Gaining Teaching Experience

Gaining Teaching Experience

John and Scratch leading a trail ride in San Benito.

It's been an interesting few months as I embark on my "teaching horsemanship" adventure.  A few people have seen my Real Simple Horsemanship Facebook Page and contacted me.  I've given about a dozen lessons or so, and can see the challenges ahead.

People have all kinds of expectations with their horses.  A couple of the people I'm working with want to have a "pet" relationship with their horse.  This is quite likely the most difficult challenge for me to overcome.  I want them to have that "loving" relationship with their horse THEY want, while trying to get the horse to have the RESPECTFUL relationship with the owner THEY need.  This is quite different from my past occupation where "The customer is always right" reigned as a priority.

The horses I've worked with always started with the Downunder Horsemanship Method from the basics.  It didn't matter how much the horse did or didn't know.  We started from the top.  The people I'm helping, don't want to do that.  Even though I encourage them to get the same tools I used to build my horsemanship, they want to skip that part.  My response has been to just keep hammering the safety aspects and to get them safe.  If the learning is a little slower, then that's on them.

The Trail Boss Experience

In early October, I got a call from my friends at the Bar SZ Ranch.  The Bar SZ hosts equestrian events, corporate retreats, and weddings as part of its working ranch operation.  Often, part of the wedding weekends there are escorted trail rides.  They were so busy in October that Ranae and I got to lead a few rides on the ranch.  We took our horses who did a fantastic job leading the way with mostly novice riders.  We also got to experience tacking and un-tacking a dozen horses in record time!