"Anything forced and misunderstood can never be beautiful.  And to quote the words of Simon: If a dancer was forced to dance by whips and spikes, he would be no more beautiful than a horse trained under similar conditions." -Xenophan, 400 B.C.

Trimming Clinics

These can be an afternoon or a day.  They can include trimming cadaver feet and dissecting the hoof to get a look at the internal layers.  They can be a group of people showing up with their horses in tow for supervised trimming.  They are pretty much driven by demand from clients.  Nothing is scheduled right now but if its something that interests you let me know and I'll see how many other  people are interested and to what degree.

Foundation Training Clinics

These usually consist of ten people and their horses. 

Foreplay^TM Clinics

 I decided to call this Foreplay^TM because its a bit provocative but mostly because it comes before anything else and should be thought of as play.  The horse is required to do nothing but enjoy him/herself.  Foreplay^TM is a way of interacting physically with  horses that gives them intense pleasure,  and asks nothing of them other than that they open themselves up to it.  This is, for some of them an issue and as such provides a wonderful opportunity for engendering trust and confidence and does so in such a basic way that the effect is rather profound.  For those 'that take to it' right away, its a quick and easy way for me to identify myself as someone who can listen to them and be in sync with them, which I find extremely important in gaining their trust and confidence in me.   It is also a beautiful way for the owner to learn how to be sensitive to their  horse, how to read their horse, how to synchronize with their horse.  There is little danger of being hurt and almost no chance of doing anything that would damage or hurt the horse though if done properly it provides almost instantaneous feedback to the owner about how they are doing in the eyes of the horse. 

"Every time you ride, you're either teaching or un-teaching your horse."  Gordon Wright

"There are many forms of riding.  The classical way, however, reaches back centuries and has proved to be the right one.  When following it, one realizes that it is a very open way of schooling.  It is a wide road that accommodates every horse."  Arthur Koitas-Heldenberg

"If one induces the horse to assume that carriage which it would adopt of its own accord when displaying its beauty, then, one directs the horse to appear joyous and magnificent, proud and remarkable for having been ridden." -Xenophan, On Horsemanship"

"Some people have animals eyes - bears' eyes, cats' eyes, pigs' eyes, but horses have human eyes and I love horses better than people." -Jose Garcia Villa

"God first made Man. He thought better of it and made Woman. When he got time He made the Horse, which has the courage and spirit of Man and the beauty and grace of Woman."  Brazillian saying

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Last modified: 04/06/09