BTC Arabians

Every other day or so we get calls or emails inquiring as to whether we use natural horsemanship methods. Internet research reveals that lots of farms are touting natural horsemanship as a mantra and instructors are claiming to be certified in natural horsemanship. It all sounds very good BUT it's not new. The methods of breaking (now called "starting") and training horses have been around for centuries and have been used by all good horsemen. Mind you, I said "good" horsemen. Those old west stereotypes of "breaking" the animal by "breaking" his spirit as well as his body were never, even back then, looked upon with favor by any true horsemen. Basically, some brilliant business-minded trainer happened upon a marketing idea and ran with it - and hats off to them, is making a fortune.
Does being a "certified natural horsemanship instructor" make an instructor a better one? In that it possibly teaches the instructor how better to teach an student, or gives them some tools or ideas they wouldn't have thought of, maybe. But being "certified" essentially means they completed a day-long or weekend-long seminar and got a certificate of completion. It does not mean they are a better instructor than the next guy or girl. In essence, an instructor's success is better measured by how well previous students have done - as measured by showring performance (or barrel racing, or jumping - or some success in whatever discipline they teach). And just because the instructor has done well personally, doesn't mean he/she can teach others to do the same. We will discuss finding the right instructor for you or your child in another blog entry.

Lately, we've received a number of calls/emails with requests for riding lessons for children anywhere from 2 to 5 years of age. We've also had quite a few requests for "Mommy & Me" riding lessons or classes as well. And old rule of thumb is that children shouldn't start riding til they are 5 to 7 years of age, depending on level of maturity and attention span. Younger children are easily distracted and often forget safety rules and they usually aren't really ready to ride - they just want to see the pretty horse and perhaps sit on it. We found that a good test is that if a child is able to ride a bike without training wheels, they will probably have the balance and concentration necessary to begin to ride a horse. Another test would be if the child is old enough for piano lessons, he/she is also probably old enough for riding lessons - given the concentration needed for music lessons.
We're still not sure what the "Mommy&Me" class is supposed to be about. Research shows this to be a relatively new California thing (with the exception of one farm in Florida). None of the farms had any detailed information on this type of thing so we cannot honestly evaluate the safety or advisability of such lessons, especially if they are actually on the horse. If anyone has any information on such a thing, let us know and we'll look into it.