Background

My background is as follows.  I have spent from a few lessons to days and even years with the following individuals.  For the most part it has been clinics of 2 to 5 days at a time.  I have taken over 60 clinics with the following.  My greatest mentor has been Steve Cornwell who worked with me for over 7 years. I am still Leaning and taking lessons.

Steve Cornwell, Parelli (Neil Pie, David Lichman, Barb Apple, Marc Rea) Dennis Reis, Todd Bergen, John Slack, John Camlin, Bergit Finstad, Sue Schultz, Mike Bridges, Les Vogt, Will Howe, Richard Shrake, Kyle Hockett, Ken McNab, Buck Brannaman, Clinton Anderson, Lynn Palm, Cyril Pittion-Rossillon, Nancy Cahill for trail, Lynn Anderson for working cow.

I have been given tools by each named above.  The more I learn - the less I know but the less I do the more the horse gives me what I ask.  Much more with much less.  We all need to just "EXPECT MORE" for they want to give us so much if we learn to just ask in the correct manner.

I am a balance between Traditional and Natural.  Much what we now call natural is very old but we lost it for a generation so we think it is new.  Much of the natural has been used for hundreds of years at the Spanish School of Riding and other places. I am into good horsemanship whether riding or on the ground. Good horsemanship is not about domination but leadership and having the horse volunteer for a partnership with the handler.

I train under some basic rules as follows:

1 - They know no equals.  You are either above or below but they Know not equality.

2 - They are a natural born follower but only to a clear and consistent leader.

3 - They have a very strong instinct to make sure the leader is in charge and knows what he/she is doing.

4 - They try to please those they see above and have little regard for those they see below.

5 - They are very claustrophobic.

6 - They can learn to follow your focus and intent.

7 - They are so sensitive that they can feel your heart beat when you ride.

8 - They hear real well and hate to be yelled at.

9 - Everything must be taught twice.  Once to the Left and the Right.

10 - To get the most out of a horse you must believe that they can.

11 - If you never learn to trust the horse you will never have a horse that you can trust.

12 - They are a prey animal and we are predators.  If you want things to blow up just forget that.

13 - A quiet person often leads to a quiet horse.

14 - Each horse learns different and likes different things.  My teaching background really helps here.

15- I never want to break a horse!! - I want them to volunteer for the task at hand.

16- The less you demand and the more you ask you will find that you get much more with much less.

17- Soft hands lead to a soft mouth.

What I love most is riding and showing bridless my two horses Checkers and Cody. Checkers is a true all around and Cody is a reining horse.

 In my training you will see me use many trail poles, cones and extreme trail course to keep the horses fresh and willing and volunteering to learn.  I change it up for each horse depending on it's disposition and mental make up.   Each horse learns different and is trained different.  As a former school teacher we learned right off that certaing things are done for all but not everything works for all.  So we are always looking for ways to motivate and excite the horse to want to learn.  That is the fun part.  I do my best to take the drama out of training.  I want a very quite confident bold horse.

Starting horses.  I have combined four methods. Each has it's strong points and weak points.  I have tried to take all the strong and combine them.  So far it has worked great.  Even with this your heart beats goes up when you first throw that leg over for the first time.  So far so good.