What we do is something called Building Blocks of training. This training comes before the English Pleasure, Western Pleasure, Showing, Jumping etc., therefore no matter what kind of riding you do or want to do, this can be for you!

There are so many things a rider might ask a horse to do.

For example some of the basic things include: forward, backward, left, right, walk, trot, canter, gallop. Then the more complex things including: collection, jumping, dressage maneuvers, etc.

What our philosophy consists of is that BEFORE you can do all the complex things you must have the basics. The basic things should also be able to be done without ever touching the reins, or in other words through body language. Through building a relationship, offering leadership and gaining respect you can develop a relationship where this is able to happen. The human starts communicating more like a horse rather than trying to teach a horse to perform without any feedback. This then leads to developing a relationship between horse and rider. Once this is accomplished then the bridle is used for further more complex communication, which eventually leads to what ever specialized area you want to focus on.

The natural horsemanship approach that we use helps with many things. For one thing the horse is happy. This seems like a silly thing to say because most people think their horses love them, but ironically they never want to be caught, they pin their ears and swish their tails and then the worst of it, the horse gets blamed for it.

So the first most important thing to this is that the horse and the human are happy. Next there is a communication based on, as Pat Parelli says, "Love, Language and Leadership in equal doses." This is very important in that if there is to much or not enough of one of these the relationship does not work. The human gains leadership but not by taking it, they earn it and are chosen by their horse as their leader, just like in a herd. This then results in a happy, willing, and very enthusiastic horse that loves doing what you want!