Beyond the Round Pen
Beyond the Round Pen targets a pressing need. Many clinicians address colt
starting and developing a relationship with your horse, but few address basic
horsemanship and the skills necessary for staying safe with your horse in the
backcountry. This two-day course prepares horses and riders for advanced
trail and backcountry challenges. Subjects include survival horsemanship,
handling trail obstacles, leg cues, the essential neck rein, improving the
walk, carrying gear on your saddle horse in a safe manner, a packing primer,
safe hunting on horseback, ponying other horses, exposure to cattle, and horse
restraint in the backcountry. Only mornings are spent in the arena.
Afternoon instruction is in the backcountry on our 1200 acre ranch.
(Limit of 10 participants)
A
new book based on the clinic (with the same title) will be released by Skyhorse
Publishing in July 2018 and will be available to clinic participants.
Fee Schedule (identical
for all clinics):
Clinic fee $350 per person—Clinic fee includes all
meals from Saturday morning through Sunday noon.
Horse Stall/Pen—no charge. Hay, if needed,
available at $5.00 per day.
Lodging—Limited lodging available
on the ranch in the Johnson Place Guest House or The Bunkhouse.
Trailer Parking—Staying
in trailers at the arena is permitted. Limited water and electricity hookups
(no AC) $35 per night per trailer.
Deposit of $100 per person is required to hold your place. Deposit is
non-refundable unless clinic is cancelled.
The Instructors
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Dan Aadland, Ph.D., is a lifelong horseman, rancher,
and writer. Author of ten books
(including The Complete Trail Horse)
and many
magazine articles for equine and outdoor publications, Dan taught English on
high school and college levels while developing, with his wife Emily, a
Tennessee Walking Horse breeding and training facility on the ranch that’s
been in Emily’s family for more than a century. A proponent of
the multi-skilled backcountry horse, Dan has also been a work horse teamster
since logging in the 1980’s with Big Jim, his Belgian stallion. His interest in draft animals continues,
and he’s currently working with two young mules to develop them as a team. |
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Emily Aadland, rancher and retired teacher, grew up on the land we now occupy
and became comfortable in the saddle as a small girl. She helped her
dad with the many tasks involving horses and soon was trusted with a
spirited, gaited ranch horse named Brownie on which she moved cattle, helped
her father tend irrigation sets, and checked the range to see that the bulls
were home. Emily assists Dan not only as clinic cook but as an
instructional resource with a lifetime of ranch horse experience. |
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Jennifer Franco grew up with horses in
Montana, studied in the equestrian program at Northwest Community College in
Powell, Wyoming and in Tennessee, trains barrel horses, and has a wonderful
feel for gait. Her touch as a trainer is gentle-but-firm.
Jennifer has been with Absaroka Tennessee Walking horses since 2010 and has
trained dozens of our young horses and several of our gaited mules. |
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Logan
Gehlhausen is a backcountry horseman and trainer with
a wealth of experience starting colts and packing into Wyoming
wilderness. Logan assists on a
time-available basis, lending his considerable expertise and providing
one-on-one instruction. |