"The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We teach a balanced, force-free approach to training and riding Icelandic horses, celebrating the unique spirit and 5 gaits of the Icelandic horse: walk, trot, canter, tölt, and flying pace (skeið). Our focus is first and foremost on safety, understanding, and fun. We provide our excellent lesson horses with consistent professional training and conditioning outside of lessons so that they remain soft, balanced, happy, and motivated to work with our students. We provide our riders with a solid understanding of Icelandic horsemanship culture, dressage, equine biomechanics, and learning theory, all of which we believe are essential to ethical, balanced riding and training. Our riders learn first to balance themselves correctly over the horse, so that they can later learn to help the horse balance correctly under the rider. The riding we teach is healthy and fun for both horse and rider, and provides a strong foundation to meet any rider's goals.
Riding With Us:
We teach children (ages 5 and up) and adults of all abilities. By design, our lesson program is small and intimate, enabling us to give each horse and rider the one-on-one time they deserve. We teach a hands-on approach to horsemanship, meaning that our riders spend time before and after lessons learning to properly care for their lesson horses.
We ask that all riders, regardless of age or experience, begin with half-hour private lessons. Once we have evaluated your riding and horsemanship skillset, we may recommend longer lessons, lessons outside of the arena, and/or semi-private/group lessons. For brand new beginners, the first lesson will be an introduction to basic horsemanship, including grooming, basic handling, and safety on and around the horse. We are willing to lend new students helmets for the first three lessons - after that, we ask that riders invest in their own properly fitted riding helmet.
Lesson packages and/or on-site leases may be available to dedicated riders in our program.
Cancellation Policy: If you have to cancel or reschedule a lesson within 24 hours of the reserved lesson time, we as that you pay for the lesson that you reserved.
Click through the photos below to see photos of our students enjoying our lesson horses:
