She Rocks!!!
Mindy Smith has changed my life. I started out riding 30 years ago as a student of Dressage, and moved on the Competitive Trail and multi day mountain riding/camping with horses. I had been riding gaited horses before I met Mindy, but I really got to know her, and her training methods when she started a 4 year old Rocky I had bought.He is a very sensitive gelding who does not like pressure and he has been so interesting to train. She uses the pull and release system…lots of time spent in the release of pressure as a reward… and she teaches the horse and their riders how to use their bodies, and frame the horse to gait, feel where their feet are, and her methods compliment all the ideas behind Classical Dressage…think Dr. Deb Bennett….the back comes up, the hind end is underneath them…bascule is occurring, and horse stays light in your hands…the hands stay relatively low…you feel the engagement with your seat…and the whole experience is a life long quest to maintain that feel. it is so much fun!!! Along with all of that is the practical side of riding fast or slow in groups..how to help a horse whether it be to their herdbound behavior, fear of crossing water or going in the ocean, etc..she gets to the heart of the behavior problem, and teaches you how to work with it.
She is amazing..no one like her ever IMHO….and her students are the testimony by the success they are having with their horses, and how they have grown as riders….doing things they only dreamed of.
Natalie Hodge