Howdy, I’m Shanda!
Equine Enthusiast & Business Owner
Greetings! I am Shanda Turner, your mountain trail coach, mentor, & owner of Wild Cowgirl Horsemanship.
I am passionate about helping riders build confident trail horses, shaping rewarding partnerships between horse and rider, along with providing products and services to ensure their journey is simple and safe.
What’s Our Goal?
What Do We Want from the Rider?
- Improve rider’s equitation and position to optimally support the horse’s balance.
- Ride with finesse! Regulate your rhythm and straightness by using your seat and legs, less hands.
- Ride with purpose!
What Do We Want from the Horse?
- Better balance with elasticity and suppleness, improved athletic ability.
- Increased flexibility in shoulders, neck, chest, back & sides, hips, hocks, and stifles, thereby reducing the risk of injuries.
- Round and lifted back, while tucking their hindquarters to step UNDER themselves.
- Relaxation. Release any tension. Replace anxiety with CRITICAL THINKING.
- Sharpened steering. Calibrate Fine-tune maneuverability.
- A fresh restart. Stretch the horse’s comfort level to reinvigorate the bored, apathetic horse’s mind with renewed enthusiasm and an eager desire to face new tasks.
What’s the Process?
- Slow and methodical guidance. Start slowly. (Rome wasn’t built in a day!)
The key is to develop a solid foundation of core essentials from the basics up, via gradual, progressive steps at YOUR horse’s individual learning pace (recognizing that every horse uniquely learns in a different timeline).
- Our program is scaleable to multiple levels of difficulty, whether that be starting a green youngster or challenging the seasoned trail horse.
- Build Confidence, curiosity, and boldness through consistency, encouragement, and stepping stones of positive outcomes.
- Problem Solving, increase consistent desirable responsiveness with positive rewards.
- Desensitize the nervous, anxious, overreactive horse by redirecting their feet and body, and channel their energy into mindful focus instead of fearful reactivity.
- Teach patience.
- Flex the brain! Encourage Critical Thinking with technical questions.
- Strengthen muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and soft tissues through a variety of progressive exercises and obstacle challenges.
- Build a toolbox of skills, extending your horse’s breadth of skillsets. Create Building Blocks, not stumbling blocks.
- Enhance unity with your equine mount.
Testimonials
Through taking lessons from Shanda and getting lots of tips, my world has opened up. Shanda introduced the concept of challenging my horse to allow him to gain confidence. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the number or type of scary objects that you desensitize your horse to because there will always be something that they have never seen before. Rather it is the leadership that you develop through that process. The leadership that gives your horse confidence in his ability to navigate the physical obstacles is the same leadership that allows him to trust you with the strange freaky things that can pop up at any moment. Both Horsemanship and happiness are the pursuit of a lifetime and the examples of these ladies has made both much more available to me.
Gail Redberg
“I met Shanda Turner when looking for a horse to purchase. She presented herself in our initial meeting as a vivacious and impressive woman that immediately drew me in. We rode together the next couple of days and Shanda’s knowledge and execution of horsemanship was inspiring. She has dedicated herself to education and understanding of not only the horse, but reaching her clients so together they can form a partnership and meet with success… She possesses strong leadership skills both for horse and human and is extremely thoughtful in her overall vision of planning and training. It is my wholehearted and total recommendation to anyone to incorporate this wonderfully dedicated, energetic, effective and resourceful person into their lives.”
Christine Dekko Rolf
I have been working with Shanda at Wild Cowgirl Horsemanship for almost 10 years and she has helped me successfully bring along 4 different horses. Her knowledge of horse training, coupled with her gift of teaching makes her the ideal instructor. She focuses on both horse and rider and communicates in a clear and positive manner. My riding experience with Shanda has been diverse and ranged from private lessons, to clinics, to coaching at competitions. One of the most valuable things about working with Shanda is how she incorporates the mental side of riding into all of our interactions. I am continually learning and thinking about how to help my horse and achieve my goals. This has proved vitally important during competitions when the pressure is on and Shanda helps me devise a plan. The Wild Cowgirl Horsemanship facility in California is top notch and has a great trail course with safe horse accommodations. Shanda is 100% committed to help any rider that has the passion and the desire to learn!
Laurie DeYoung