11/13/08 Equimersion Pt 2

Equimersion Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ken Jones grew up around horses and he loves sharing his knowledge with folks. After spending 35 years in the guest ranch business he realized that there are a lot of people who always wanted to own a horse and when they are finally ready, didn't have any idea of where to begin. His program is a very one on one approach. JONES: That's why we're limited to one, two or up to four people as long as they're their own group. I wouldn't bring people in that don't know each other to do this because I want to work at the speed my clients can work at and I don't want them to feel like somebody else is holding them up or holding them back. The program is not just for people without horses. Many people just want to work on certain areas or problems. JONES: I can design a program but it changes depending on the people and their interest in what they're doing. The first thing when people come we sit down and visit for an hour or so and then we talk about their goals are and what they are interested in learning and where they are and what's their experience and then we go right to the corral and start with the horses. Jones believes that it's important to make the program fit the individual. JONES: That's the beauty of my program. I've hosted and put on clinics for years. I've had all the great clinicians at my place pretty much and realized that so many people get left behind. So many people are shy, so many people melt back into the crowd and there's so much crowd dynamics going on and they get what they hear and it might be what they want but it might not be and what I do is try to work individually with each person it's totally customized. Over the years Jones has written quite a lot about horses and the dynamics between horse and rider. His website www.lucky2ranch.com is full of great information and is the perfect place to get started. JONES: My Equus Vitae is on there so you can see the history of my life with horses and all the great horsemen I've been fortunate enough to study with and learn from. And then there's a questionnaire on there and I ask people to fill out the questionnaire and send it in and that just gives me a feeling of who these people are and where they are. I don't want to fool people to think that you can be a horseman in a week, it's a lifelong journey. So if you have always had that longing to hop in the saddle on your own horse or really feel that you need some extra training, Ken Jones is your man. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.