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Welcome
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| All my life I have felt the connection to animals. I
have desired their presence and hoped for a meeting of
the minds. I get to share their powers of perception,
their beauty, their grace, their speed and amusement with
the human world and in return give care, love, and an
interactive program to replace animal skills not exercised
in survival. I have won national and regional awards in
dressage and studied with trainers both here and abroad
from all over Europe. I showed for 10 years and now realize
that what is important to me is to foster the connection
and understanding between horse and rider. As a rider
for 45 years, and a professional breeder, trainer, and
teacher for 25, I have decided to specialize in the seat,
especially for the adult rider, and to work on the development
of the suppleness and balance of the horse by attending
to his back. I use lunging for the horse to release and
strengthen his back, and for the rider to educate her
seat and balance. I use work in hand to give the horse
awareness of his body and balance, and to teach the rider
feel in the hands while standing safely on the ground.
Then the rider can take what she has learned about the
horse to the saddle and use the same exercises at the
walk to increase her feel. When the rider is aware of
how a correct shoulder in should feel, and how her weight
and position affect the horse, the transition to all lateral
work in trot and canter is easier. Because the shoulder-In
is an important step on the way to collection this work
makes collection easier to understand for the horse in
the tradition of Guerniere. Trot and canter work are practiced
as the pair's athletic ability and balance improve. |
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Jobima, Holsteiner,
granddaughter of Guerlain, Retired
| One of the most important parts of being a good companion
to our animals is to understand clearly what we want them
to do. Then we formulate a series of stimuli and expected
responses, which we can reward, or ignore, depending on
how close the animal comes to fulfilling the expectations.
The tricky parts are: 1.How to break down the stimuli
into recognizable episodes for the animal to understand
and begin to deal with not being autonomous. 2. How quickly
to present repeating stimuli and what is the threshold
for reward- a good try or pretty near perfect 3.And finally
to develop a program for training or socialization so
that simple skills can lead to more complex ones. Then
of course, there is the horse's collaboration. He must
be fit to do what you ask, happy in his work, and free
of ill-fitting tack, and nagging muscle soreness. My years
of experiences in training young horses, and rehabbing
older horses allows me to help choose the most efficient
methods of helping the horse to heal and build muscles.
Also my experience of many different forms of rehab therapy
allow me to assist the rider to choose the best path for
supportive or interventional care. |
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| The reason I believe that the kind of one on one work
I do is necessary, is that in this day and age, most people
are not raised on a farm or around horses. They have little
idea of how dangerous a 1200 pound animal that has survived
for millions of years by fleeing at the slightest provocation,
can be. And once that danger becomes apparent, our own
human self-preservation instincts take over, and our efforts
to forge a closer bond with these huge beasts can easily
be thwarted in many ways. My goal is to help an individual
horse and rider pair overcome their lack of knowledge
by giving them a customized program of simple skills that
will work for both of them. I don't want to take a horse
and rider pair deep into a particular discipline, though
I feel qualified to teach Third Level, but rather give
a start so that the rider can chose to follow a riding
style that is suitable to the horse's ability and the
rideršs desires. In addition to using the skills acquired
through years of teaching and riding dressage, I use various
empathic and observational skills to identify disconnects,
and causes of poor communication and performance of the
pair. Once the seat of the rider and the ability of the
horse to follow the riders directions have been evaluated,
then begins a gymnastic program to help the horse become
more elastic and able to produce soft correct movement
in all three gaits, and the rider first to follow then
facilitate and finally encourage brilliance. The many
training systems I have studied allow me to fit the training
to the horse but also find the lightest system that works
for both horse and rider and suits their goals. |
Guerlain, USDF
Musical Freestyle Champion
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Bjorn, Fjord,
with Ann Longfellow, Owner.
| The process of becoming a horseman takes years, and
one of the best ways to do this is through study with
a professional who understands safety issues, how the
horse's brain and body work, and little ways to increase
the pleasure and security your horse enjoys in your presence,
thereby making him more willing to try to figure out what
you want. Using the rider's own horse, I employ a system,
based on the principles of Classical Dressage whereby
the rider can gain an understanding of the mind of their
horse and develop a secure seat. This forms a basis for
communication and the foundation of a partnership between
horse and rider. Another way of explaining what I do is
to teach riders to work with their horses as partners,
not simply in deference to their size and flighty-ness,
but sentient beings, aware of the emotional state of their
owner, and cooperative friends with a vested interest
in their owners becoming more fluent in the language of
riding, a special language that people have to learn with
their bodies. Horses have to learn this language too but
hopefully, what we humans have devised over centuries
of trial and error and finally success is accessible to
any given horse as a second language. We have some experienced
School horses for use and these horses are educated, light
and kind. |
Florido,
Lusitano Stallion, Teacher, Friend
Perry and
Renee Koser, owner.
Bjorn and
Ann show what dressage can do for any horse.
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