There are so many things
I find important when I work with horses, safety, environment, equipment, but the
first thing on my list would always be love. Without the love for horses you may
struggle to make good choices for them. One of my exam questions is 'What is the
most important thing to have when working with horses?' I often get lots of different
answers from people especially when they have not worked with me before. Some answers
might include, a round pen, tack, money and some of the more clever ones might even
come up with knowledge, but no one ever comes up with love. My way of explaining
this would be to equate it to having children.
When you have children you
have this unconditional love for them, nothing they do will stop you from loving
them. But lets look at this a little closer, with this love comes understanding,
compassion, reasoning, ability to compromise, listening skills, ability to lead
and give advise, times when you'll be lead, times for laughing and times when you'll
cry, times when you don't know all the answers, times when you'll let them make
their own mistakes and times when you say no and put in boundaries.
This is how I want you to love your horses. So we have established that
you love your horse, the next step is helping you to sort out your differences and
misunderstandings. We often equate ourselves to translators and become your channel
of communication.
Our job is not just to show
you how to fix things but to help you understand why it went wrong in the first
place, thus preventing it from happening again. Often there is never a need for
you to return to Learning to Listen.
All our training sessions
are catered for your individual needs. It is so important that you enjoy your time
with us and feel totally at ease. Learning to Listen provides the perfect setting
for you to learn in, with it's western style ranch, relaxed atmosphere, stunning
scenery, rivers, woodlands and rolling green hills.
Justine Hey, Sawley
Thanks for your work with the ponies last week, it's really given me a focus and I'm motivated to go out and play with them much more now I feel more confident about what I need to do. I love coming to Hill Top Farm! I always leave with the feeling that my ponies are great!
Our facilities include:
- Purpose build log style classroom
- Western style wooden round pen
- Second portable round pen
- Indoor school with rubber surface
- Western style stabling
- American style traditional stabling
- Organic turn out pastures for all year round
- Miles of off-road riding
- BHS approved livery yard
- 2 western style fully heated tack rooms
- Security 24 hours
- Qualified on site staff
- Regular on site clinics, courses and demonstrations
