Horses & Donkeys

Horses & Donkeys

Whether you are a complete beginner, an experienced rider or driver, or you have a horse and you want to improve your handling, our courses in natural horsemanship provide the opportunity to learn to approach a horse as a pal, and get out and about with your pal, in town and country, on foot, bareback, or in the saddle. In a nutshell, our courses are about discovering the nature of horses - best expressed in horses who live in nature - and getting you thinking about what it's like to be a horse!

We see natural horsemanship - or ethology-based horsemanship, ethology being the science of animal behaviour, especially in the wild - as the ideal complement to the conventional instruction given in riding and driving schools. In equestrian centres, lessons are first and foremost about getting the student to make the horse do the things he has been trained to do. This makes sense, but it is limited. Rarely is there the chance to get to know horses as a species, how they feel and think, what is and what isn’t important to them, what they’re trying to communicate. Generally, it just isn’t possibe to see them behave naturally among each other, in an environment which allows them to. Nor does the occasion arise often, to see how the horse was trained from the beginning.

In our privileged environment for keeping horses, you will be able to see closely what free-living horses are really like, happy and spontaneous, curious and interactive with people. And you will get to know them, learn from them, and learn how to get them to do things for you; things they knew already, and things you'll teach them.

Even free-living horses need care, and our courses include attention to feeding, shelter, safety, physical and mental health, feet, teeth, tack.

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