Sam Ski Area Management - Index

Sam Ski Area Management - stable_management - Index

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riding and training experience can be
best motivated by the opportunity to
ride a range of horses, take lessons,
and compete. Some employers offer
shared use of a farm vehicle. At Barney
and McClain Ward’s Castle Hill
Farm in Brewster, N.Y., students also
have Internet access and receive
membership in a nearby health club.
If you have the ability to bring on
more than one student at a time, you’ll
find they often form fast bonds with
each other, adding to their cultural
experience. “They pretty much go as a
group everywhere,” says Erica Mc-
Keever, manager of Castle Hill Farm.
What’s in It for You?
“At first, I thought, ‘I have more to do
than babysit somebody,’ but I got
talked into it,” says Lydia Cunningham,
manager of Mountaintop Ranch
in Elkton, Va. She took on the first
foreign student for her Quarter Horse
breeding and English and western
training operation four years ago, and
she quickly realized the rewards were
greater than her efforts. Since then,
she’s worked with young people from
Germany, Denmark and South Africa.
“They are usually very serious,
hardworking and dedicated,” traits
that trainers have trouble finding in
some American students, says international
eventer Phyllis Dawson of
Windchase in Purcellville, Va. And
this has big implications for barn
owners. A young person from another
country, who goes through the effort
and expense of finding employment
in the U.S., has already demonstrated
a dedication to education. This outstanding
ethic has allowed many
hosts to take on additional horses
when they have apprentices waiting
in the wings.
At Shiloh Quarter Horses in Santa
Rosa, N.M., trainer Mike Foth’s current
apprentice has even shown him a
groundwork technique she learned at
home in Germany. Her background in
dressage differs from Foth’s natural
horsemanship techniques, but he
enjoys hearing about her ideas, as
well: “She opens me up to things that
maybe I know but that I’ve forgotten
or have gotten away from.”