Recommending an amazing horse trainer who fixed my problem horse

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Victoc

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I just wanted to let people know of an amazing horse trainer from the United Arab Emirates, who is in the UK until 25 August, who has fixed my spooky horse. His name is Ali Al Ameri and he is incredible. For over a year I struggled with a spooking problem with my horse. I had a lot of help from other professionals over the year (at a lot of expense) but nothing anyone did got my horse to a level I was happy with – we managed to improve things but the problem was still there. I wish Ali had been in the UK at the start of the problem as I’d have saved an awful lot of money in the long run. Anyway, Ali came to see my horse and really has fixed the problem. He worked with my horse on the ground and then in the saddle, in total for just over an hour and I’ve had no spooking ever since. The problem I had started off in the arena – I’d never had issues with my horse spooking in any arena but one day we went in there and he became a fire breathing dragon at certain spots in the school. I persevered with this and improved my horse to a degree, in the process having my confidence knocked a lot as it was really not nice having such a spooky rides to look forward to every day. I got to the stage where I could largely control the spooks, but my horse would still always spook with me – it was as if it had become habit as soon as he set foot in the arena. I also stopped riding him out alone as he just became so jumpy and I really didn’t feel safe on a hack by myself. Ali worked with my horse mostly on the ground and then did some work at the saddle. It was incredible to watch, like nothing I’d seen before and I could see the change in my horse while he was working with him. My non horsey partner came to watch as well, and he was totally amazed at what Ali was doing. By the end of it, my horse was following me around like an obedient puppy and when I rode him after Ali had finished, it was like getting on a different creature – not only was he not spooky, but he was much lighter in his way of going (he’s always been quite heavy on the forehand). Since Ali visited I’ve also been riding out by myself every day after schooling, with no issues. My horse just seems so much braver and I feel safe on him out and about, which is really liberating as now I don’t need to wait for a friend to be available to ride out with me.

My life really has changed with my horse and I can’t recommend Ali highly enough. I’ve actually known him for years, but have never had the opportunity of having him work on my horse until this year and contacting him about the issues I’ve been having is seriously one of the best things I’ve ever done as the problem has gone. I hesitated contacting Ali as I thought the issues would be far too trivial and that no one could fix a spooky horse, but I’m so glad I did contact him. What he has achieved has totally exceeded all my expectations as the problem has gone. One of the things Ali told me was that horses have problems because they weren’t broken in properly in the first place. What he does is come along and break them in properly. Ali has said that he will travel to see any horse while he is in the UK and he has since fixed 2 horses belonging to a lady who I put him in touch with. If anyone reads this and is having issues with their horse – spooking, problems loading, problems shoeing – absolutely anything, please get in touch with me (my email address is victoriawallace@hotmail.com) and I can provide further info and put you in touch with Ali if you have a horse you’d be interested in him seeing. He’s asked me to spread the word about him while he is here to see if there’s anyone else who would like his help. Although he’s based in Newmarket until 25 August, he will travel to visit any horse.

He really is amazing and is no amateur – he’s been doing this for 30 years having discovered his talent initially with camels. He then found his methods worked on horses when he joined the army. He has fixed a lot of horses belonging to the Sheikhs and other people around the world, and also trains horses for films. He was featured in Martin Clunes’ programme ‘Horse Power’ which was on ITV last year or the year before. He will work with any horse, it doesn’t matter what they are. He just thinks they all need to be safe to ride, have a steering wheel, brakes and then they can get on with their job. Ali says of himself ‘I am just a horseman. All I ask is don’t put a horse down with behaviour problems, please let me check it out first’.

He was featured in Your Horse news last week as well http://www.yourhorse.co.uk/Your-Hor...t-12/Aug-2---The-Horsemaster-comes-to-the-UK/.

There’s also info about him on his Facebook page – ‘Ali Al Ameri – the horsemaster’ which has some videos and lots of photos of him doing his thing. He really is amazing.
 
He sounds absoultely brilliant. Thanks for sharing this. It would be interesting to hear of any other experiences of people who use him.
 
Also good to hear if people would be interested in seeing him work with problem horses - I was in absolute awe watching him work with mine and was thinking of suggesting that next year he thinks of doing demonstrations where people get their horses done for free and people maybe pay a small fee to come and watch in order to cover the cost of his time to work on those horses. That way more people in this country would find out about him. There's so much to learn from just watching him deal with horses - not just the problem ones either. He's been giving me lessons since he fixed my horse and I've decided that some of the basic things we're taught to do (she says hoping not to offend any BHS trained people) need rethinking - he taught me how to put a bridle on properly at the weekend (of all the basic things), and it made perfect sense seeing it - my horse doesn't have a problem with his bridle going on but has been keeping his teeth shut the last couple of weeks (nothing to do with teeth either as they were done recently). Ali showed me his method and it was easy peasey and the jaw opened straight away. Also my rising trot has been revolutionised - was always taught to rise fairly high in trot. Ali's way is the opposite, you barely come out of the saddle (which is actually quite hard having been used to doing a normal rise) and he compared what I do to what he does and the difference in the horse was incredible. He says (quite rightly from watching it) that the way people are generally taught to rise to trot actually gets in the way of the horse's movement and I could really see that. I think people could learn a lot. It's not to say everything we've been taught traditionally in this country is wrong at all, he just has different ways of doing some things, which make perfect sense and you can really see how much better they are for the horses.
 
It depends on the horse really but generally he says £250-300 but £300 would be for a very tricky horse. If price is a problem for anyone who needs help though, then he’d prefer to know that’s an issue and see what he can do as he does this for the good of the horses, but obviously it’s the way he makes his living and needs to make some money. He’s also no amateur, he’s just not known in this country – I think he’d be put in the realms of the best horsemen out there. Take a look on his Facebook page ‘Ali Al Ameri – the horsemaster’ and look at the photos and videos – the loyalty of the Arabian horse video in particular. Also search for him on You Tube and some videos will come up. I’m a poor horse owner but really think he offers good value for money and it’s a great opportunity for those who need help with their horses having him in the country. I’d have saved an awful lot of money had he been in the country at the start of my problems. The charge is to fix the problem completely – the horse will only need fixing once by him. If it takes more than one session and he needs to go back a few times (which would only happen with a REALLY tricky horse) then he doesn’t charge more for doing that. Also, if the problem did reoccur then he would go back and work with the horse for free – that hasn’t happened in a 30 year career though, all the horses he’s worked with (and he’s worked with lots that were going to be put down because of their dangerous behaviour) have been fixed. It’s not magic, but it’s close to it when you see it for yourself. I don’t work for Ali, just trying to spread the word as he’s a friend but mainly because I think there are so many people in the UK who could benefit from him being here at the moment because I know how much he’s helped me with my horse.
 
He sounds good at what he does but £250-£300 to come out is way too expensive.
There is now way I have that lying around (unless its in my savings for excess account and not touch that after last year:rolleyes:) The guy I had that came out Charges £40-£50ish and will stay with you for a few hours if needed and he has done wonders.


I get that he has to make a living but why so these guys have to charge the earth?
 
Just to say it's not £250-300 to come out, it's that amount to actually fix the problem.There's no clock watching and he'll return for as many sessions as it takes to fix the problem, all within that price. I would be classed as a very poor horse owner but I'd have paid double what I did pay, had I had that amount of money - what he did for my horse was absolutely invaluable to me having been in a bad situation for over a year and having paid other 'experts' £40/50 a go to come and try and solve the problem with my horse (with no success evidently). Each to their own though and I understand that some people won't pay that amount of money whether that just be on principle or affordability.
 
slightlyconfused said:
He sounds good at what he does but £250-£300 to come out is way too expensive.
There is now way I have that lying around (unless its in my savings for excess account and not touch that after last year:rolleyes:) The guy I had that came out Charges £40-£50ish and will stay with you for a few hours if needed and he has done wonders.


I get that he has to make a living but why so these guys have to charge the earth?
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Better to pay for one expert than spend a lot of time and money on different trainers, different feeds, different gadgets, missed competition entry fees, etc etc.
Having a problem horse can be very expensive. Thats not to say some local trainers aren't also competent and cheaper, but even a guy near me charges £250 for one session, he's good but not brilliant.
 
I agree horserider. Richard Maxwell charges around £400 for his problem fixing and whilst that is steep people will pay it because they know he will sort the problem.
I know of someone who bought a horse for £8k then spent a further £k getting it scoped firstly for ulcers and treated then tested for various other lameness due to unpredictable behaviour. She ended up selling this horse for £300 to a dealer. Now if someone had offered to guarantee a solution for £300 - I am sure she would have accepted.
 
Victoc if you had said that wasn't for just one session I would have understood. I honestly could not afford that on the basis of just one session. I'm glad he helped you. Ther are some out there that take the pee.
Xx
 
Have just done a 4hr clinic with Richard maxwell it was 125 each between 4 of us. Best 125 I have ever spent my pony showed herself at her worst and how amazing she can be!!!! On cloud 9 at mo will do thread after couple of rides and more ground work.
 
I thought it might be useful to do an update on my horse, now that it’s been 6 weeks since Ali Al Ameri worked on him to fix the spooking problem that had been going on for over a year. I expect a lot of sceptics out there may be thinking ‘how can he solve a problem in such a small space of time, it won’t last long term, I’d like to see the horse after a week or a month, I bet the problem will have returned etc etc’. Well I had those thoughts in my mind and expressed them to Ali when he worked with my horse as I thought it was too good to be true having an issue solved in such a short amount of time, having struggled with it for so long myself, and that the fix would actually last – initially I asked ‘will my horse remember this tomorrow’, to which Ali’s response was ‘yes, this is for life’ and then again I mentioned I was going on holiday for 2 weeks a couple of months later and was concerned that with time off my horse would forget it all – again Ali told me ‘no, this is for life, he won’t forget’.

Anyway, after 6 weeks, my horse certainly hasn’t forgotten and is still a changed animal and it’s not like I’ve been riding every day of those 6 weeks, in fact we’ve had a week of absolutely no riding due to being away, then losing shoes and not being able to get a farrier out immediately yet Parker has remembered what Ali taught him.To remind anyone reading what my problem was – my horse had become what I call a habitual spooker in the arena – he seemed to spook for the sake of it as soon as he got in there and then throughout a schooling session, and a lot of the time they were very expressive bad spooks with me landing half way up his neck quite often (which also happened to my instructor a number of times, so it wasn’t just me) and had become so spooky that I didn’t trust him hacking so I stopped hacking out alone completely as I just didn’t feel safe. 6 weeks on and the spooking has not returned and I continue to ride in the arena and out by myself with no issues. I should say that my horse has not been turned into a brain dead zombie horse (I don’t think that would ever be possible with a Warmblood and certainly not something I’d want) – he still has a look at things he’s unsure of and has small spooks at birds flapping in hedges suddenly (we have a hedge with lots of pigeons in it running along one of the long sides of our arena) and other things like that, but the important thing is he keeps moving forward and doesn’t leap or spin away from whatever he doesn’t like and after he’s had a spook he settles back down and refocuses on schooling if we’re in the arena, or will continue on our hack and I don’t have to resort to pulling him in to shoulder in so he can’t leap or run away, which is what I used to have to do with him. Previously if he had a big spook in the arena at something it would be game over for our schooling session in his mind and I’d have to battle to finish on a good note. I don’t think Ali or anyone else for that matter would ever be able to stop a horse completely from spooking, they are flight animals after all and Ali pointed out that a horse that spooks is being careful and is aware of their surroundings. What is important is the reaction – we don’t want them being dangerous by leaping, rearing, bucking, spinning or bolting with us when they’ve spooked at something or they don’t like the look of something and this is what has been achieved with my horse. He is no longer constantly gawping at thin air waiting for things to come out and eat him, he is much more confident and brave, but he’ll still have the odd small spook at perfectly legitimate things like sudden movement in bushes by flapping birds or pheasants taking off under your feet with that awful noise they make when they take off – the sorts of things that send my heart into my mouth at the same time they do to my horse, the difference now is that my heart’s in my mouth because of the creature causing the noise rather than my horse’s reaction to it, which is no longer exhuberant.

We were put to the test with the weather recently riding in our arena – last week I had a lesson in the howling wind and very ominous skies threatening rain. Previously in that sort of weather I’d have opted for self preservation and would have just not bothered riding in it as my horse would be a complete plonker and I’d come away with some more dents in my confidence. I got on that day feeling slightly apprehensive, had to take a few deep breaths and then set off round the arena towards what were previously the most terrifying areas of the arena – areas where he still has a suspicious look but will keep moving forward past now rather than leaping away from – and he was relaxed and calm. He was the same in trot as well and I was quite amazed, part of our riding now on Ali’s instruction is to take breaks and walk round the arena on a long rein, allowing my horse to have all the reins to build the trust up between him and myself and encourage him to relax down with his nose to the ground – never would I have been able to do that in strong winds before Ali worked with the horse, but it was easy that day and has been since. Normally in weather like that he’d be gawping all the way along the long side past the hedge and I’d have to throw him into shoulder-in to mitigate against any nasty spooks, but I was able to ride him straight with nose down and him feeling very calm in his body – normally in such weather he’d go round pretty much like a coiled spring, readying himself to leap away from a monster in the wind in a split second. That said, my horse did throw in two minor spooks at the hedge that day, but both those were at massive pigeons flapping away out of sight in the bushes, creating a noise which sounded worse with the wind. The important thing for me though was that following the spooks, despite the weather my horse refocused and we carried on schooling calmly – previously it would have been game over, spending the rest of the session wrestling with him.

I’m still extremely happy and am gradually rebuilding the trust in my horse and getting the enjoyment back. The past year has been really difficult because of the behaviour issues, leaving my confidence and trust very dented. My horse is still a horse, Ali doesn’t hypnotise them into being brain dead animals that no longer act like horses with their own minds, Although the specific problem I had is gone, my horse will still test me and try it on with me occasionally (he’s a horse after all, and a Warmblood one as well) so it’s up to me to still have to try and be a good horse person and keep the line drawn so that he continues to respect me. An added bonus it seems which has come out of whatever Ali did to my horse, is that he is much more chilled out with life generally (Ali told me he’s a much happier animal now) and this has really become evident when he’s turned out in the field. My horse is turned out 24/7 during the summer with a friend – unfortunately other liveries at our small yard prefer individual turnout, which I am certainly not a fan of as mine is a very sociable horse, I’d much prefer them in small groups. Being just the two of them in a field my horse did get a little anxious when his friend was taken out for a ride, despite having horses on all sides in neighbouring fields keeping him company. Since Ali worked with him he hasn’t been getting stressed out when his friend has been taken away for a ride and my friend (the owner of our field buddy) has really noticed the change in him,

Anyway, all in all, still extremely happy with what Ali has done for me and still cannot recommend him highly enough. I’m very pleased to hear that he’s sticking around in the UK into September and has said that he will travel back to the UK on a regular basis if he can get a number of clients lined up over a few days. Although I haven’t required any follow up, it’s been nice to know he’s still around at the moment, staying for September as far as I know and that he will be back regularly in future.
 
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