Guidelines of What to Expect & Fees
Working a couple young training horses on trail riding in NE Nebraska.
Watlington Ranch is only accepting a few outside horses a month as we are concentrating on our own prospects and competing in 2013.
All fees are due before services are rendered, unless otherwise agreed upon. This includes but not limited to: training, feed, farrier, vet, hauling, entry, etc. Please call or email for prices.
Services Offered:
Ground training for all ages
Starting under saddle to finished show, trail, and/or ranch horse, ages 3+
Tune Ups
Seasoning/Hauling
Riding lessons-western and english
Boarding-stall or pasture
Private Training Sessions
Hauling-Horses, livestock, hay, farm/ranch equipment
Sales-weanlings to your finished riding horse, let us know what you are looking for.
Training Prices: per month-basic hay & grain included.
Basic-starting under saddle, tune ups:$495
Intermediate-legging up, seasoning, hauling:$545
Advanced-specific discipline training ie barrels, cattle work, etc:$595
NOTE: Any supplements, extra/special feed and hay, farrier and vet work are all at owners expense.
Riding Lessons & Private Training Sessions:per hour
Basic-$20
Intermediate-$30
Advanced-$40
Bring your own horse or use on of ours.
Hours of Operation:
Sunday afternoon, Tuesday, Thursday: Open arena days! Hours: 9a.m.-9p.m. Bring your horse(s) and ride day or night.
Pricing: $30 all day, limit 5 horses per person. After lights are turned on, extra $5 an hour.
Closed Sunday morning and all day Monday
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 9a.m.-6p.m.
NOTE: Our hours are guidelines due to weather, time of year, rodeos, shows, etc; call ahead to make sure we are around. If the gates are closed, we are closed. Please do not trespass.
THE FOLLOWING "WHAT TO EXPECT" ARE GUIDELINES.
(Horses are just like people, they all learn at different rates and take different methods of training to help them understand. Some horses we will only do ground work on for the first 2 weeks or even first 30 days. If we believe a horse is not ready to ride we WILL NOT step on them.
What to expect after 30 days training:
-walk right up to you, and will be able to be caught anywhere
-quietly stand for saddling/unsaddling, bridling/un-bridling
-stand tied quietly
-pick up all hooves, and stand quietly while you handle and/or clean them
-be brushed and touched all over
-be desensitized to objects
-lead and lunge without balking
-stand for mounting/dismounting
-be able to get on your horse cold-backed without any issues
-walk, trot, and lope
-be starting to pick up correct leads
-have a good "whoa" on them
-give their head to both sides and down
-be able to back at least a few steps
-be started on hind and forehand pivots and side passes
-be able to ride outside with other horse(s) and alone
What to expect after 60 days training:
-We will start refining everything the horse learned in their first 30 days training.
-Your horse will do everything within a few steps/strides of being asked and do it in a calm, collected manner.
-going good on working off leg pressure, seat, and voice commands
-neck rein decently
-able to be ridden two-handed and one-handed
-be throwing leads when asked
-have a good start on flying lead changes
-trail ride quietly
- depending on which discipline you want your horse to go, your horse will be started in that direction
What to expect after 90 days training:
Everything the horse learned in their first 60 days training, will be refined. Your horse will do it all without hesitation and in a calm, collected manner, on a loose rein. Whichever direction we want the horse to go, whether it be Western or English pleasure, trails, kid's horse, barrels, cutting, reining, jumping, etc; the horse will be well-started in that discipline. It also depends on the horse, they may not want to do what you expect. We will not rush a horse or ask them to do anything that they are not ready for. A finished horse is one who is calm, collected, willing, and just a good all-around horse to be around and on. They will do anything you ask of them, and if they are not sure they will show you that are not. After 90 days training the horse will be rode in the arena, down the road, haul to a show, or trail ride and have a calm all around horse that will adapt to anything you throw at them.
The first month of every horses training that we get in will be 45 days, no exceptions. The horse needs to settle in and get use to us before we start doing a lot of training on them. The first 15 days you will be charged for board/feed, the other 30 you will be charged feed/board/training.
Prior to horses arriving at our facility, a horse MUST have: a negative coggins (within 6 months), 30 day health papers, and current on basic shots. If you need help acquiring these, we may be able to come and assist you.
Watlington Ranch will evaluate your horse before you leave it, both mentally and physically. If a horse comes to our facility and we feel that the horse is too thin or too heavy to withstand strenuous training, we WILL NOT do a lot of hard training. Especially riding on that horse until we feel they are at a safe weight and health. After a few weeks of training our evaluation may change due to the horse settling in.
Please contact us with any questions you may have, check out our home page for all of our contact information! Thank You!!
Copyright 2007-2011
John & Jo Watlington
-Watlington Ranch