Stanford Addison's technique for instructing horse-training is much more than just superb horsemanship. Being paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for the past twenty-one years has given him the opportunity to hone his observation skills to a keenness that seems extra-sensory. This is a skill most of us will never attain since we're too busy being active to practice quiet sitting and watching for such long lengths of time.

When I met Stan I had been badly burned and disfigured four years before in an explosion and fire. I was somewhat physically handicapped and unable to perform in my life's occupation as a carpenter, and too blind to read and go back to school. I was so emotionally and psychologically scarred by my appearance and inabilities that I had become reclusive, despondent and heart-broken.

I had been raised on horses but it had been twenty years since I had been on an un-broke horse. He gave me a fairly easy horse to start out with and when we finished, the horse was doing great but I was needing something more and Stan knew it. So he found a damaged horse for a damaged man.

He was a young quarter-horse stud raised on open range who had killed the older stud and won the herd. So he knew how to fight to the death. The owners brought him in to be gelded and broke to ride by trainers other than Stanford. During this time he was beaten until he became deadly viscious and no one could get near him without getting attacked. It took us two summers but through Stan's guidance a horse and man healed each other. Those ranchers got a good horse back and I got my life back.

I've seen many trainers of these so called "new" horsemanship clinics claim lineages of horsemanship back to their great, great, great, grand-daddies busting broncs as cowboys in the old west. Stan's lineage goes back to the 17th century. When his Plains Indian forefathers learned to capture and commune with wild mustangs as they did with all nature, not bust, break nor even subdue horses into submission.

These Indian techniques, attitudes and experience, are all permeated by a solid foundation of deep spiritual belief. They have been slowly modified in the handing down from father to son over the generations, resulting in the very modern, humane version Stan applies in his clinic. The result is a method of safety and consideration for both the horse and rider. Even non-riders can begin here and within hours be enjoying themselves on the back of a horse no one but themselves has ever rode before. The self-confidence and ensuing self-esteem that this one event can instill is literally incalculable.