Scotty a spotted saddle horse has recently come in to training and is doing very
well. Hopefully I will get some videos up soon, so you can see his nice gaits and canter.
Rates
Training
rates - $500 per month plus board which is $625 for indoor stall. Horses are trained 5 - 6 days per week, with daily turnouts
as well.
Lessons at Leap of Faith Stable are $60 for the first hour and $40
for every extra hour.
I board at Leap of Faith Stable in
Walnut Creek, CA, one of the best barns in the area. Your horse will be exposed to 3 different arenas- outdoor, outdoor covered
and indoor with mirrors and very busy trails. All horses are started with ground work, then ridden in the arenas and then
onto the trail alone and with other horses. Horses will learn one rein stops, how to move their hindquarters and shoulders,
bend, patterns, backing, going on the bit, stop with whoa and sidepassing. On trail they will learn to open gates, and
get use to bikes, hikers, coyotes, water, joggers etc.
Horses usually need only
1-2 months to put on the foundation and then I will teach the owner how to handle and ride the horse. I do not believe in
training a horse and just sending it home, training only works, when the owner and the horse work together. I will not
accept any horses if the owner will not come and learn how to handle the horse.
To
correct gaiting problems the horse must build up muscle to be able to gait correctly and this can take up to 3 months. I believe
the best training is when the horse and the owner learn together. I do not saddle break horses
anymore. If interested please send an email or call 925-768-7537.
Glory has finished her training, she did so well, her owner decided not to sell her.
Putting on a solid foundation
Baylee had a 2 Week Winter tuneup
Baylee
gait is improving and he is starting to get head shake
the last part of the
video is his best gait, he is now back home with his mom.
A fool and his horse will soon be departed
Training horses with
problems takes experience, timing and being able to read the horse to know how much to do in each training session.
It is not for the green rider.
How do
you know if your horse is trained well or maybe you just dont know how to tell him what to do?
A horse that has been trained well to start even if it is green should be able
to walk behind or next to you on a loose lead, lunge, have rope or reins around its legs and remain calm, have things over
its head and remain calm, stand still when tied, stand for grooming, pick up all its feet, have its ears handled, stand still
for mounting, be mounted from either side, as well as dismounted from either side, back up easily from light pressure, move
sideways with a light touch, put its head down for the bridle. If your horse cannot do these how can you expect it to
do high level dressage, western showing or trail riding when it doesn't even know how to act. It is like an undisciplined
child and will only get worse as time goes on.
If your horse pins its ears, bites, kicks, rears, walks over you, won't back up, jigs on the trail, won't
leave the barn, won't go in the trailer or wash rack, someone didn't train it or something happen and no one showed
the horse how to handle the situation. This can easily become a dangerous horse to you or others around you. Does your horse
runaway with you? Even the strongest bit wont fix this, because when you have over a 1000 lbs pulling against your two arms
its an unfair battle and I think you can guess who will win.
Some horses can be fixed in weeks, some take months depending on the problem. What cannot be fixed is their temperment,
just like people some are calm others are nervous or pushy. I can give your horse the foundation and show you how to ride
and handle it, but then you must decide, can you continue the learning process with your horse. The more consistent you are
the better the horse becomes, the less consistent the horse will begin to go back the way he was.
Sometimes it is mostly the owner that needs the training, if you have a horse that is acting up and you have never
taken lessons, maybe its time for you to get some instruction, learn how to have a balanced seat, quiet hands, learn how to
use your legs and seat correctly, how to steer correctly, how to ask your horse to go sideways, how to open a gate etc. You
can't always blame the horse, sometimes they are just trying to protect themselves. Does your horse run away in the paddock
when you try to get him? He just might be trying to tell you something, maybe your riding him too hard every time you take
him out, do you give him a break or get off on the trail and loosen the girth for a bit. If your boss worked you every day
you went to work as hard as he could I bet you wouldn't like your job anymore either.
If you are interested in having your horse in training or maybe just some advice
please feel free to contact me for more information.
Missouri FoxTrotter-This
was one of my sale horses. I restart them all to make sure there are no holes in their training, from the ground up, it gives
you an idea of what the ground work is about.
Teaching Tennessee Walker Tricks
Tennessee
Walking Horse- previously had no ground manners and could not canter at the age of 10. He
ended up with a nice canter and very respectful.
There are more videos of horses trained or sold
on you tube, just search gderusso and it will pull up all the videos.
I can only train at the stable
I am located at due to my time constraints ( Leap of Faith Farm-leapoffaithfarms.com) and would require a training fee as well as board for the facility. I charge $500/month for training, Leap of Faith
charges 30/day or $625 per month.
I can occasionally
come to your stable but not for full time training. Here is a link to a great John Lyons certified trainer Ivonne Gutierrez that will come to your facility for training,
don't miss your chance to have her help make your horse safer and more respectful www.easystephorsemanship.com
Horses must be taught to have respect. In nature they bite, kick, rear etc
to inform the other horses of their intentions. It should not be allowed with humans and it should not be considered cute.
As you see on the videos, you can get extremely hurt if you do allow these behaviors or do not know what you are doing.
All training should start from the ground, and when the horse is solid, then go to the undersaddle training,
other wise behaviors, like lack of respect will come out undersaddle. Also it doesn't matter if the kids below irritated
the horses or not, the horses should be desensitized to everything before they are around children, so no matter what the
kids do, the horses should not respond aggressively back, otherwise the children should never be allowed around the horses.
You cannot accept that horses just do these things, teach the horse how to behave, as they are too large to react the way
they did in the videos below. Both the kids below could of been killed due to poor training of the horses and the owners allowing
the kids to be around unsafe horses.
The videos below show you how the ground work really
makes a difference.