Sarah Brown
My Philosophy
Often I am asked the question “Why does my horse…….?” And the only answer I have is “because he’s a horse!” We, as horse owners, have a tendency to micromanage our horse's day to day lives, we decide when, what and where they eat, where they sleep, when they play, who they play with and for how long. Then we are surprised when our horses express themselves with behavior we find unacceptable!
The trust between horse and rider begins with the rider. Trust your horse to always be a horse, it’s what he’s best at. Understand and love him for it, it’s the one thing you never want to change!
My Methods
Buck Brannaman: "The horse is so honest.... they live in the moment. And what they do, whether they need to protect themselves or whether they need to accept you really is directly relative to how you make them feel."
It used to be that you could say you were a Natural Horsemanship trainer and everyone was impressed by what that meant. Now with all the different DVDs and popular trainers, it’s unclear what natural training means! To me, it means to take what a horse already knows and build on it. Some horses only know their own instincts, while some have been handled since birth. One method will not work best for both horses. I take the time to learn each individual horse’s background and work out what would be the best way for each horse to learn. I take what the horse is already confident in doing and build on it.
I incorporate different popular trainer’s ideas and combine them to fit the needs of the horse I am working with. There is no one trainer that can tell you everything, but if you listen to them all, you can get a lot closer!
I incorporate different popular trainer’s ideas and combine them to fit the needs of the horse I am working with. There is no one trainer that can tell you everything, but if you listen to them all, you can get a lot closer!
My Bio
Born in Philadelphia, Sarah Brown started working with horses in 1982 as a volunteer at the Philadelphia Children’s Zoo. She graduated from Abington Friends School as a National Merit Scholar and went on to become Manager at the Philadelphia Carriage Company, the oldest and largest commercial carriage company in the nation.
Always wanting to expand her knowledge about horses, Sarah spent some time in Colorado in the early 90’s as the manager of a family-run dude ranch and guided rides throughout the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Here she was introduced to Natural Horsemanship Training through the guidance of owner Dean Anderson and began training horses for ranch work. Sarah also spent 2 years in Montana working for an outfitter guiding 10-day long pack trips and hunting trips throughout the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Throughout the years, carriage driving and the draft horses who pull have remained a passion for Sarah and she continues to return to Philadelphia to guide tours through the city. This eventually led to her opening her own carriage company, Crismond Carriages LLC., in Denver, Colorado. As an advocate for the humane and fair treatment for horses, Sarah has spent time with city council members in both cities to design laws in order to protect the safety and well-being of the carriage horses. For additional income, she trained gaited horses in preparation for the Denver hunting dog field trials.
Since moving to Oregon, Sarah has been training horses for local horse owners since 2007. She was the founder of Forest Trails Horse Relief, a private rescue program for unwanted horses with training issues. Through the program, she took in, rehabbed, trained and placed over 200 horses in the community. After closing the doors of FTHR in 2013, Sarah continues to rescue individual horses, as well as help horse owners find homes for their horses throughout the area.
In 2015, Sarah was invited to participate in Mustang Challenges in Klamath Falls and Redmond. Competing against top trainers to gentle a mustang straight from the wild in 6 hours. In both competitions, Sarah was able to ride her mustang in the time given and was inspired to expand her work with the wild mustangs. In July, she adopted a mother and foal pair of BLM mustangs from the Palomino Buttes herd out of the holding facility. Sage, the dam, has been in training since coming home and has been an inspiration to reach out to more mustangs.
Always wanting to expand her knowledge about horses, Sarah spent some time in Colorado in the early 90’s as the manager of a family-run dude ranch and guided rides throughout the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Here she was introduced to Natural Horsemanship Training through the guidance of owner Dean Anderson and began training horses for ranch work. Sarah also spent 2 years in Montana working for an outfitter guiding 10-day long pack trips and hunting trips throughout the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Throughout the years, carriage driving and the draft horses who pull have remained a passion for Sarah and she continues to return to Philadelphia to guide tours through the city. This eventually led to her opening her own carriage company, Crismond Carriages LLC., in Denver, Colorado. As an advocate for the humane and fair treatment for horses, Sarah has spent time with city council members in both cities to design laws in order to protect the safety and well-being of the carriage horses. For additional income, she trained gaited horses in preparation for the Denver hunting dog field trials.
Since moving to Oregon, Sarah has been training horses for local horse owners since 2007. She was the founder of Forest Trails Horse Relief, a private rescue program for unwanted horses with training issues. Through the program, she took in, rehabbed, trained and placed over 200 horses in the community. After closing the doors of FTHR in 2013, Sarah continues to rescue individual horses, as well as help horse owners find homes for their horses throughout the area.
In 2015, Sarah was invited to participate in Mustang Challenges in Klamath Falls and Redmond. Competing against top trainers to gentle a mustang straight from the wild in 6 hours. In both competitions, Sarah was able to ride her mustang in the time given and was inspired to expand her work with the wild mustangs. In July, she adopted a mother and foal pair of BLM mustangs from the Palomino Buttes herd out of the holding facility. Sage, the dam, has been in training since coming home and has been an inspiration to reach out to more mustangs.