I have over 40 years of experience training riding horses. I love working with wild/unhandled horses. Clean Slate training is my favorite! Working with horses considered “difficult” is my passion. I find studying Equine Behavior is fascinating. I understand herd dynamics and applying that understanding to training. I am an avid student of Animal Behavior.

I use natural horsemanship methods. I believe that we should apply the smallest amount of pressure, and not a drop more, to obtain our goal. I train in Happy Mouth bits, if you need great force to gain control you’re doing it wrong. Training horse through force or fear only works for so long, eventually something scarier than you will come along and you lose your “control”. I develop a respectful relationship built on trust with the horse. When the day comes and the horse-eating leaves attack, the horse will look to me for guidance instead of bolting with no thought for me.

Often, we train from the ground up for riding and/or driving. Horses trained here leave with excellent ground manners and work ethic, and exposure to lots of experiences. Dressage fundamentals are introduced both in hand, under saddle, and between the shafts.

We are shifting our training focus to specialize cart horse training. We spend 1-2 hours in 1-3 sessions per day for 5 days a week (typically weather dependent).  We start from the ground up and reinforce any training already received and correct any issues as they arise.  Cart training includes:

• We review basic ground manners (tying, standing, leading, yielding to pressure).
• We introduce ground work; roundpen, liberty, lunging, longlining, ground driving
• Pre-drive training (rope hazards, dragging weight, and shaft intro)
• We teach the horse how to lean into the harness, to pull efficiently.
• We develop verbal, rein, and whip aid cues through longlining and ground driving.
• We develop the horse/pony, physically, so they have the conditioning to pull a cart or be ridden. This reduces the risk of injury.
• When ready, we introduce the cart and practice all the things learned through groundwork.
• We expose them to arena, fields, trails, roadways, and hazards, as available.  

While our focus is driving, we will continue offer saddle training (staff permitting). We also continue to work with troubled and unhandled horses. We train light horses of any size (we do not accept draft clients at this time) though I really enjoy the medium ponies.

Training costs $1000 per month plus board. Depending on goal, multiple months may be needed. Estimate 3 months for cart training and graduates with exposure to roads, traffic, trails, and obstacles. Horses with some experience may complete quicker. Horses with trauma may take considerably longer. Every horse is different. We move at the horse’s speed not the calendar’s.