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Our family lives on a ranch north east of
Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. We raise and school our own Quarter horses and
Thoroughbreds. We also accept outside horses for schooling. We have been
educating ourselves with Natural Horsemanship for about twelve years although we
have had a lifelong love and relationship with horses.
While attending clinics, our mentor, Ray
Hunt has shared many of his philosophies with us with regards to an in-depth
study of Horse/Man relationships. We also credit Bill and Tom Dorrance for
sharing their incredible knowledge on how horses think and operate and the
importance of “feel”.
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Work on our barn & riding arena
progressed well over the winter of 2006/2007 and... |
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it's now ready for use!
It's wonderful to be able to work horses no matter what our
beautiful Alberta throws at us for weather! |
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Looking south over one of the corrals
We have listed some of our beliefs below,
based on Ray’s philosophies. They have been taken straight from his book THINK
HARMONY WITH HORSES.
Allan & Dan |
“You have to get discipline within yourself
so that you can have it with your horse. If you don’t, this is what will cause
your horse to get cranky and take over – get to doing a lot of things wrong.
It’s because he knows you don’t mean what you’re talking about, BECAUSE YOU ARE
NOT EFFECTIVE WITH WHAT YOU’RE ASKING HIM TO DO. TO BE EFFECTIVE, TEACHING MUST
BE UNDERSTOOD!”
A common practice with today’s horse
“trainers” is that “where knowledge ends – abuse begins.”
"We don’t want fear. Fear and respect are
two different things. Respect you have to have whether it’s with a friend or
with anyone. To do business you have to have respect and understanding or it
will fail.” You can be happy while getting this respect and not hard or abusive.
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There is no such thing as a “broke horse”.
“There is a better way of doing things so that the horse gets more sure. He
learns something every day; he has to worry less about it; he gets more
confidence in himself and in us. It is a learning thing.
We get many horses here that have come from
“professional trainers” who send the horse home as a problem horse. These horses
CAN do it; it’s just that simple IF YOU CAN OFFER IT TO THE HORSE. So, it has to
come from the rider to the horse. THE RIDER HAS TO MAKE A LOT OF ADJUSTMENTS SO
THAT THE HORSE CAN UNDERSTAND.
“Realize you are working with a MIND. A lot
of people just think that it’s a horse, but there’s a mind operating that horse.
This mind gets him doing things because he WANTS to do them.
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Sometimes also, people try to teach a horse
to do something he’s not really capable of doing at that time. It’s important to
RECOGNIZE how much a horse can do and how much to ask of him.
“We need to recognize the smallest try,
realize the slightest change.”
This is just like a child learning in
school. First you must prepare him to learn. You don’t send a child who is at
the kindergarten level to the eighth grade. They first need to be in a learning
frame of mind.
This is how we approach all our horses. So
they develop a love of learning. So they believe and trust in us, enjoy being
around us and love learning.
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Allan & George |
Sincerely,
Allan, Alana, Kale and Reba McKenzie
We're happy to introduce the "new kid" on
the ranch...Izmir Vom Hercules!
We wonder if you'll ever guess what Izzy's
favorite toy is???
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We have been blessed with two
wonderful children...from the time they were
babies Kale & Reba have grown up around horses, cowboys & cowgirls.
Today they are young people
who possess a love & understanding of animals that amazes us
more & more as each day passes.
As a family, we do
everything together & we think we have the best that life
could offer anyone!
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2007
Becky & Reba |
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Cory & Kale |
One day, the father of a very wealthy family
took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him
how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a
very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.
The son answered:
"I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek
that has no end
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our
sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect
them."
The boy's father was speechless.
Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing?
Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have,
instead of worrying about what we don't have.
Appreciate every single thing you have,
especially your friends!
~ Author Unknown | 
