Travis Young—Travis has trained more than seven years for us now, and colts he has started have gone to enthusiastic customers across the nation.  His work has been so impressive that we’ve received outside horses from as far away as Indiana and California.  Gentle and patient, raised in a family of Quarter Horse breeders, Travis trained his first colt at age eleven, but has taken to Walking Horses and their gaits like a duck to water while still retaining the many good things about a stock horse orientation.  All horses should be able to turn on a dime (not requiring “forty acres” as many barn-raised show walkers do.)  They should stop, neck rein, side pass, yield to leg cues, in short, respond.  Travis’s specialty is starting colts, but he’ll take horses at later stages as well.  Methods are eclectic, designed to fit each individual animal, gentle-traditional with influences from natural horsemanship and reining.  Current charges are $550 per month including board.
       

Dan Aadland—Dan’s training time is limited, but his “ranch and trail finishing program” answers the demand for horses capable of handling rough country.  This training program is long term but low stress, intended for younger horses already well along in training but needing to get out of their stalls and into the backcountry.  They become part of Dan’s own ranch string and are worked on average a couple of times per week.  Horses will experience a pack trip (on which they’ll be both packed and ridden) and be introduced to a wide range of rough country and trail situations, cattle and wildlife, the neck rein, hobbles, picketing, etc.  This is similar to sending your teenager to work for summer on a ranch, but no problem children, please—Dan’s forte is developing “using” horses, not correcting bad habits.  Charges are negotiable based on training objectives.