Gentle, progressive training of people and horses to ride and drive with basics in dressage and horsemanship since 1980.

beachThe Fundamentals of Horsemanship School welcomes you to Glade Farm. Located in a beautiful Rocky Mountain valley, this school is ideal for horse enthusiasts who desire to further their horse knowledge and skills.

The school features programs to address a wide variety of horse interests including groundwork, round-penning, lunging, english and western riding, schooling young horses, re-schooling older horses, carriage driving, and getting positive results in horse handling and communication.

Glade Farm's mirrored indoor arena, two outdoor arenas, round pen, open riding fields, and quiet focused atmosphere, provide the ideal environment to pursue your many horsemanship goals.

Horse owners wishing to improve their horsemanship are invited to join skilled instructors Rick Noffsinger, Crystal Suppes, and Michelle Springsteen. Their common goal is to help people achieve enjoyable and effective communication and harmony with their horses.

If you are ready for the next step in your horsemanship we highly recommend our all encompassing, intensive courses in horsemanship.


We appreciate your commitment to your personal journey with your horse. We are here to support you in your growth!

 

 

 

 

Our Philosophy and Objectives for all courses:

To Learn safe and effective horse handling techniques through understanding horse/handler psychology, practical handling skills, and to recognize that regardless of the lingo (semantics) or discipline (english, western, driving, etc.), all handling/training techniques use the same basic principals.
 

As we look closely we find that all disciplines and methods of training compliment rather than contradict each other. A skilled, knowledgeable rider/trainer, and well schooled horse should feel comfortable performing in many different areas (dressage and reining for instance).
 

Training occurs whenever we are near a horse. Horses are incredibly aware and in the moment. They notice our emotions, body language, and everything we do or don't do. To have positive results, we humans must become as aware and in the moment as the horse.
 

The idea is not to drill a horse and rider over and over, but to give them a basic understanding of how to learn, how to think, and how to communicate with each other.
 

Three reasons a horse may fail to do what it is asked:

  1. The horse doesn't understand.
  2. The horse understands, but physically is unprepared for the task.
  3. The horse becomes willful and takes over, or becomes frightened and flighty, or dull and ignores, (or any combination of these), due to reasons 1 or 2.
 

If the horse doesn't understand or doesn't do what is asked, we must first look to ourselves to see how we can present our idea more clearly.
 

People and horses can't learn without making mistakes. Our job is to make sure the mistakes made aren't unsafe or unfixable. Mistakes can then lead you and your horse to greater understanding rather than greater confusion.

We will transform fear and frustration into opportunity's for fascination, learning, and greater understanding.