First, take a look at our horsemanship audition videos at www.youtube.com/gentlereins.
These are videos right here at our facility with our horses.
Here is more info about "how to sign up":
How to
sign up for the horsemanship program at New Hope Horse Shelter / DoubleHP
1. Watch our horsemanship / audition videos at
www.youtube.com/gentlereins. These are
some of our horsemanship students in the last few years, right here at our
facility, with the horses who live here.
2. Look at your schedule, to see if it will work with our
schedule. At first, we want you to come
2-5 times a week. Twice is fine, if that
is what works for you. We schedule in
advance, on a monthly basis. Sessions
are 1- 2 hours each. They are scheduled
M-F. Start time can be between 10:30
a.m. and 4:30 p.m. It is our goal that
as you advance through our program you will need less supervision/coaching and
your schedule can become more flexible.
Our weekends here are reserved for advanced students. If you have
recently received your certificates for Level 3 online and freestyle, you will
probably very quickly receive a great
deal of schedule flexibility here, low or no costs, and the opportunity to help
coach our beginners, if you would like to.
If you are just getting started or are a beginner yourself, that is
something to look forward to!
3. Consider some of your individual factors:
Previous
Horse Experience - There is no previous horse experience required; however, if
you have quite a bit of horse experience, you will probably speed through our
first two levels.
Age -
There really is no age limit. We have
riding and non-riding programs, so you don't have to ride if you don't want
to. If you are younger than 18, we need
to involve a parent or legal guardian in all of this planning. For youth 12 and under, we require an adult
to participate in the sessions with the youth, at least for the first few sessions or until we all feel comfortable with the youth being here without the
adult who brings the youth. We have had
children as young as 6 in our program, but it can be difficult at this young
age.
Weight
& Height - This is important for riding and saddle-fit purposes, but not so
much for non-riding activities. Our
beginner- approved riding horses are medium sized, so beginner riders cannot
weigh much more than 170 pounds. For
advanced riders, we do have a couple of bigger, younger horses that might fit
you. These horses need further training
before they are beginner-approved. So if you are advanced, perhaps you will be
interested in these horses.
Physical,
emotional, and mental fitness - Are you fit enough for a 2-hour session with a
horse? You don't need to have any
previous horse experience to do this. But
you need to be able to focus on what we are teaching you without having
thoughts about other things that will distract you from learning and practicing. You will need to develop non-stop awareness
and be willing to find and use an appropriate level of assertiveness. This is a self-improvement program for
humans. Yes you will learn horsemanship
skills, and you will ride if you want to.
But you will also explore (and hopefully enjoy) new ways to communicate, move, excel, and have fun with a horse (and actually with life in general). If you
enjoy music, rhythm, dance, either individual or team athletics/sports, you
will enjoy this with horses. If you
don't know if you like those rhythmic things, you can find out here with the
horses! When something isn't going quite
right between a human and a horse, usually there is something the human should do
differently. It's hardly ever the horse;
it's almost always the human. Once you get to that realization, your
advancement will be incredible! This is
why we talk about fitness. Physical, emotional, and mental.
4. Complete/submit our 2-page Application; and contact us to
further discuss schedules, rates, and goals. Darci Hortness, Horsemanship Coach. 605
359-0961 email doublehphorses@aol.com
Here is the info. on the application. We can email it to you, or you can just copy/paste the info. here. Email it back to us or send to DoubleHP, 25337 470 Ave, Crooks SD 57020.
Application (2
pages) for Horsemanship Program at New Hope Horse Shelter / DoubleHP
Horse
Help Providers, Inc. (DoubleHP), 501c3 nonprofit for horse rescue/sanctuary
25337 470
Ave, Crooks SD 57020, 605 359-0961,
email doublehphorses@aol.com www.facebook.com/newhopehorses,
www.newhopehorses.org
Name of
participant ________________________________________________
Name of parents/legal
guardian (if participant is under 18 years of age)
address
(city state zip) ______________________________________________
phone
numbers ____________________________________________________
email
address _____________________________________________________
If you manage
your own website, blog, facebook page, youtube video collection, etc., that you
think we might be interested in, write down your internet links here. (this is
optional)
(helpful info. when considering horse/saddle/stirrup fit)
Our
"how to sign up . . ." sheet will help you complete the rest of this
form.
What kind of
schedule are you looking at?
What are
your main areas of interest or goals or reasons for joining our program?
After
reading about rhythm and fitness (physical, mental, and emotional) as they
relate to our horsemanship program, please write about any experiences, thoughts,
questions, or concerns you have regarding those topics.
Anything
else you want to tell us or ask us about our horsemanship program.
