Lopez Island produces exceptionally abundant grass hay, and pastures grow well between March and November.   Large pastures afford our mares and foals plenty of exercise, and the ability to socialize naturally as herd members.   We believe that a natural environment is a healthy environment.   We provide protection from rain and shelter from cold winds, but none of our horses are stabled or blanketed regularly during any part of the year.   We avoid grain or supplements, as long as weight, health, and feed quality are good. Because our soft ground does not allow for adequate natural hoof wear, all our horses are trimmed regularly, but shod only when use and necessity demand it.   Most of our horses perform well barefoot.   We feel that a horse's prospective ability to survive on wild range is an important determiner of its quality and value, and we raise, select for, and encourage durable, healthy, thrifty animals.  

We train our horses, all of them that we can find time to. We have only one mare now that has not been saddled and ridden, and her time is coming soon. We believe that we should not be breeding to mares whose qualities as mounts are unproven. Likewise, our stallion has had 20 hours of ground and saddle training, and will have more this fall and winter.

Our training program is inspired by Bob Lyons, Pat Parelli, Eleanor Prince, and so many others. BUT we do not believe horse training should be a process designed to impress others, nor should it involve preconceived ideas about how long a horse should take to become gentle, safe, and loyal mount.

That said, I am finding that the Nez Perce horse is remarkably easy to train. With a lot of kindness and respect for his or her pride, these horses are so easy.

Kicuy was ridden in an Indian hackamore bridle until very recently, when I started her in a snaffle bit to encourage collection. She told me in no uncertain terms that it was not OK to put any more than the lightest touch on the bit, that that was all I needed to apply, PLEASE! Anything else and I should find another mount. Fair enough.

What a joy she is. To ride an animal that responds to my body weight, hand postion, and will bend her head to a few ounces of pressure on the bit. No insults intended here, but aggresive riders and trainers who want to use other bits and to yank on mouths or in any way bully should not buy one of these horses. They do not respond well to unsympathetic training.

Most all of our horses by the time they are 3 or 4 have come with us on a long trip, either to California or to the local mountains. They load easily and travel well, and learn to handle free grazing or grazing on picket lines, traveling over snow or sand, crossing pack bridges, rocky terrain, being ponied or ponying, being ridden or packed, you get the idea.

We give them a lot of trust. In return they trust us. On the right are some pics of horses California-bound being allowed to graze free on a lunch stop in a national forest. Above they wander loose while I work on the truck brakes. earlier they were tied to a fence in a rest stop we camped in a freezing Oregon outback. I think the temperature was down to about zero that night. Lots of grain in the morning before getting back in the trailer for the day's drive. We always stop a lot on these trips, trying not to abuse their trust in us.

One of the delights of living on an island is that trips to the beach are easy. My first serious mounting of our stallion Paxam was at the water's edge on a very sandy beach. He was fine with it, but so amazed at the sight of a rowboat coming across the water. We are so lucky to have all these resources to draw on. Or maybe it is not all luck?

CONDITIONING, TRAINING, HAVING FUN