Our B.I.T. Program
In
this Basics in Training program, students are given the opportunity to gain
hands-on experience using groundwork exercises like round-penning, lunging and
long-reining in order to acquire or improve skills necessary to work effectively
with horses. Our approach uses positive reinforcement and communication in the
language of the horse to build the foundations necessary for both human and
equine to advance to other pursuits.
The course builds the necessary skills and understanding in a series of 8-week sections, with each section meeting one day per week. Each section ends with a written and practical evaluation to assess the students' strengths and identify areas requiring improvement. Students who fulfill the requirements for all sections will be awarded a certificate of completion.
To ensure that each student has an opportunity to receive individualized attention and time to work with a horse at every meeting, enrollment space is limited and advanced reservations are required.
We believe this is important work, as building a foundation for your horse's education sets the stage for a confident and reliable horse. A horse should look forward to his work and be able to trust the people that work with him. In this course, you will learn guidelines for a training program and how to tailor it to each horse. Skills will be taught to better enable you to communicate with your horse in a language he understands.
| Section A: A Good Beginning--Introducing Yourself and the Horse to a Common Language. In this section, the emphasis is on learning the language of the horse in the round pen, but additional topics include: understanding the basic nature of equines, good-manners handling, basic grooming, using an obstacle course at liberty, and trailer loading Section B: Improving the Skills of Horse and Handler. In this section, skills are further developed in the round pen and using obstacles, and students are given an introduction to proper lunging technique. |
Section C: Ride Preparation, Step 1. In this section, we begin to use the skills developed in previous sections prepare a green horse to take the first steps toward accepting a rider as we progress to an introduction to long reining. Skills are further developed and refined in the round pen, at liberty with obstacles, and lunging. Section D: Ride Preparation, Step 2. As green horses continue to make progress toward going under saddle, all previous skills are developed and refined, with an emphasis on intermediate lunging and long-lining skills. |
Section E: Ready to Ride: Introducing Weight to the Horse. In this culminating section, we continue to refine all skills learned in previous sections, practice and perfect long-lining, and make the exciting move of introducing weight to the horse.
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