For over 25 years, Ken has been turning out horses that are responsive, well behaved, willing partners. We do everything from starting colts to helping rehabilitate problem horses, to turning rail horses into trail horses. While we stay current with all the different training methodologies and integrate parts of them in our program, we have found that our gentle methods are consistently reliable and get immediate results. We don't use special equipment or extensions, whips or spurs. To paraphrase Ray Hunt, we "try to make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard." We find that positive reinforcement is more powerful and longer lasting than negative correction. It's our goal to spend only as much time in the round pen as is needed and to get our horses on the trail as soon as it is safe to do so.

We work with horses of all ages but find it is a rare horse whose bones have knitted enough at 2 years of age to allow constant riding. We want our horses to be as sound at 22 as they are at 2, and so youngsters are started carefully under saddle and not expected to spend hard riding hours until they are at least 3. However, horses of all ages here are halter trained, have their feet worked on, get baths, are trailered and are well mannered.

We want to help horses learn to think their way through difficult situations and we watch them gain confidence with every mastery of obstacles we put in their way. Our horses learn to be good trail horses in the mountains that surround us. Our horses can slide down steep hillsides, ford swollen creeks, cross bridges, stay on a highline, wear hobbles, bushwack cross country, go through snow banks. They can pack equipment or people safely in the wilderness.

Horses in training here are worked every day but Sunday for as much time as it takes to get them where we want them to be that day. In mature horses that can be many hours a day, not the usual one-hour-a-day regimen that many trainers use. Each horse is an individual and requires its own specially tailored program to produce a well mannered, reliable partner wherever you ride.

We specialize in gaited horses but usually have "trotting" horses in here for training too.

Seminars on preparing horse and rider for the backcountry are available as well. We've spent years in the wilderness on horses and want to help others learn how to have as much fun as we do. Give us a call at 505-773-4633 or send an email to and let us know how we can help you.