March Break Re-Cap

WOW!! What a fantastic week!! The seven participants of our very first Equine Assisted Learning Program had an excellent fun filled week filled full of self discovery. This fine young group of 12 - 17 year olds showed an amazing ability to work together and learn new skills. If this, the kick off to our Equine Assisted Programs is any indication of the potential success of future programs, we definitely have something to look forward too!

EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING PROGRAM OUTLINE

EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING PROGRAM OUTLINE 
 A 5 Day Program
March Break (March 14-18, 2011)

Ages 12 and up

Program Cost $350 plus HST

Day 1  Initiate a Unique Experience and Build a Sense of Community

Activities include some “getting to know" you exercises.  Participants will learn about themselves and how they handle the unexpected.  Adventure based activities will introduce the client to the horse world, and how working together leads to goals accomplished.

Day 2  Building Self Esteem and Developing Leadership

This session gives the group opportunity to solve problems, communicate, and negotiate with each other to get the task done.  Clients will be required to think outside the box while becoming aware of their body language and how it influences others.

Day 3  Discovering Solutions and Gaining Insight of Self and Others

This session reminds clients that sometimes breaking patterns is required to achieve a goal.  Participants will need to gain insights of one another to create a win-win solution as not everyone has the same skills. 

Day 4  Being Responsible and the value of “The Journey”

Success of the team will depend on how they recognize the need to constantly adapt in order to facilitate change.  Clients will see how responsibility, and the lessons taught by the horse will help each them on their quest to discovering their place in the world.

Day 5  Personal Growth and Pride of Accomplishment

Activities on this final day will allow participants the ability to take inventory of their accomplishments of the past week.  The group will be allowed to create an ending to this week long session and have their parents come out to meet their new friends and equine partners.

New Equine Assisted Therapy Programs!

We are very excited to see some new programs get underway at the Pembroke Campus in the New Year. It has been a goal of mine to produce some exciting, innovative and new programs to clients in the Ottawa Valley, using our Natural Horsemanship principles to lay a foundation conducive to personal growth and development. Spending hours and hours researching the different "equine assisted" programs, I decided to go to the original source of "equine assisted philosophy", Greg Kersten and his OK Corral Series.

In October, I flew out to Portland, Oregon and took a beautiful 4 hour bus ride south (and over Mt Hood) to Bend, where I met Greg, his wife and about 20 other participants of the OK Corral's Green Milepost. We learned the basics of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP), including the art of using observation and knowledge to create symbolic metaphors that the EAP team uses to assist the client. Greg shared the experiences of his life that lead the development of his programs, and was an inspiration to all of us!

In November, Catherine Grant and I drove down to Wheatfield, Indiana to participate in Greg's Red Milepost, a seminar specifically geared at crisis management. We learned what emotional skills are needed to make a "bad" situation "ok", and had the opportunity to meet a terrific group of counsellors at "Christian Haven". They are a private school dedicated to helping some kids that had a bad start in life. We were very inspired by these folks!

We are very pleased to have Greg booked for a Yellow Milepost in May 2011. Greg will show us how we can promote emotional health and growth for families, and look forward to having some local (and not so local) counsellors and mental health professionals come and join us for the seminar.

www.okcorralseries.com

This Week! - Catherine, Kate, Marie and I are headed to Nova Scotia to participate in a HORSE BOY METHOD clinic, where we will learn how Rupert Issacson uses horses in a program for Autistic children. Issacon wrote the New York times best seller The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son, which is accompanied by the documentary movie called The Horse Boy. Issacson also heads the Horse Boy Foundation which offers opportunities to Autistic children, and we are fortunate to be a part of one of the last Horse Boy Method seminars presented by Issacson himself. Kate will be participating as a rider in order to get certification to use Issacson's program at our own facility. More on this in a couple of weeks!

www.horseboyfoundation.org
www.horseboymethod.com

What this means!



Starting in January 2011, we will be offering our Equine Assisted Therapy Programs. Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information, or pass on our contact info to someone who may benefit from our programs! We will be busy presenting our programs outlines to the various service agencies throughout the Ottawa Valley, in order to spread the news of our newest programs!



Alison Vandergragt
Equine Assisted Therapy Program Facilitator

Fall is Here!!

Well the sunshine and beautiful colors have returned once again to the Ottawa Valley and both of our locations. The horses are mostly at the Pembroke Campus so we haven't spent a lot of time riding in our beloved hills here at home. But the colors have been fabulous and we will be sad to see them go.


Regardless of the colors the trees have taken on, we have really appreciated is the roof over our heads during the rainy days. Lessons have been coming along well, and we still have some open slots available, email for times or more information. The great thing is that most of our Killaloe students have moved over to the Pembroke Campus and we have enjoyed watching them advance, some of them with new horses providing new challenges. Our hope is that these students carry on the good work and continue learning these new skills.

Our "Ladies Night" has been the most successful night of the week, by far. All the participants have been 'good sports' about learning our philosophies and the new skills we have to offer them. As facilitators of this program we are definitely observing the perks of these ladies working with their own horses. They are devoted to their horses and the horse-human relationships have the chance to grow during their time at home. This is proof positive that rapport means alot to horses. An old cowboy once "Horses don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." We are looking at opening up a second night of the week for this as well, anybody who is interested should get an email to us soon before the spots fill up.Now with us getting busier we have found ourselves in need of some well broke horses to use for our students so that each horse is being used but not over stressed. On that note we have brought in several excellent horses over the past few weeks. Each of these horses is being assessed and assigned to students that match their needs and skill level. We look forward to each of these partnerships advancing and growing so that both sides are learning as much as they can from the other. The most recent acquisitions are Willow 9 yr old Percheron/TB and Tango a 5 yr old QH. As a side note: Tango is actually related to our Copper (8 yr old QH). They have the same grand sire, and came from the same PMU farm. Copper was purchased as a yearling from the PMU farm in Manitoba by Larry& Leslie Stewart in BC, where Kate met him and we purchased him from there. We are very happy with all of our leased horses and I have to thank the owners for being so understanding and helpful throughout this whole process.

We are looking forward to the coming months in Pembroke and the new developments we are making in our programs. For more information on any of the services we are offering please feel free to contact us via phone 613-638-2005 or email vanderbrookfarm@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy some of the photos, I took them yesterday in the afternoon. I love the way the light is playing on the horses.

Normally Natural,

Marie ;)

Lessons and Open House

With the preparations for our lessons at the Pembroke Campus coming along nicely, it is time for an update. We will be starting part time lessons in Pembroke on September 15, 2010. Our lesson schedule will continue to run in Killaloe for Monday and Tuesday and possibly Saturdays, through the fall but, Wednesday-Saturday lessons will be held in Pembroke. We are willing to take people of all ages and skill levels as Natural Horsemanship is about communication more than years of experience.

Introductory Special!! Bring a friend (sibling or parent too!) and get 1/2 off the first 4 weeks of lessons for both of you! The first block of eight lessons will be from Sept. 15- Nov. 10/2010

We are also looking to start a "Ladies Night" which will be held on Friday evenings 8pm-10pm. This session will be a less formal, relaxed gathering of like minded women who are willing to support each other in our horsemanship journeys. The sessions will be of a slower pace so that each participant can place their relationship with the horse first. The cost for this two hour session is the same as a 1 hour lesson!

Lesson Fees will be as follows:

Group: $35

Private: $45

Outdoor Board (with Shelters!) will be $295

If you would like more information on lessons or board please feel free to email vanderbrookfarm@gmail.com or call 613-638-2005.

In other news we are holding an OPEN HOUSE!!! Saturday Sept. 11, 2010 from 10-4 come on out and meet the staff and horses, see demonstrations by some of our students and instructors. We are looking forward to meeting many new people and having a blast.

Hope to see you there,

Normally Natural,

Marie :)

Excellent News!!!!

We here at Vanderbrook Farm and Natural Horsemanship Center have had a fairly exciting summer thus far. Between shuffling horses around, lessons, play days, etc. it has been a busy and exciting time to watch the business grow and change. All that being said, nothing tops our latest development, we have secured a facility for this winter!
The "Pembroke Campus" as we have deemed it, is being run out of Greenwood Stables, an excellent facility just 5 minutes outside of Pembroke. We will be taking advantage of the 68x 120 indoor arena, a smaller arena, the 80 foot round corral, local trails as well as the boarding facilities that Greenwood offers.
The Pembroke Campus will allow us to continue our Natural Horsemanship lessons all year round, and also begin our Equine Assisted Learning programs focused on leadership, communication and confidence building. While the goal is to maintain our Killaloe location, we will begin programs at the Pembroke Campus within the first weeks of September. This means we will be dividing our time between the two locations.(until the weather changes and we move indoors!!)

This move has been exactly what we were looking for and we are absolutely thrilled with the facility! Our hats must also go off to the owner Louise who has been gracious enough to offer us the facility and lend her experience and time as we get this venture off the ground. We are very much looking forward to the coming months working with her on this and the doors this move opens for the business. As we advance our services and programs we will update here but as of right now we are taking on new students and boarders at the Pembroke Campus.

Aside from this the past few weeks have seen several changes in the herd itself. First, we sent Sweetie home mid-August. Once again thanks to Alissa for leasing this great mare to us, she is missed and we sincerely wish you the best with her.

Secondly, John came to collect Fancy (mentioned in the last post) a lovely little Standardbred mare who was in for training. Fancy was an excellent project and an awesome horse to handle. We are looking forward to continuing working with John, his family and the horse(s) that are in their lives.


Thirdly, we took Scoota home to her owner Raquel after boarding her here for the past few years. It is nice to see both owner and horse happy at home and thanks to Raquel for holding on to our little Brigadier for the time being. (Brig is on loan as a companion to Scoota.)

The rest of the changes have been incoming, as we took on two fantastic geldings, Chance and Trenton. These draft cross boys came to us together from around Trenton, ON. They were both previously rescued by the SAD Rescue organization as youngsters and have spent the last few years growing and maturing with a family as pasture pets. Chance is green broke but a very solidly minded horse we have yet to find something that phases this guy. Kate has spent some time getting him understanding steering and going when asked, and he will be very soon initiated into our lesson program.

Trenton on the other hand is a slightly more difficult horse, he also received training prior to his arrival here. Unfortunately he did not advance as quickly due to his right brain tendencies. It is suspected that he was mistreated as a youngster due to the scars on his head, jaw and flanks. We are hoping that with his sweet personality and his natural curiosity we will be able to help him get over his fears and advance his training to the point of being a solid riding horse as well.

With the business advancing and the herd developing into an awesome group of sound horses we have been pretty tied up. We did however have the help of an extra set of hands, our working student Bridget. After spending ten days in lessons while she was here on vacation last year Bridget decided to spend a month here helping us out in exchange for her time in lessons. To put it mildly we had a blast and managed to get some stuff done as well. ;) Bridget was once again an excellent student and a joy to teach. We look forward to future visits and miss her while she is away. I have included a photo of Bridget riding Misty one of our advanced horses, who seemed to just click with her.
We are all looking forward to the new prospects of the next couple of months. Should be some fun times!! I personally really look forward to riding in a nice dry building while it is cold and miserable outside!! It'll be even better if we can ride with some awesome horse people at the same time!!

Normally Natural,
Marie ;)

Recap on May

Wow where does the time go? I believe May just blew by with barely a whisper that it was even passing through. This has been an incredibly busy month for us here at the farm. Here's hoping we can get most of the important news in this post to help get everybody up on the goings on around here.




Our lesson program has begun with an awesome group of students learning and advancing their skills a little more every time we see them. Kate is offering lessons both on and off premise, and we have found that all the students have been eager to learn all they can.



While our lessons for the first couple of weeks revolve largely around ground skills, we have been working hard to come up with ways to maintain confidence in both our riders and our students once they progress to the saddle. This has resulted in taking some 'normal' techniques and using them with a natural twist. For example, the lead line lesson, we have taken this old traditional trick to improve the seat on students and used it to help one student learn to trot comfortably on a more forward horse then she had previously ridden. Using the Circling Game Kate was able to help both the student and the horse learn to trot together online. This maintained both horse and rider's confidence, and gave the student an idea of what the trot should feel like when she gets it right.

We are looking forward to watching upcoming lessons and the progress that is being made with all of these individuals. Keep up the great effort everyone!




Aside from the lesson program we have had lots going on here at the farm. Around the beginning of May we had the arrival of a beautiful little mare who is in for help with some spooking issues. 'Fancy' is a 4yr old Standardbred mare, who has some amazing potential and we are hoping a few months here will help her mentally and emotionally as well as ongoing trims to assist her being more physically fit. She is an awesome little horse and we are loving having her here! We can totally understand why her family has chosen to seek help rather then send her on, and we are very glad to have such fantastic students.




On May 15th we held Kate's first clinic in Renfrew, ON. The day consisted of three sessions of students advancing their knowledge and improving their communication with their horses. Each session was informative and and personalized with Kate really taking each student's needs into account. We even got an extra session of Kate demonstrating some liberty work with her horse Phoenix.

The clinic was a success and we are looking forward to future events. Thanks again to everyone who came out and supported us that day, participants, auditors, especially Darlene at Stone Hill Stables for hosting and our photographers Keri and Rose for your continued hard work.



Somewhere between lessons, clinic and everything else Kate even managed to ride out for a couple of treks up the roads around us. I even found some photo evidence!! On this particular day Shadow was having some problems excepting the saddle. So Kate took the time to sort out the issue and was able to take Shadow off on their first off premise ride since she has been here.


Shadow did very well and we are looking forward to placing her in the lesson program so our students can start enjoying her willing attitude and gem of a personality.

Our crazy busy month ended up with us heading to the Lindsay area for the FEI International ParaDressage Competition. The Competition was held a completely wheelchair accessible facility, which was incredible. Wind Reach Farm really was impressive. They have thought of everything, from tactile learning stations in all the barns and gardens, to paved paths, to a wheel chair friendly playground. We were blown away by the friendliness of the staff and the positive atmosphere that Wind Reach has.

Part of our purpose for attending the competition was to meet Lauren Barwick, Paralympic Silver and Gold medalist in Beijing 2008 for Canada. Lauren has been a long time hero for us all as she has overcome hardship after hardship, to get to her status as excellent horsewoman and Paralympic athlete. As well Kate wanted to go to visit with Shannon, Lauren's assistant. Kate met Shannon during Kate's time at Larry Stewart's, (Larry happens to be Shannon's step-father)

Well long story shorter, we got our visit with Shannon, and met Lauren and her entourage. This lady is amazing!!! Having now seen her ride in person it is totally understandable that she has been so successful in her time in the competition circuit. She took home gold and bronze both days while we were there, as well as team gold overall. It was a very successful weekend for the entire Canadian paralympic team.

We even got in a couple of photos! Above: Lauren and Maille during their techinical test.

Left to right me, Paul (Lauren's boyfriend), Alison, Kate (on one knee), Andrea, Maille (mmm flowers!!), Lauren, Fawn Anderson 3* Parelli Instructor, and Shannon.






Lauren's horse Maille, (pictured below) is pretty cool, as well as gorgeous.














Watching Lauren and the rest of the competitors is truly inspirational. These people have some very serious handicaps but they persevere and literally ride right through them.

This particular competitor blew our socks off and blew the competition away!! She can barely lift her head but you put her up on that horse and she just lights up. They make an amazing team, that horse will do anything for her. It was awesome to see her smiles as she came out of the ring after an excellent ride and then took home gold in her class.

So thus ends my recap on the month, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Hopefully we will not be so negligent this next month.

From all of us up here at the farm take care, until next time!!

Normally Natural,

Marie :)