Foundation Equine Services

08/25/2024

08/04/2024

https://www.codyenterprise.com/news/people/article_fb10054e-0d5c-11ef-88cc-a796edf6134f.html

An Alabama horse, scheduled for euthanasia, was instead sent to Cody for an alternative.

06/17/2023

Mitch’s farrier and horse training business was doing well, as was Suzi’s Serenity Wellness Retreat. The cherry on top came in mid-June with the birth of their granddaughter.

06/11/2023

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

02/04/2023

Congratulations Kristen!!

12/21/2022

Upcoming Clinic filling up fast. January 21 & 22

10/25/2022

Come join Foundation Equine Services and for a day of learning what it takes to make a bridle horse!

Registration is $200 a person due by November 8th. You can find the registration form at www.bighornfair.com

09/23/2022

ANNOUNCEMENT: Total Horsemanship Apprentice Program. Teaching True Unity between Human and Horse. Starting from the foundation.
Pupils are taught the importance of Love, Energy, Safety and Respect. From the hoof up. ‘No foot, no horse.’ DM for more information.

Mitch Shelhamer

09/02/2022

‘It comes from your heart.’

A big announcement is coming soon from Foundation Equine Services.

A few years ago, Tom helped me teach a young stud to be a gentleman so that I could ride him in public places. In addition to the other problems, the horse always resisted slightly when I bridled him. I had to use my thumb to pry his mouth open enough to slip the snaffle between his teeth. Tom no doubt noticed this problem the first evening, but never mentioned it until the third morning when he suggested that we work on the bitting problem.

Tom directed me through a series of exercises to encourage him to open his mouth at my suggestion. I held the horse’s head in my arms and between my arms and my body. Sometimes when he resisted more vigorously, I had to hang on real hard. When he became agitated I tried to calm him by petting softly. During one of the episodes when I was petting, Tom said, “Your hands are too hard.”

I had been stroking him very lightly and replied, “I’m touching him a soft as I can.”

Tom looked at me and, I suspect, struggled to keep from exhibiting frustration, then after a few seconds he tapped his chest with the ends of his curled fingers, and said very quietly, “It comes from the heart.” He spoke in a lower voice than he had before and conveyed strong emotion. It was a strangely intimate moment—almost embarrassingly so. It was as if I had forced him to open his soul to me so that I could see something so fundamentally important that I should have known it already.

I stopped and for a few seconds I thought about the horse and how much I liked him. When my intentions became good, my hands changed—they softened. Although I had been touching the horse very lightly, my fingers had been rigid—it had been as if I had been trying to comfort Buddy by touching him lightly with a board. When the tension went out of my fingers, my touch became both light and soft. And, I have no doubt that my shoulders and back softened too. My horse certainly did. In a few minutes he took the bit perfectly.

Because the horse had struggled hard enough to approach the limits of my ability to hang on, I’d had to tighten up and go into a competitive mode. For a moment, it might have been appropriate, but when the horse was ready to quit fighting I stayed stuck in what had become an unsuitable emotional state.

“It comes from the heart.” Yes, Tom you were right. It applies to so many things besides horses. - Jim Overstreet

From an article written by Jim Overstreet titled 'Tom Dorrance: More than a Horseman' which appeared in the Eclectic Horseman Magazine, Issue 13, 2003 - http://eclectic-horseman.com/content/view/82/33/

Image of Tom Dorrance is by Acey Harper.

04/25/2022

Another farrier in training. We are so fortunate to have Tyler Dalin so eager to learn the trades. Thank you Tyler for your dedication.

04/20/2022

03/13/2022

He calls her ‘The Sponge’. Blessed to have these folks in our Tribe.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdySTF1q/?k=1

Watch it now and discover more trending videos on TikTok!

03/09/2022

MitchandSuzi Shelhamer with Bandit from the Hideout Lodge and Guest Ranch.

03/09/2022

Mitch opening up his rebuilt nippers from RAFTER V. His compliments went on and on after this video stopped. They’ve all been rebuilt twice.