Our training starts with
teaching the young foals how to lead. They are touched
everywhere and taught to respect humans without fear. We take a
group of foals. to the Holsteiner approvals every year and
consistently have a group of PREMIUMS. The next phase of
training for the young mares is to prepare them for their final mare
inspection. Our team handles 50% of stock at the approval site
closest to Michigan.
Our main training emphasis is dressage, the
French word for training. This means a steady progress that
can be seen with each horse everyday, and is not measured in
years. The training is clear. The horses know what is
expected of them and they are happy with this. When they make
a mistake we correct them every time and they're happy knowing what
is acceptable.They all keep getting better. Professionals that
have ridden our sale horses consistently say they have never ridden
such soft and on-the-bit horses.
We free-jump the horses weekly and start
the 3-year-olds jumping low fences under saddle as part of their
education. The upper level horses are ridden in a very forward
and expressive manner. Keeping the back up and hind legs
active while staying soft and supple in front is always
foremost. We keep close tabs on our progress by having outside
clinicians come and supervise.
We also retrain horses and advise riders on
spoiled rehab's. Our methods work well on these generally
misunderstood creatures.
To paraphrase Patrick Burssens,
"It is really quite simple: teach and do what the horse
does not want to do. He is long, ride him short. He is
too deep-ride him up. He is too fast, ride him slow. He
is lazy, put in energy, et cetera... always keeping the horses
well-being foremost".
|
