Throughout my own long history with horses, I have always wondered at the common practice of  "sending a horse to the trainer." To me, it didn't make the best sense, because the owner most certainly doesn't have the same skill set that the trainer does so how will that training going be maintained when the horse comes home?  For years I have thought, "Wouldn't it be great if the "common practice" was for the trainer to come to the horse?" 

Working as a hoof care professional, that idea has become even more urgent in my mind because so many times a customer sends a horse off to a trainer and  we  have to deal with recovering the horse from life at the trainers when the horse returns home. When considering sending the horse away for training, natural horse minded owners are immediately faced with problems before any training begins! 

1. Having made the commitment to natural hoof care, these owners are faced with trainers who insist the horse must be shod.

2. Having learned the importance of a more natural diet and lifestyle, these owners are faced with the realities of boarding at the trainer's facility which most often means the horse is in a stall eating processed feed. 

3. Having learned the importance of and great difficulty of a proper saddle fit, these owners are faced with the trainer using his or her saddle, quite frequently its a honking big heavy western saddle that fits the trainer, but almost NEVER fits the horse! 

4. Having learned the importance of natural horsemanship, or resistance free training, these owners are faced with having to allow the trainer's sometimes harsh methods. 

Often the trainer only has 30 days to pound the horse into a rideable animal, when we all know it takes a long time to produce a trusting confident and safe companion to ride. So basically, after the 30 days, the owner gets a green horse that has been stressed by the drastic changes in living conditions and back to its home where patterns that may have contributed to the problems/behavior have not changed, or to an owner who doesn't know how to work or ride the horse the way the trainer did....the 30 day ends up a waste for many. After all, if the owners knew what to do the way the trainer does it, they wouldn't have needed to send it off to a trainer in the first place! 

So it makes more sense to me for a trainer who understands all the ins and outs of natural horse keeping in addition to natural horsemanship style training, to work with the horse in its own environment, to be able to assess the environment and management practices to address possible issues that might be contributing to the problem, as well as to  work WITH the owner and teach the owner how to teach the horse. This is particularly important with horses that have behavior problems, or rescue horses with trust issues from past abuse. 

SOOOOO.....I thought, it would be great to have a network of natural horsemanship trainers, who will come to the horse, to call upon for my customers. I'm sure all my colleagues would love to have the same! 

There is only so much we can get from book and videos, so if you need help with your horse to get started under saddle, work on behavior issues, learn what you need to do to develop a willing partner and need someone to show you in real time, at YOUR farm, contact one of the practitioners below and find out what is possible for your situation. If you know some one in your circle of horse friends, pass it along! 

To my colleagues, if you feel any of your customers could benefit from a service such as this,  feel free to send this out to your client list. If you have such a trainer in your area and want him or her listed, have them send their info to me at cindy@tribeequus.com. We all know it takes a team to serve the horses and we all have contacts for people in compatible fields for our clients, such as equine chiropractors, massage therapy, holistic vets, and so on. Its time we had contacts to refer to for training and on-site horse-keeping consulting! 

Best to all and for the horses, 

Cindy "Hawk" Sullivan