Horsemanship Lessons

Training comes first, trimming comes second.

Trimming a horse is never a one-man job. It is a teamwork.

It requires a partnership between the trimmer, the horse and the owner.

Before starting any work with a horse, and especially before any trimming, mutual respect and trust have to be gained. These 2 fundamentals have to be clearly established as the foundation of our relationship.

The last thing we want is to start on the wrong foot ;)

Therefore, I ask of all my new clients to book me in for a trim ONLY if their horses are calm, confident and relaxed around people and if they give their feet easily for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute.

If they don't, keep training and book me in when you're ready.

If you don't know how to get there or don't feel confident enough to do it yourself, book me in for training. I will be more than happy to use my knowledge, skills and experience to introduce myself to your horse, to get to know him and to work with him until I gain his respect and trust.

Once we have respect and trust, we'll start thinking about trimming.

I have experience in training young horses, so called “difficult” horses, as well as rehabilitating abused horses. So if you find yourself experiencing any difficulties with your horse, if you feel that respect and trust haven't been clearly established, or that they could still improve, call me for training and I'll do my very best to help you.

Whenever the facilities allow it, I always use groundwork at liberty to begin with. I want the horse to be free of his movements and allowing him to make his own choices.

In other words, I don't force the horse, I invite and guide him. Once a horse is connected to a human and follows him everywhere without any physical means to hold him, then and only then, can the lead rope be introduced in order to refine the work and make it more precise, but not as a way to force the horse to stay with us.

In most cases, this process of bonding takes only a few minutes on the first encounter. Once the bond is created, it is our responsibility not to break it.

This bound of mutual respect and trust will become the foundation we can build everything else on.

However, I don't call myself a horse trainer in the sense that I don't “fix” horses. I can't fix horses for the very good reason that I don't see them as being broken.

They are simply the reflection of whoever is in their presence. They have the magic power of revealing who we are. If we feel like the image that they send back to us should be improved, it is up to us to find the inner will, the strength and the determination to change ourselves from within.

Thus, what I do is not “fixing” horses, it is helping people to create respectful, sustainable and beautiful relationships with their horses.