10 CapitalPress.com
December 1, 2017
Workshops promote horse power
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
DORENA, Ore. — While
most farmers rely on tractors
for help in the field, Walt Ber-
nard of Ruby and Amber’s
Farm trains draft horses to
work for him.
The certified organic and
biodynamic farm is named
after Bernard’s first crew of
workhorses, and he said that us-
ing workhorses on the farm is a
further example of sustainable
practices.
“We farm with them be-
cause they’re low-petroleum
impact on the soil,” Bernard
said. “Horses are a live power
source, and you apply that the
same way you’d apply a tractor
to a business model, and you
make that work within your
system.”
Now, he has eight draft
horses working his land.
Bernard and his wife, Kris,
established the farm in 1999,
and in 2001, after receiving
multiple requests, Bernard be-
gan teaching workshops on
training horses and the people
who want to drive them.
Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press
Walt Bernard and his intern, Anne Peterson, with draft horses
they’re training for a client in California. In addition to training hors-
es, Bernard offers workshops to train people to use workhorses on
the farm.
Bernard considers four vari-
ables when training:
• Do the teamsters have the
skill set for what they want to
do?
• Do the horses have the
ability to do what the teamster
wants them to do?
• Does the teamster have the
right equipment?
• How will the horse and
teamster handle the uncontrol-
lable things such as crowds,
lightning strikes and hail-
storms?
“The process is basical-
ly student-directed and stu-
dent-driven,” Bernard said. “I
start with the basics. I don’t
make any assumptions. A lot
of people come here with some
horse experience and I treat
them like they have none. We
train with two goals in mind:
keeping (teamsters) safe and
teaching failsafe, secure things
that are systems they can oper-
ate in and be successful.”
The workshops are $350 a
person, with a six-person limit.
Bernard said that he’s seeing
more interest this year than last.
Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press
Walt Bernard has eight draft horses that help him on the farm. He
also trains the horses — and people who want to farm with them.
He attributes that to the sus-
tainability culture and high fuel
prices.
Bernard starts students
with well-broke horses, and he
teaches them how to handle a
horse safely, as well as recog-
nizing the behavior and mental
state of the animal. These skills
will help the students connect
Equine based farm
learning program
to drive a hitch of draft horses?
Workshops • Teamster Training • Farm School
workhorseworkshops.com
Walt Bernard • 541-510-2359
walt@workhouseworkshops.com
L17-2/100
L17-3/100
Want to
with the horse and communi-
cate with them by understand-
ing what the equines are saying.
The horse’s training is sim-
ilar to the driver’s in regards to
basic consistency. After being
trained with cues, harness and
reins, the trainee horses will
work with the well-broke hors-
es. Over time, the trainee horses
will be worked together.
“Each new task you have to
take it easy at the start,” Ber-
nard said. “If (the horses are)
fearful, you have to go back
and break it down more.”
He describes the workshop
as working on a bell curve,
building up the level of stress
before easing back. He said it’s
important to build success.
“I have a 90 percent rule,”
Bernard said. “Unless I’m 90
percent sure they can do it, then
I won’t let them try it. It keeps
everyone feeling successful.
You don’t want a loss of con-
fidence for the humans and the
horses. Horses are really sen-
sitive to that. If you give them
something too hard, they lose
confidence. You have to break
it down to more steps.”
Bernard said he loves to
train both horses and people.
“There was very little men-
torship when I started and very
little training opportunities,” he
said. “Mentorship is the num-
ber one thing people can do to
be successful.”
His philosophy varies from
older teamsters’. He said there
wasn’t as big a focus on safety
considerations in the past, and
in this society teachers can’t af-
ford to risk that.
“They used to say the pri-
mary thing is the horse. I look
at it differently,” Bernard said.
“The priority is human life and
human safety, then the horse;
it’s very close, but it’s second.”
The core values of his phi-
losophy include: patience,
honesty, clear communication,
present moment interaction,
cooperation, graduated suc-
cess takes priority over goals
or time, safety, positive re-
ward-based training, progres-
sive desensitization and princi-
ples of advance and retreat.
“Complex problems can
be reduced to simple steps for
a positive solution” and “the
horses’ perspective should be
your perspective” are both mot-
tos he includes on his website.
Bernard said his philosophy
comes from feedback, mentors
and updating harsh old-school
philosophies to make them hu-
mane.
“There’s nothing wrong
with discipline, but it has to
be something the horse under-
stands,” he said. “It all comes
ultimately from what the horse
needs.”
The most rewarding aspect
for Bernard is having everyone
feel confident.
“For the horse, it’s doing the
task. For the people we train,
it’s seeing them going out and
doing that, feeling successful,”
he said. “It’s probably what
makes me feel best. I think
about it a lot, how can I make
this person feel good and keep
wanting to do it.”