Tim Fortune Natural Horsemanship Horse Training

Your Horse’s Dignity and Success Is Our Top Priority

Our Restructuring is now almost complete! Wondering what our restructuring will mean to you and your horses? Tim will now be working out of a beautiful riding facility just outside of Singhampton, Ontario. Deer Lake Farms (previously known as Carmarthen Lake Farms) will be our home base of operations. While most of our activity and training will take place at Deer Lake Farms , we are just as happy to accommodate you at your locale. However, we encourage you to come to our open house at Deer Lake Farms on December 3rd, 2011. Details to come. Don’t believe how amazing Deer Lake Farms actually is? Come and See for yourself! For now, take a look at our special pricing being offered in celebration of our new location. Horse training Pricing for Fall 2011 – Winter 2012   Attention horse owners, Tim Fortune has moved his horse training and lesson operation to Deer lake Farms in Singhampton Ontario. This is a great indoor and outdoor facility in a park like setting with miles of riding available to us. Because we are excited about our new location we are offering a great special for a limited time! Early Bird horse training special available from Nov.12/2011 to September 30 /2012 if your month(s) of choice are pre-booked between November 12/2011 and Dec. 24 /2011. Special Pricing: 20 hours including board for just 1150.00 plus HST. This offer applies to anywhere from 1-12 months. You can get this special offer for any month/months between November 12th, 2011 and September 30th, 2012 but only if you pre-book your spot between November 12th- and December 24th of this year. Horses must be pre-booked to qualify for this special, before December 24 / 2011 At the time of booking you must declare which months and how many hours training you would like to book your horse for. Sometimes it is possible to add months on at the end of your horses training period if that month is not already filled up. You can pre-book your horse for any month or months between November 12/2011 and September 30/2012 A horse training contract and waiver will be e-mailed to you at the time of booking which you can bring with you when your horse first arrives. A non-refundable deposit of $400.00 is required to book or hold your spot. This deposit will be applied to your last month of scheduled training. A training contract and a check for the first month and post dated checks for consecutive scheduled months must accompany your horse when he arrives Call Tim at 705 444 3855 before December 24/2011 to book your horse for this Special offer We require **post dated checks** for the beginning of each training period when you book multiple months of training. **Please note that all checks are to be written to TIM FORTUNE directly.**      `````````````````````````````````````````````````~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`````````````````````````````````````````````````    Regular Horse Training Price: $1000.00 + board + HST per 20 hours of training Boarding Price for Natural Horsemanship training horses: $350.00 per month Trailer Loading Pricing: $275.00 + HST (includes travel) Tim will teach your horse to load for the future.  Tim makes the trailer the desireable place for your horse to be, so that he will walk on quietly and confidently.  Your horse will be so comfortable on the trailer he will practically load himself.

Benefits of Tim Fortunes Horse training program: 

• Tim cares that you and your horse understand what is being taught and puts in the effort to make sure what is being taught is also understood.
  
 
• 30 years experience training horses and people
  
 
• 18 years with CHA Certifying riding instructors for group riding programs.
  
 
• 7 years full time natural horsemanship horse trainer. 
  
 
• Tim’s training has been primarily on the job training dealing with hundreds of horses and individual horsenalities.
  
 
• We are in the full time business of creating safe, confident, well trained horses. Consistently creating this kind of horse is no accident - we work at improving our program continually.
  
 
• Excellent at starting young horses and problem solving.
  
 
• We pay close attention to all the details when teaching your horse.
  
 
• We work on the Foundation first. (Foundation = teaching your horse what each cue means individually before putting them together.  Much like a dancer would learn a series of individual steps before putting them together and then putting them to music.)
  
 
• Tim’s training program works, we put real time on your horse that you can track. 
  
   
• We go the extra mile when training your horse. We are not getting the horse ready for us. We are getting the horse ready for you, and your intended use. Our job usually is to get the horse so good that a novice or beginner can get along with that horse and be safe. For example if you need your horse to operate at a 6 out of 10 we practice with him at an 8, or a 10. If you need your horse at a 10 then we practice above a 10 being very particular so that you have a much better chance at success with your horse. We do this to the best of our ability in the time we have. Certainly, the more time that is put in the better the result is going to be.
 
• The horse determines the time schedule. We take the time it takes and in the end it takes less time.
 
• You will be amazed at how light and responsive your horse will learn to be.
 
• We take the time it takes initially so that your horse confidently understands what is expected so that he can literally be in sync with you.
 
• Our goal is your success!
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"Tim, Just an update. Roscoe is doing fantastic. I am extremely happy with the tremendous job you did turning Roscoe into a willing and solid partner. The foundation skills you've given him surpassed my expectations and I recommend your services to anybody in need of training not only their horse but themselves.

 As well I'd like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come and train with him at your ranch as it made all the difference. Sincerely, Jenn" 
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We go about things just a little differently……

 Instead of using the horse to do a whole bunch of task and maneuvers we use the task and maneuvers to build the relationship with the horse so that in the end we have a calm, confident, willing, attentive horse that can do what we ask him to do with little or no  resistance. For example we may use a maneuver to teach our horse to follow our leadership and to have respect for us as his leader, or to build his confidence, or to build his understanding and create a language. Each day we try to assess what that horse needs in particular, and sometimes this changes moment to moment. We must continually adjust to fit the horse and the situation. As the horse learns he becomes a more rounded individual and actually learns how to learn. We find this makes a much happier willing horse that is capable of the most complex and difficult maneuvers.

Below is a list of some of the elements that might go into building a good relationship.

• Leadership – Psychologically to the horse this is very important and he needs to know who is responsible for his safety and well being. He doesn’t mind being number 2, he just needs to know that he is.
  
• Caring – Considers his point of view.
  
• Confidence – Teach him how to be confident in our human world with what is expected of him and the various stimulus that might otherwise frighten him.
  
• Respect – There are various levels of respect and there is a positive and negative respect as well.  As the horses’ respect for you comes up, your communication also gets much more subtle.
  
• Understanding – We have to be effective to be understood. We use the various task to teach the horse what we want him to know and to teach him a language.
  
• Language – Once the horse begins to learn a language we can begin to have more and more conversations with him. This is where we get to see just how smart horses are because they are capable of so much understanding.
  
• Co-0perative – This is when the horse makes decisions to co-operate with us like standing still with out being tied, to brush, or saddle or pick up his feet.  Or like stepping up to the mounting block to be mounted with just a suggestion. Co-operation is very important to me with my horses.
  
• Willingness – When the horse begins to co-operate without resistance.
  
• Responsiveness – This is an immediate response to our suggestion.
  
• Attention – This is when the horse is paying attention and is sensitive to our slightest suggestion horseback or on the ground.
  
• Lightness – This refers to when all of the above come together and our horse is an equal participant and follows our suggestion without resistance or hesitation and we are completely in sync.  It means there is no resistance to our reins, or our legs or seat or any suggestion we make.

 Some things we should know about Time and Horses 

• Horses do not wear a watch.  It takes them as long to learn something as it takes but they can learn and they will learn if we just hang in there for them. 
  
• Horse training is a process, not an event, it takes time and consistency and it continues after the horse returns home from the horse trainers. Every time you handle, or ride your horse you are teaching him something.  
  
• It takes 7 to 14 sessions with a horse to create a habit and 2 years or more to get some maneuvers to a professional standard. 
  
• It can sometimes take a lifetime to completely remove an old habit. 
  
• To really finish a horse properly so that he knows what is expected and can perform reliably at any time in any situation, it takes between 300 and 1000 hours. If you average 20 hours a month you would be able to put 240 hours a year on your horse. 1000 hours would take a little over 4 years. Many professional show horse trainers can have their show horses performing at a very high level in 2 years or a little better. A horse with 240 hours or one year will look pretty amazing to most of us.
  
• The more training time you put into your horse the more horse you are going to get out.
   
• Some horses learn faster than others and some have a much more easy going nature than others so they progress much faster in the beginning. Therefore horses with 20, 40, 60 hours on them can still look very different from one another but the more hours that are put on each horse the more they will look the same. The horse that was not so sensitive and didn’t care about much will look more attentive and sensitive and the horse that was supersensitive will look more relaxed and confident.  
   
• Difficult or problem horses are going to take longer but they can still learn and be as good as an easy horse if the appropriate time is put in. The question is, do you want to invest the time it takes to develop this type of horse.  This is not the type of horse that usually makes a good family horse or a horse you can ride once or twice a month.  This guy is going to take some on going consistent skilled work by you or by a professional.