We like to think of our "training program" at Nayborly Farms as horsey summer camp. The training horses are our campers, Kelsy and I are the camp counselors, Cheryl is the camp facilitator, and Murray is the camp owner/handy man. Training is too ominous a word (and the horses train us as much as we train them anyways), so "camping" is more our style. The campers have to live outside with new friends, learn new things, and develop their personality and character.

Nayborly Farms is now situated on 30 acres in Tenino, WA (virtually the middle of nowhere). We are next to the Skookumchuck Wildlife Preserve and thousands of acres of timberland. We have access to trails for as far as the eye can see. We have a creek, great hills, fields, homemade jumps, an outdoor arena, and a short ride to the Skookumchuck river (perfect for horse swimming!). This is a great setup for our horsey campers because they get to learn in the great outdoors like a real horse. (We don't even have an indoor arena, as much as we would love to have one and whine constantly about wanting, so it's truly "roughing it" out here).

We call our style of horsemanship, "kidmanship." It was deemed "kidmanship" after all the things (torture) we made our horses do when we were younger. Basically, we treat our horses as kids with horses do, and somehow in the process they end up trained. The product of any training should be a safe, serviceable, trained horse, no matter the discipline. There are infinite ways to end up with a trained horse, whether it be through classical dressage, natural horsemanship, cowboy bravado, or pure luck. We use an "eclectic" approach, pooling our knowledge learned from others, horses, and each other, and it works for us (at least we're still around to tell the tale).

We are excited to have Stuey and Perry because:
a) They are pretty much blank slates. They have had very little experience and certainly haven't had human induced traumatic experiences or spoiling.
b) We can take them any direction we want. Until they find new homes and owners (yes, they are For Sale when more trained!), we get to decide what will be fun to do with them.
c) Emily, their "parent" and owner, is trusting, easy to work with, and open-minded.
d) They both have large, intelligent eyes and active, inquisitive minds. They will be relatively easy to have around. Plus, they're cute!

If interested, stick around to see how they turn out. It's a safe bet you'll get some entertainment (we never can do things right all the time). Should one of us bite the dust, the other will surely be there to take pictures and laugh. We believe that even if you mess up completely, "you can always serve as a bad example." We promise to post all the gory details as we tame these wild, man-eating beasts (right...)