Started Horse and restarts: $600 a month (this includes stabling and care). Must have horse for minimum
of 3 months. No fast starts are done at Gardner Ranch. Horse will get extensive ground work and a
relationship with humans built before he is ever backed. How far he gets is based on the horse. But at a
minimum horse will move out, have brakes and be able to steer.
Foundation Horse: As most people no reining is just Vaquero Dressage, not all the patterns in the
competitions but the maneuvers. Before reining as a sport was developed this was what we used on our
vaquero bridled horses to get a foundation before they were started on cattle. Because most the maneuvers
are used in working cattle. So to me a good reining horse is just a horse that has a good foundation. I believe
this foundation should be built before anything else is done with a horse. Including any kind of eventing from
ranch horse to English dressage, even race horses. If the race horse community would learn to build a good
foundation on a horse they wouldn't have a lot of the problems they have with their horses, including injures.
I have never seen horses with such a horrible minds. The problem is, they mistake a horse that is over
emotional as spirit. This foundation is done by getting all the parts of a horse working with a suppleness and
flexion and then putting them together to get these maneuvers. This takes around 5 to 8 months depending if
I have to start the horse, the state of mind he is in when I get him, and any bad habits I may have to remove.
This is $600 a month and includes stabling and care.
Problem horse: I will have to evaluate the horse. And prices will be discussed then. But basically it will be
$600 a month for as long as I need him. But, I have had horses I could just spend a day with, with the owner
and get things back on track for them. In these cases it will go by the hourly rate of $40 an hour.
There was once I took a young horse to be started by a person in WA, that I did not have time for because I
was in the middle of moving down here. This person was suppose be pretty adept at the Vaquero method,
though to me it wasn't (to me she was doing natural horsemanship). She had the horse for 90 days. When I
picked the horse up I was in a hurry because I had to get on the rode and I didn't check out what the horse
had learned, because I trusted her. Now I didn't expect any where near a straight up in the bridle horse. But,
without going into details I hadn't had anyone work with a horse for me in about 15 years and I was very
disappointed. I had to start from the beginning with the horse. I never had one bit of problem with the horse.
And it is now the horse I put novice riders on when I am helping them. My point is, I learned a valuable lesson
from this. Always check on the progress of the horse and ask questions and get involved if you can. If any
trainer seems bothered by this, take your horse and cut what losses you have right then. Here at Gardner
Ranch we encourage it. The more you learn the better off the horse will be when I hand him back.
I don't do any straight up in the bridle Vaquero horses for other people, simply because I don't know anybody
that would want to give me their horse for at least three years. If someone would want to spend that kind of
money and want to give me the horse for that long, I am sure we can make arrangements.
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