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Heartwood's Horse Development Program
What to Expect
We love horses, so all horses in our development program are treated with consistency and respect. They are given top-quality care by the Mackenzie Meadows staff, and we make every effort to minimize risks and ensure their safety, whether lounging around in a paddock or at work in the arena.
Our horse development program has been designed to benefit the horse as well as the owner. We give the horse lots of time to learn and are always on the lookout for new techniques that encourage them to try. We keep things as relaxed as possible, but we aren't afraid to be effective. We offer consistency, variety and 'passive leadership', giving the horses a reason to want to be with us.
Every horse is different so the program is different for every horse. That being said, we do have some general expectations for the horses in our program, and the first thing we do is assess them to see where they are at.
Ground Work
We start with the basics – ground manners. Horses with good ground manners are not only a pleasure to work around, but are also safer to handle. Every time we are with the horses, we always pay careful attention to how they are responding to us today. Horses often score points against their handlers during daily handling without the handlers even noticing — and we try to keep those points to a minimum!
We expect the horses in our program to:
- Be easy to catch — and after a few sessions, to be meeting us at the gate!
- Be polite while being led – to stay next to and at the same speed as the handler (forwards and backwards!), to easily yield the shoulder and to stand calmly.
- Be good with their feet – both for daily maintenance and for the farrier.
- Be quiet while being hosed or bathed.
- Be easy to trailer load and unload – to go willingly into the trailer and calmly back out.
- Yield from pressure – an important skill to know for the safety of both the horse and handler.
- Respond to basic voice commands through longeing and roundpen work, ground-driving and ponying.
Riding
We take every opportunity to take the horses in our program everywhere – in the arena, on the trail, through water, over natural obstacles and on the road. We want you to have fun riding, regardless of whether you are riding for performance or pleasure, so we focus on maintaining softness and eagerness in our horses.
We expect our horses to:
Lower their heads to accept the bridle.- Be relaxed at the walk, trot and canter.
- Respond willingly to the rider.
- Maintain softness and suppleness.
- Be willing to move any part of their body to enable correct lateral work, turns, etc.
- Easily adjust their stride – from collected to working to extended.
- Go out to the ring or on the trails in a group or by themselves without any herdbound issues.
Every horse is different, and it will take each horse a different amount of time to really be comfortable with each of these skills — but for the duration of your horse's stay in our program, we will be working towards these goals, as well as your specific goals.
Tricks!
We love to play around with our horses! Tricks are not only fun for everyone involved, but also help the horses to develop a keen, willing disposition. We are constantly looking for new ideas to play with the horses, so our list of tricks is always evolving.
Some of the things that we have taught horses to do include:
- To bow and lie down when asked.
- Using only a voice command, to sidepass and stand quietly at the mounting block (or anywhere else we choose to get on!) to be mounted.
- To play with a ball.
- To follow us, yield their front and hind ends, back up, jump obstacles, side pass — all without a halter or lead shank.
Intrigued? Please contact us for more information and to reserve your horse's space in our horse development program. We look forward to meeting you!