I have over 40 years of experience training horses to ride. 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 to 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 and under saddle.
We are shifting our training focus to specialize cart horse training. I spend 1-2 hours in 1-3 sessions per day for 5-6 days a week (typically weather dependent). I start from the ground up and reinforce any training already received and correct any issues as they arise. We start with basic ground manners (tying, standing, leading), progress to ground work (roundpen, liberty, lunging, ground driving), move to pre-drive training (rope hazards, dragging weight, and shaft prep), once this foundation is solid, we hitch (put-to) to a cart. From here we teach the horse how to lean into the harness, pull, and basic controls (forward, back, turning). Finally, we put in some experience hours. I expose them to arena, field, trail, roadways, and hazards as available.
We will continue offer saddle training and work with unhandled horses. We train light horses of any size (we do not accept draft clients at this time).
Training costs $1000 per month plus board. Depending on goal, multiple months may be needed. Estimate 3 months for cart training and graduate with exposure to roads, traffic, trails, and obstacles. Horses with some experience may complete quicker.
Project Name
A description of the project and the works presented.
Wyndover Farm 