We re-school horses here who have gotten off to a poor start or just need some remedial work.  We also start horses under saddle using a natural horsemanship method.  We believe in a gentle, methodical approach to schooling and work on ground manners and under saddle work.  We also school horses to trailer-load.  We find that this is a great approach and have had much success with it.

We use a full cheek snaffle, sometimes a French link snaffle, and whatever saddle fits your horse best so he/she is comfortable.  We find over and over that many of today’s training problems have to do with the horse’s physical discomfort…a saddle placed incorrectly or one that is ill-fitting, a bit jabbing the soft palate of the horse’s mouth, a chronic, undiagnosed tendonitis, low thyroid, or a spine in need of adjustment.  We recommend that you check these types of things first before you bring a horse for training.  It could relieve your horse of discomfort and save you some money.  We are also happy to school horses that have been recently purchased or have been out of work for a while and just need to get back into a routine.

Linda Stanier is the trainer/manager and oversees all resistance-free  training.  There are several working students here who also work with the training horses under Linda’s supervision.  These students have been riding and teaching this method of training for years and are extremely competent.  We have several horses in training at one time in the warmer months and restrict the number of horses to train in the winter months due to the shortness of the days and the low temperatures.  We have an indoor arena, but 8 hours in the freezing cold is enough for most of us.  Brrrrrr!!

We include a weekly lesson for you to work with your horse and us.  You and your horse form a partnership and it’s important for the success of the training that you practice what we are teaching your horse.  That way when you get him home, you’ll know what to do if he becomes confused.  Our best successes are the ones in which the owners participate in the process.  When the owner cannot participate regularly, and has just one lesson right before the retrieval of the horse, we feel that the owner is cheating herself from the best possible outcome.  All situations cannot be covered in that one lesson.  Perhaps the horse is lazy, or high-strung, or spooky that particular day.  He could be a whole other horse when you get him home.  These horses are thinking, feeling, sentient beings whose behavior varies from day to day.  We would like you to come once per week under most circumstances for the best possible result.

Our training fees include stall board, a weekly lesson for you, and at least 20 sessions of training per month for your horse.  We frequently put more than one session on a horse in a day to re-enforce the teaching of the day.  We are also happy to work with your horse by the week if the problem is minor.  We can work with you to best address your needs.

Ongoing partial training is also available.

Please phone me or stop by with any questions that you have.  Thanks!