Ahrens Horsemanship

02/03/2025

A bit of winter riding today!

01/31/2025

Getting a hot little ride in and testing our work with GT. We wanted to see how well she stays focused while a spicy gaited horse was zipping around. I gotta say I was pretty happy with all the party’s involved 😁.

01/29/2025

A few good rides on a few good horses two of these horses have a bit of education and experience under their belts. The other two are gaining experience and education so they too can get a belt loaded with all the good stuff! 🙂

11/20/2024

I made a last minute trip to Arizona to see an old friend. There were a ton of complications however, everything worked out in the long run.

11/18/2024

Happy to have the opportunity to be apart of the heart of the Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge again in 2025!

‼️ANNOUNCING THE 2025 HEART OF THE HORSE TRAINER CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS‼️

PROFESSIONAL TRAINERS
Lauren Henny
Kaylee Rice
Miranda Carlson
Colby O’Connor
Breanna Frey
Betsey Munday
John Harvey
Melinda Martinez
Oscar Martinez
Shelby Ahrens

AMATEUR TRAINERS
Vera Frazier
Ava Schuetzle
Lexi Sones
LeAnne Casey
Thomas Turnage
Suzanne Whitehead
Marla Patrick

PLEASE GIVE THESE TRAINERS A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR GIVING RESCUE HORSES THEIR BEST CHANCE TO FIND LOVING HOMES!! ❤️

YOUTH AND VOLUNTEER DIVISIONS - we are accepting applications for youth and parent teams and volunteer/fosters until December 20th. If interested in fostering a Shetland or rescue horse and taking them through the training steps please send us a private message.

Bios and pics are rolling in for individual introductions so stay tuned!

09/27/2024

200%

Nuno Oliveira told us: ‘If the horse is happy, everything will be all right; if he is constrained everything will go wrong. And in case that it is necessary to use force, then one enters a domain that does not fit the equestrian art, neither for that matter, in the circle in which civilised people dwell’.
“I urge my readers to apply the aids to help the horse, not to put him in a mould.”
https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2021/10/the-aids-and-the-horse-a-classical-approach/

09/23/2024

This was a great experience for me!

There is an amateur devision, so those of you apart of my local community if you’d like to participate get your application in. It’d pretty cool to have a few more representatives from Washington and you know I’ll help and support the best I can from start to finish 🙂.

We are seeking Professional and Amateur Trainers to participate in the Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge offering over $15,000 in cash and prizes! This event not only promotes excellence in training but also supports the rescue of horses in need, ensuring they have brighter futures. DEADLINE TO APPLY IS OCTOBER 31st! Visit our web site for more information about this exciting and unique event and please share with those you think would be interested. https://hohchallenge.org/

09/21/2024

Headed over the bridge to Rocking M Ranch to teach a clinic. It’s definitely a nice fresh misty morning.

09/17/2024

Just enjoy the ride, enjoy your own journey. Don’t worry about what the trees, rocks, and moss think about your path. They’ll probably still be sitting there when you pass back through on your way back from another adventure.

09/16/2024

A few pictures from our W.E. clinic this weekend. The improvements of not only W.E. But horsemanship makes my heart happy. Thank you all for all your dedication to your horses.

09/13/2024

One of the stills Roy took of Mocha and I, it really sums up the day.
Photo Credit: Roy Stansell

09/05/2024

Working with the horse from the inside out isn’t something that is easily seen, sometimes for an extended period of time. The reality is in the long term, all that work will be present and valued but not always acknowledged on how it actually got there in the first place.

I remember asking Tom about the progression of horses in their early training and he pointed me to a section in his book True Unity and I realized that what he looked on as a foundation went beyond all things that I had learned and practiced in my riding career before meeting Tom.
He asked me to read out loud one particular line, which I did: "I don't mean that I'm trying to get everything completed, but to get enough there to where if the horse gets troubled he will come to me; or to where I can get him to come to me for security and cover."
This really does get to the in-depth feel that Tom had.
His reflections on the spirit of the horse.
Trust is the foundation of all good training.
Without it, and specifically if it has been lost or violated in the past, some form of resistance may occur. This can be outright pushiness, aggression, flight, freeze or perhaps some other avoidance behavior. If your horse exhibits any of these, first and foremost, start to establish a trusting relationship. As you do, and you make some progress, above all, do not violate that by thinking you can increase pressures or other aversives that have caused the original problem.
Tom told us that he wants to work from the inside of the horse. This is where the trust will come from. When you establish trust, then you can start to work from the inside out to achieve certain specific behaviors in a willing frame of mind.

Thank you Caitlin for the lovely photo❤️

08/18/2024

We’ve been working on some very uncommon behavior issues with Yankee for the past few months and decided it was time to really test out our work. We took him to a local ranch riding schooling show. Was he perfect? No, was he good most definitely! He showed his strengths and weaknesses throughout the day and gave me lots of insight to the next steps in his training. Placing second in ranch obstacles, second in ranch pattern, and fourth in ranch reining proved he’s got what it takes in the pen. No real issues in a new place and show environment, calmly waiting on deck, not worried about his trailer buddy or what’s going on in his environment because I wasn’t worried shows me he’s got a clear mind and knows I’m his team mate and everything is good. Those are signs of a good horse in my book.
There are a few key things that go into fixing behavior issues. One is that 90% of the time a human created these issues in the first place, this creates the first hurdle. The first instinct of the horse is usually that all humans are similar and will repeat what caused the undesirable behavior. While changing the behavior of the horse the human doing the “fixing” must change the outlook the horse has about humans in general. To accomplish this, the mental and emotional side of the horse needs not only to be activated but engaged with the human. Physically trying to change the behavior alone most of the time is just a band aid and the behavior has a greater chance of resurfacing.

The second key component is to test your work, test if mentally and emotionally the horse has changed his mind about his general conclusions of humans. We as the human need to take notes of both the positive and negative changes during these tests. That way we know what worked and what didn’t, remembering what we did that worked gives insight to help fix what didn’t. Areas that didn’t improve or improve as much are the next steps to help the horse change these unwanted behaviors. The more refined the human can be the better the results, the better the results are, the more minimized the chances of that undesirable behavior resurfacing are.

06/10/2024

Janet managed to catch some photos of Saturday’s W.E. clinic. It was a fantastic clinic, it makes me very happy when you see even the slightest improvement with horses and/or humans.
Just because my clinics are W.E. Based clinics doesn’t mean the things you take away from them only apply to the sport. They’re more horse and human team building skills that can be used everyday than only W.E. Based skills. It was just a fantastic weekend!

05/11/2024

It’s been a long time since Mocha has taught a clinic, I know she’ll do her best today though!

05/09/2024

Mocha getting ready for this weekends W.E. Clinic.

04/21/2024

WORKING EQUITATION CLINIC
This is a one day intro to Working Equitation with Shelby Ahrens hosted by Anlan Cathal Ranch, Port Orchard, Cris Polston. Clinic May 11, 2024.
AGENDA
- AM will cover basic dressage/flatwork foundation needed for not just Working Equitation, but everyday riding no matter what discipline you ride. Additionally, riders will be coached through riding a Working Equitation dressage test. 🏇
- PM will involve select obstacles used in the sport of W.E. that support riding thru other obstacles and the proper way to execute them followed by how to link those obstacles together as they would when riding a course.
OBJECTIVE
- This clinic is not only to answer questions and help gain understanding of what is expected in the sport of W.E. but, applying quality horsemanship for you and your horse that can be used no matter where or what discipline you ride. The sport of W.E. is a fun and exciting sport that anyone can learn and any horse can participate in. Come and join us for a fun filled day of horses, Horsemanship, and obstacles.
LOGISTICS
- Clinic fee $200
*****Deposit of $100 required to hold your spot by midnight 5/4/2024 Non refundable.
*****Remaining $100 plus $10 haul in fee can be paid upon arrival.
- Payments can be submitted through PayPal [email protected]
******NOTE - max size trailer is 3 horse slant due to limited parking*******
- 10 rider maximum
- Light refreshments will be provided, however please bring your lunch.
- There will be a 1 hour lunch break while we set up the obstacles
- Auditors welcome!!!!! $20 per person payable upon arrival, carpooling encouraged due to limited parking. We encourage auditors to RSVP in order to plan for handouts and refreshments.
- Your payment to ride means you are committed to coming. Pls make sure you can commit before paying. There will not be any refunds.
- No shows will not be refunded