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News from Travis:

This is an exciting time for you and your horse for Andersen Acres will be offering more than we ever have before.  Most boarding facilities only offer board for your horse where we can give you instruction in natural horsemanship along with offering horses via payments and our facility provides tools to help you enhance your horsemanship skills.  We would like to address the following things.


Horse Sale Program: When we started Andersen Acres we wanted people to use us for training their horses, later we started offering boarding.  We also offered horses for sale but the people that bought them usually did not have the experience let alone the knowledge needed in owning a horse.  We then started offering a program of selling horses with training and boarding included in the price.  Through the years it has merged into the program that most of you know of now.  Get a horse for payments equaling our boarding rate and then after so many months you then own the horse.  Money one spends extra into teaching the horse and themselves through Andersen Acres goes towards paying off the horse. 

This program always has happy people and horses when one invests in schooling for them and their horse.  however results have varied when a person doesn't invest in learning at least half the time it takes to pay off their horse.  In any case like the saying goes.  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  We will continue to offer help, advice, a learning environment, and tools to people but it is up to them to take advantage of what we offer.

This program has been working well and has been stable and we are happily going to continue it as long as we have horses for sale and people want to learn.

Apprenticeship:  Some may not be aware but Andersen Acres has an official apprentice now.  Ariel will be interacting with the horses and helping them along in their learning in addition to doing tasks around the facility.  Feel free to ask her questions in helping you with your horse or about Andersen Acres.  If she can not answer your question she will forward it to me or Andrea.  She has been doing extremely well in communicating with the horses and the horses are responding with enthusiasm for her.  Ariel is doing wonderful.

Teachings and Philosophy:
Where I am today in my horsemanship skills and knowledge is because I have a passion for horses and would like to share with others that same passion.  I picked up books, attended clinics, symposiums, watched videos and observed horses at play.  I learned many styles and techniques from many different people and one thing I gathered is that no one technique works for all situations all the time.  However, how the knowledge is presented can make a big difference on how quickly one learns and retains it.

Years ago I made videos and wrote articles to try and get my name out there as an instructor in teachings of natural horsemanship and trainer of horses.  Even though I have great ideas at presenting my techniques I soon realized that I currently do not have the resources to create these things on a large scale.  So instead of reinventing the wheel and competing against all the clinicians and trainers that travel the country and world all the time I decided to try and improve the Andersen Acres facility so that we can offer more tools to help in learning beyond having a person just teach you.  With that I am recommending people invest in following a program that some top known clinicians offer.  Take advantage of the resources they have in presenting material and use us (Andersen Acres) as a way of clarifying what they are teaching.

One program I recommend is Parelli Natural Horsemanship because they continually learn and then regurgitate what they have learned into methods and tools for all to use.  For example the "carrot stick and string" concept was not invented by Pat Parelli but many believe he started it.  In actuality he coined the term, designed the stick for lightness and strength and he is very adapt at demonstrating it's uses.  It was first used about 400 years ago by Antoine de la Baume Pluvinel.  Some people may not like Parelli's for reasons that I won't go into but in my opinion their program is currently the best all around program at allowing people to learn from home as apposed to having to go to clinics.

Please use me as a coach/teacher and Andersen Acres as a resource in improving your understanding and practicing your communication and skills with your horse.  As I have always done and plan to do, I will teach you and offer you my suggestions but if you take the time and invest in the programs some Natural Horsemanship clinicians teach, you will improve with much greater speed than you think was possible. 

Collaborative tools:  Most people older than 25 think going to school as physically going to a place to learn.  This way of thinking is changing dramatically where technology has enabled new means of acquiring information beyond what one thought of 20 years ago.  Learning and retaining information has been shown that the more people get involved and share ideas the better people get at applying their new knowledge.  Community-driven, interdisciplinary, and engaging communication and collaboration via just physical space is now no longer the norm.  Technology like mobile devices, video recorders, and the Internet allow people to express their thoughts more openly then ever before. We have plans to incorporate & add more collaborative tools to help all in improving their horsemanship abilities.  Below are just a few things we will be offering.
  • Community board: A white board or chalk board is available for you to write down either a question for us to answer for your next visit or for you to write down something exciting that you or your horse did that you feel was worth noting so that others may benefit from it.  This community white board will enable you to express your thoughts and concerns right away as apposed to trying to remember something when you get homeIf this works out well we may exchange it for a laptop where you can access the questions and answers even when you are not at the facility.
  • Facebook and Twitter:  Andersen Acres has Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Using them Andersen Acres can express ideas and strategies for you to access anytime you visit your social networking sites. 
  • Learning Activities: Throughout the coming months we will host more group activities from rides to demonstrations to mini clinics.  The key is Travis Andersen will not be the only one you'll be learning from.  We encourage you to show others what you have been learning and what you can do with your horse.  For you never know.  What you think is simple and easy may be difficult for someone else and that other person will really appreciate what you have shown them.

We are looking forward to these next few months and hope to see you out with your horse and doing things with them that were once only dreamed about.

Thank you

Travis Andersen