Summer is here it’s the long awaited busy season for us horse natives. The lesson book is full, the horses have gleaming coats and the pasture has grass. For many folks it’s also the season where they either purchase their first horse or get more serious with their current one; there are countless activities going on during the summer to inspire you and send you on your path to equine bliss. The path of a horse person is never set in stone, you think perhaps when you start out that you know exactly where you’re going and how to get there. But as all situations in life, your fate has a course of its own and once you involve an equine there’s the four legged path that often its history or breeding embarks you on. A long time ago when I showed every summer I never though I would ever be able to makes space for what I do now.

For new horse owners there is a sea of decisions to be made. There is choosing a breed, vetting, calling, reading ads, reading more ads making more calls and if you’re lucky… In the end you find your soul mate. Oftentimes your new soul mate can begin to resemble something akin to a high maintenance relationship and the need for a counselor might be in order! Then it becomes a whole additional can of proverbial worms. Saddle fitting, tack buying, finding a farrier, mucking stalls, choosing supplements just to name a few! If you’re the parent of a horse crazy kid undoubtedly you’ve got finesse in getting out the checkbook with lighting fast accuracy. I have a client who just about every time I talk to them the father has his checkbook in hand, makes me feel a little bad at times!

So where does one start with this journey? Some of us started as kids on unruly ponies and never left the wonderful world of horses. Some people gave up the horses to raise their family and are rediscovering them all over again. And then there are horse families, where you don’t just own one but a few and you might even be so lucky to have them in your back yard. Whatever your situation, finding your path is a daunting task, every trainer has an opinion, and every handler has another often these opinions conflict and can leave you very confused. As someone who never left horses and was fortunate to have excellent role models while growing up with horses it pushed me to find a niche of my very own in the horse world. I have been fortunate to learn in my travels that regardless of your experience in horses you’re both a student and a teacher no matter what. I frequent the book stores in search of new information, and where once the horse section was one shelf now we are five. Just a sign that the opinions of the horse community is stepping out and making itself known and that horses are becoming so much more mainstream rather than a luxury.

With becoming main stream comes its own set of challenges. Horses, horse breeding, horse handling and purchase occurs with reckless abandon. People who have little or no equine experience now set out on a mission to be horse owners whether they are prepared or not. The risks to both human and horse are enormous. From a teacher standpoint I receive numerous calls in a week of “equines gone bad” or confused and lost horse owners, ranging from tack fitting questions to incredibly serious issues like not knowing what to feed or “My horse hurt me”.

I’m sure many horse professionals will echo my thoughts when I say…. Enlist the help of a trusted and experienced horse person on your equine endeavor. Whether that endeavor is to learn to keep your heels down or to learn what horses need nutritionally to maintain optimum health. There is an abundance of education in the form of books, online forums, and Alaska is home to many wonderful equine professionals.

One piece of advice a very wise woman once gave me was that “There are as many ways to accomplish a task as there are colors in the rainbow, listen to all of them with an open mind, use some, file the others away for another day” this is a piece of advice I’ve kept close to my heart in my own equine education, and I sincerely hope you do the same. Until next time, may all your horse adventures be safe and happy. Ride Arete!