well, and also has the ability to notice what the handlers and riders are missing in their fundamental understanding of the horse. His horses and riders are not pushed beyond what they can do, or what they can understand, either. When you see him work, it is obvious that the early start he had with race horses and, later, his work as a wilderness tour guide and outfitter shaped a broad range of skills and an uncommon patience with people who are new to horses.”

“The most important thing I can think of for a person to learn about is the way a horse’s mind works,” Andersson said. When you understand the way something works – in this case, a horse – it is a lot easier to work with it. The next challenge is to help the person blend their understanding of this essential feature, with the physical and emotional capacities of a particular horse. Of course, this includes his history with people, as well as his genetics. Taken all together, this is the best way I know to lay down the foundation necessary to build a true partnership.

“The techniques people are usually trying to learn means little to the horse if they are not presented in a way, through feel, that the horse can understand. This requires uncommon good judgment on the owner’s part – something that can only be developed over time with consistent coaching and regular practice. I want to help my students focus on what is working well. Of course, we work on the problems but the main goal I have for all my students is for them to rely on me less and less as time goes on. This way, they come to appreciate their horse is as an individual, and develop confidence in their own skills and judgment. I have found that this leads to a safer and more enjoyable experience overall for the horse and the owner.

“I want my students to discover, as I have, that a horse can be an amazing partner. A well-prepared horse will be there to do the job that is needed in the moment. He will not go his own way if he’s properly trained, he will try to get with you, so you can do things together. Unfortunately, many horses are confused or frightened and their owners are, too. This tricky combination calls for a fresh approach to age-old problems that horses and people experience together. The solution, I believe, always rests in a return to basics, and developing the skills necessary to relate to the horse, using his own way of communicating, through feel. This is extremely important, since feel and the body language associated with it is all they have to go on.

WILDERNESS RIDES

Letting the horses take us on a long trip through nature up in the mountains is great experience. Most people today can only imagine what it’s like to get a taste of the old times, to experience a horse when he is at his best, and to ride when you have a real destination and the time to think and really take in the full impact of the experience you are having with your horse. That is where the real learning and true horsemanship, using feel, is most likely to be discovered and accomplished.”

ROPE WORK

“If you are going to train horses, your rope handling techniques have to be sharp. Even if you have good sense about what to do, and the feel and timing necessary to do it, the rope itself presents a problem when you lack rope-handling skills. A little time spent working with ropes and practising some basic techniques will benefit the horse and rider in valuable and unexpected ways! When you consider that you will have your horse on the end of a rope a fair amount of the time, it pays to know at least as much as the horse knows about being on your own end of it.”

Svante helped many get a start on mastering these important skills by showing them several exercises on the ground. These, he said, will also serve as the best foundation for your horses’ understanding of your message to him, later on, through the reins.

Since then, Svante has had clinics in Europe and abroad in the United States, horse-training demonstrations at major events in Massachusetts and California with Leslie Desmond. Svante spent a few months in California, Colorado and Arizona learning how to handle many different horses, how to rope and to work around cattle.

ALL BREEDS AND RIDING STYLES

Of his clinics abroad, Andersson observed that, “Clients come from many countries and have a wide variety of backgrounds with horses. Some ride English, some ride Western, and others either drive their horses, race them, show them in hand or have breeding and horse-boarding operations. You see a lot at these courses! People show up with Icelandic horses that cannot stand still, Quarter Horses that have trouble turning around and stopping straight, unhappy Friesians that cannot be ridden or behave in hand, hard-mouthed trotters and pushy, dull-sided Thoroughbreds . . . and the list goes on.

Some clients compete internationally, others will never go to a competition. But, no matter which breed they like or what problems they come to get help with, they all have two things in common: First, my students want to improve their skills based on philosophy towards horses that combines patience, respect and empathy; second, they have a deep desire to improve their confidence using feel instead of other ways to get things done with a horse.

Home News Clinics Biography Photo Video Articles Endorsements Recommended Literature General Store Links Contact Sponsor Login	Biography I enjoy meeting a wide variety of people in my travels and the most interesting thing I notice about horse people is the differences in their approach to horses and the training techniques that they use. I notice that horses reveal an impressive capacity to adapt to different training methods, presentations and challenging situations. I am a horse trainer and a student of the horse, too, so my main goal in recent years has been to correctly assess the most effective components in the lessons I observe from watching others train, coach and ride, so I can integrate that new knowledge with the approach I was brought up with. In this way, I continue to improve what I can offer to horses and their owners. Of course, it is easy to “collect” many different techniques and training strategies . . . that is not the hard part, or the point. I’ve found that many approaches work, and it seems that most ways that people train horses are more similar than not. This fact intensified my commitment to understand precisely what it is in so many apparently different approaches that is clearly understood by all the horses that are successfully trained. Finally, I realized that the true partnership I develop in the horses I own, and also in the horses that I help others train, depends on a crucial, single element, called “feel”. HORSES IN HIS BACKGROUND Svante got an early start with horses. As a youngster of 5 years, his mother boosted him up regularly on the racehorses the family kept in Sollentuna, just north of Stockholm. Meanwhile, his father got him out on the soccer field in the early grades. As a serious contender in the minor leagues, the discipline he acquired from this foundation prepared him mentally and physically to develop himself a little bit later in life as a versatile, athlete. He trained seriously in boxing, skiing, soccer and martial arts for many years. Svante, now a Stockholm resident, found his way back to horses. Through a mutual friend, “Rikard Öhman of Udda Ãventyr of Ãlvsbyn, Sweden, he was introduced to Leslie Desmond, an international horse trainer and coach, formerly from California. “I thought it was a good idea for Svante and Leslie to compare notes on horses,” Öhman said. “I knew they shared a deep appreciation and understanding of the horses’ point of view.” A FEEL – BASED APPROACH TO RIDING & HANDLING HORSES In a recent interview, Svante Andersson was asked to talk about his approach to horses and the reasons that “horsemanship through feel” works well for him. “Feel is the language of the horse. Horses understand many kinds of feel, such as direct feel of a brush or your hand, your bridle rein or your leg against their side; they also understand indirect feel, which includes things like variations in tonality of the spoken word, and body language. Examples of this include things like the pace of your step, the speed and feel of your touch and spoken word and less obvious things, too. For example, your eye contact, and the position of your face and hands and feet in relations to a horse’s eye, elbow or hip when asking for a manoeuvre on the ground. This applies when the rider is in the saddle, too. I think the most important aspect of feel that exists, however, is the horse’s ability, in most cases, to understand your real intent!” How can lessons with Svante improve your understanding of feel? “Svante is a careful listener and a keen observer,” according to his mentor, Leslie Desmond. “He understands horses well, and also has the ability to notice what the handlers and riders are missing in their fundamental understanding of the horse. His horses and riders are not pushed beyond what they can do, or what they can understand, either. When you see him work, it is obvious that the early start he had with race horses and, later, his work as a wilderness tour guide and outfitter shaped a broad range of skills and an uncommon patience with people who are new to horses.” “The most important thing I can think of for a person to learn about is the way a horse’s mind works,” Andersson said. When you understand the way something works – in this case, a horse – it is a lot easier to work with it. The next challenge is to help the person blend their understanding of this essential feature, with the physical and emotional capacities of a particular horse. Of course, this includes his history with people, as well as his genetics. Taken all together, this is the best way I know to lay down the foundation necessary to build a true partnership. “The techniques people are usually trying to learn means little to the horse if they are not presented in a way, through feel, that the horse can understand. This requires uncommon good judgment on the owner’s part – something that can only be developed over time with consistent coaching and regular practice. I want to help my students focus on what is working well. Of course, we work on the problems but the main goal I have for all my students is for them to rely on me less and less as time goes on. This way, they come to appreciate their horse is as an individual, and develop confidence in their own skills and judgment. I have found that this leads to a safer and more enjoyable experience overall for the horse and the owner. “I want my students to discover, as I have, that a horse can be an amazing partner. A well-prepared horse will be there to do the job that is needed in the moment. He will not go his own way if he’s properly trained, he will try to get with you, so you can do things together. Unfortunately, many horses are confused or frightened and their owners are, too. This tricky combination calls for a fresh approach to age-old problems that horses and people experience together. The solution, I believe, always rests in a return to basics, and developing the skills necessary to relate to the horse, using his own way of communicating, through feel. This is extremely important, since feel and the body language associated with it is all they have to go on. WILDERNESS RIDES Letting the horses take us on a long trip through nature up in the mountains is great experience. Most people today can only imagine what it’s like to get a taste of the old times, to experience a horse when he is at his best, and to ride when you have a real destination and the time to think and really take in the full impact of the experience you are having with your horse. That is where the real learning and true horsemanship, using feel, is most likely to be discovered and accomplished.” ROPE WORK “If you are going to train horses, your rope handling techniques have to be sharp. Even if you have good sense about what to do, and the feel and timing necessary to do it, the rope itself presents a problem when you lack rope-handling skills. A little time spent working with ropes and practising some basic techniques will benefit the horse and rider in valuable and unexpected ways! When you consider that you will have your horse on the end of a rope a fair amount of the time, it pays to know at least as much as the horse knows about being on your own end of it.” Svante helped many get a start on mastering these important skills by showing them several exercises on the ground. These, he said, will also serve as the best foundation for your horses’ understanding of your message to him, later on, through the reins. Since then, Svante has had clinics in Europe and abroad in the United States, horse-training demonstrations at major events in Massachusetts and California with Leslie Desmond. Svante spent a few months in California, Colorado and Arizona learning how to handle many different horses, how to rope and to work around cattle. ALL BREEDS AND RIDING STYLES Of his clinics abroad, Andersson observed that, “Clients come from many countries and have a wide variety of backgrounds with horses. Some ride English, some ride Western, and others either drive their horses, race them, show them in hand or have breeding and horse-boarding operations. You see a lot at these courses! People show up with Icelandic horses that cannot stand still, Quarter Horses that have trouble turning around and stopping straight, unhappy Friesians that cannot be ridden or behave in hand, hard-mouthed trotters and pushy, dull-sided Thoroughbreds . . . and the list goes on. Some clients compete internationally, others will never go to a competition. But, no matter which breed they like or what problems they come to get help with, they all have two things in common: First, my students want to improve their skills based on philosophy towards horses that combines patience, respect and empathy; second, they have a deep desire to improve their confidence using feel instead of other ways to get things done with a horse.