Horse Training in Isabela

Isabela is home. Beaches and coastal cliffs on one side of the municipality, forest and rolling countryside on the other, and the two are minutes apart. Local knowledge of Isabela is not something I went and learned for a brochure. I live here, the horses live here, and every horse that goes through the training program is worked here.

Your horse is already in town

For everyone else on this site, starting the program means a trailer and a drive. For an Isabela owner it usually means twenty minutes and a coffee. That changes the month in two small ways that matter more than they sound. Drop off stops being a logistics problem, and if you want to stand at the rail and watch a session partway through the four weeks, you are not committing half a day to it. Message me first so I know to be at the gate rather than out on a haul.

The program, and what it costs

$500 for 16 sessions over four weeks. Stable and feed are separate. Four days a week, four weeks, sixteen sessions. Ground work first, then manners, then listening, then work under saddle. A progress video lands every week whether you have been down to see him or not, which is deliberate: it is a record of what changed and in what order, not a highlight reel. The step by step version of that is on the training page.

Any breed, any background. Young and unstarted, back after a long spell off, pushy on the lead, bucking, refusing to stand for the saddle, head-shy about hands, or switched off the second the rope comes away. If it is none of those, tell me what he actually does and I will tell you whether four weeks is the right amount of work.

Being local also means you see the boring part, which is the part that works. Catch him, walk him, turn him, stop him, do it again until it is dull. Owners who watch a session usually arrive expecting something to happen and leave having understood that nothing dramatic happening is the whole point. There are ordinary working days on the training videos page if you would rather see it before you ring.

The rest of what happens at the stable

Five horses live here, including Cha Cha, an eight year old chestnut Puerto Rican Paso Fino gelding who is for sale at $1,500, and Paco, a one year old Paso Fino stallion at $7,000 who has not been started. Both are on the sales page, and you can meet the whole herd on the herd page. Equestrian photography runs from here too, at $ from 150 an hour at the stable with somebody holding the horse the whole time, or $ from 250 an hour if the horse comes to you, with the first 15 km of travel included. The photographer is not part of that rate, but ask and I will pass on names.

Training in the towns around Isabela

Everywhere else, the horse travels to get here. These pages say how far, and what that means for the month.

• Horse Training in Puerto Rico
• Horse Training in Aguadilla
• Horse Training in Aguada
• Horse Training in Rincón
• Horse Training in Quebradillas