From Green to Growth:
developing positive partnerships for the future
Do you want to:
ditch the ‘analysis-paralysis’ & the overwhelm?
have clarity about what to train and when?
smile and laugh more when you’re engaging with your horse or pony?
know that the way you’re engaging with your horse or pony feels right in your heart?
be surrounded by a supportive network of like-minded individuals?
feel safer when working with your horse?
have a horse or pony who consistently wants to do things with you?
be empowered to better tackle training challenges or problem behaviours in the future?
develop knowledge & skills to last a lifetime?
set yourself up for future success* with your horse or pony?
work through a strategic program with guidance & support?
have a highly experienced instructor helping guide & keep you on-track?
‘Sarah, I really had all but given up. Directionless, time poor, and wondering about that elusive connection that other methods didn’t really convince me of. Finding you has reignited my interest and I am seeing the connection start to happen. Happy days!!’
- LR, a participant in the August 2023 cohort, 5.5 weeks after starting in From Green to Growth
Join our mailing list to be the 1st to hear about the next intake of From Green to Growth.
From Green to Growth is our program for owners of green horses
(where a green horse is a youngster OR an older horse that has less experience OR a new horse for you with questionable experience).
We love helping humans develop deeper, happier & more trusting relationships with their equines and we love helping equines (especially young and/or inexperienced ones) learn to live in this human-centric world.
Through our Green to Growth program we will be empowering you in a supportive learning environment to grow your skills and knowledge, leaving you with ‘tools in your toolbox’ that will stay with you for life. You’ll have new ways to develop a deeper partnership with any horse and to tackle training challenges. Our program includes a safe and supportive community space to connect to and share with others going through a similar journey across the world.
From Green to Growth: developing positive partnerships for the future is for you if you are looking to set your young or green horse up for success for the rest of its life, if you believe or feel in your gut that there’s a better way with horses, if you value curiosity & learning, if you’re into taking personal action to make progress and if you’re a kind person who has great communication skills.
Why young and/or green horses?
Listen to the below episode of An Equine Conversation (also available on major podcast apps) to find out.
‘Green to Growth was the best decision – I am amazed at the changes in my horses and myself in such a short time.
The course material and platform is easy to understand and there is great contact with Sarah who is keen to get to know her learners both human and equine and their specific environments to tailor tasks and advice.
I’ve gone from not doing much with my young horses, worried about doing something wrong, to having more things to try than I have time for. I now have a plan for each of them.
Sarah teaches that a good foundation starts way back before the “active training” which in turn makes that so much easier.
I cannot wait to get further into the course.’
- CP, participant in the August 2023 cohort, half way through From Green to Growth
From Green to Growth explores:
Setting you and your horse up for success,
The skills you need & the skills you need your horse to have,
The ‘Wine Cellar’ foundations (listen to S3 E7 of An Equine Conversation to find out more about ‘The Wine Cellar’),
The importance of calm,
Target training, it’s numerous applications & a focus on the face,
Enriching your horse’s life,
Health assessment training**,
Troubleshooting,
and more.
We teach people to train using positive reinforcement as the primary approach. If this is a new approach to you, awesome, we’ll be giving you the skills to get started. If you’re already familiar with training using positive reinforcement, also awesome, we’ll help you refine your skills, add to your knowledge base & give you a clear path to move forward in your training. We’ve had people coming to From Green to Growth from both angles, and both have learnt a heap in the program and progressed in their training, knowledge and skills.
Please note that we are not purists. We believe in meeting people where they’re at on their respective journey’s. We’re not expecting anyone to throw their old knowledge and skills out. There are times when that pre-existing knowledge and skills of applying other training approaches comes in handy.
On youngsters:
We hear information about youngsters that can sound conflicting: that we shouldn’t be starting them under saddle too early… but that they have busy minds and need a job to do… and what ends up happening so often is that youngsters do end up started under saddle too early to give them that job.
But it doesn’t have to be - we can keep their young minds busy, not start them early AND set their training, their bodies and our relationship with them up for success* for the rest of their life. WINNING! Join us on From Green to Growth to be supported in learning how.
*The word ‘success’ is used in this case to mean a successful relationship & the activities that flow from that, whether this be successfully catching a horse, a successful hoof trim, a successful training session. We are defining success as 1:1 engagement with your horse that is a 2-way positive experience for you both.
BOOK A NO-OBLIGATION DISCOVERY CONVERSATION HERE to find out if From Green to Growth is a good fit for you and your horse or pony.
‘Green To Growth has been thoroughly enjoyable, from the very first contact with Sarah.
What I've appreciated even more as I've been going through is the importance of good foundations. So easy when starting out with positive reinforcement training, to get excited about doing the stuff & end up with a horse who's anxious &/or frustrated. This course ensures you take the time to set yourself & your horse up for success, preventing problems down the line & making every bit of future training go so much more smoothly & quickly down the line. Investing that extra time in the beginning is truly making such a difference to the relationship I'm building.
Sarah has every consideration covered & each learner is treated as an individual, with bespoke support according to their own needs, experience & learning history.
If you're starting out with a horse that's new to you or new to life, I'd highly recommend joining Green to Growth.’
- SH, August 2023 participant
Key information:
Next intake: TBC. Join our mailing list if you’d like to be the first to hear about our next intake.
4 month fully online/virtual program (with catch-up/practice/down-time built into the 4 months for those with holidays planned or for when life happens).
Program includes:
interactive course content (we want you to be learning by lots of doing as well as reading & watching),
group calls,
video review (select participation levels only),
written response feedback (select participation levels only),
facilitated course community, and
the option of additional 1:1 Zoom calls with us.
Everything is on ONE platform so all in one place for you to find.
The platform has an app, so if you choose, you can install this on your phone and take the program and its content with you wherever you go - ideal for reviewing the directions or re-watching the videos when you’re at the paddock.
Direct engagement & support from Sarah with her 28+ years instructing experience (see About Us for more info).
You will need to have access to an equine that you are a caretaker for to work with during this program. This may be your own horse, one on lease, one you work with at a rescue or another situation. This course is for green and/or young equines, so you want a horse that fits that description OR you’re aware that you and your less-green horse will be working through a green horse program. See below for further guidance.
Includes engagement in a safe & supportive community because we know how important it is to have support of other like-minded people (note that this community is not on Facebook because it’s not as reliable as it once was).
Our focus is on setting humans & their young & green horses up for a positive, trusting relationship into the future, giving people the skills, fine tuning skills people already have & expanding knowledge that will stick with participants for life. We'll be working as a team to make sure everyone is set up for training success.
Time commitment from you: on average around 2-3 hours per week, some week’s less, others more & of course this will vary depending on each participants situation
From Green to Growth is a group program but we know everyone is on their own journey so the support won't be all generic - we want to meet you where you're at. This leads to those in select tiers having their own specific ‘side quests’ in parallel with the program content.
There are several tiers of participation and payment options available that cater to individual needs & budgets. We will discuss the various options available in our conversation with you if From Green to Growth is the right fit for you and your horse.
Strictly limited places available.
Please note: this program is open to anyone, anywhere in the world except the US & Canada. My humble apologies to you if you’re hailing from those parts of the world - the nice insurance people say ‘no’ to covering Australians to teach into the US & Canada, I can only guess due to legal differences. If you are in the US or Canada - please reach out via the Contact Us form and we can connect you with some wonderful other instructors who can operate in your part of the world & give you the support you’re after.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What constitutes a ‘young’ horse?
In From Green to Growth, we will work with horses & ponies over 10 months old. If you have a younger foal, you’re welcome to wait until our next intake when your foal is old enough to begin or we can refer you to some of our other wonderful trainer friends who can support your journey.
What consitutes a ‘green’ horse?
A ‘green’ horse is one who is inexperienced and can be any age, young or old.
Please note that we are not defining what a ‘green’ horse is for this program. A ‘green horse’ could be any age. It could be that on paper the horse is ‘experienced’ but it’s a new horse to you so you’re needing to explain a new life and your training to the horse, or perhaps it’s a horse with a long time as a paddock ornament who is coming back into a more engaged & active life. However you define a ‘green horse’ is okay for the purpose of this program, noting that this is a young and/or green horse program so it will not be supporting more advanced activities – however participation in the optional follow-on membership program will provide a platform and support to continue to advance everyone’s skills beyond the scope of the program.
Is From Green to Growth the right fit for me & my equine?
Great question. We want to make sure that this program is the right fit for you. We want those who participate in our program to get the most out of it & have lots of success. To do that, we have a no obligation conversation over Zoom before anyone enrolls so we can be sure that From Green to Growth will be a good fit. It truly is a no obligation conversation - we’ll let you know straight-up if it’s not the right fit and point you to some other great resources or trainers that we think will be a good fit for what you’re after. We want you to have an amazing relationship with your horse whether that’s with our support or not.
What happens on a discovery conversation?
Booking into a discovery conversation with someone you don't know about a program you're not sure is for you or not, can be pretty daunting, verging on a bit scary.
First, let me share WHY we have a discovery conversation & then what happens in them,
There are 2 main reasons why we have a discovery conversation with anyone interested in joining From Green to Growth:
We want to make sure this program is the right fit for you & your horse - that we can help you get where you want to go & that you're going to get a lot out of the program (no point you participating if not).
A really important part of From Green to Growth and the follow-on, optional membership, is having a safe & supportive community. Knowing that the other people in that community space have already been through this discovery conversation process with me means you can immediately be in that space, feeling more comfortable, knowing that everyone else there are lovely people who've been through a process to make sure they (and you) are a good fit.
Now let me share what happens in the conversations, so you can feel more comfortable booking in:
We meet over Zoom so you can see me & I can see you. I am all about kindness & having a lovely conversation with whoever books in - regardless of whether From Green to Growth is a fit for you or not. I love meeting horsie people who are prepared to get just a teeny bit uncomfortable to help improve the relationship they have with their horses.
A big part of the conversation is me asking you all sorts of questions about you and your horse - I want to know as much as I can about you both. There are no wrong answers to these questions. I ask about things like: your horsie learning history, your horses details and their history with you and before you, what made you reach out about this program, what your goals are in working with an instructor/coach, what's been getting in the way of you reaching those goals and a bunch more. I might ask you some questions about your learning & engagement style, about things that you maybe wouldn't expect but are all part of me finding out who YOU are & figuring out if From Green to Growth is going to be a fit for you and your horse(s): if it will help you get where you want to go.
This is really important because we're only going to work with people who From Green to Growth is a good fit for. If it's not a good fit for you and your horse - there's no point us working with you as you won't get where you need to go & we won't be able to help you & everyone will get frustrated and none of us need that.
This is why I LOVE referring people to other amazing instructors, programs and resources if From Green to Growth is not the right fit for you. So if I establish that through the conversation that we won't be a good fit for you, I'll absolutely provide some other options you can explore that might be better placed to support you.
If it sounds like From Green to Growth IS going to be a good fit for you and your horse(s) then I'll go into a bunch more detail about the program with you, its format, what is covered, what you'll get out of it and more. Then if this is all still working for you, I'll take you through the various pricing and payment options. There's a variety of options to suit as many budgets as is possible.
At any point in the conversation YOU can ask questions of me too I want to make sure you have all the information you need.
If at that point, we know From Green to Growth is going to be a good fit for you and you're keen to come on board, then we'll organise a refundable deposit to hold you a spot. It's refundable at that stage because we want you to be across our program Trading Terms before it becomes non-refundable - so we send them to you by email after we speak for you to look over.
At this point, maybe you're not sure what participation/pricing option you want to join in at - all good, we'll email you and you can sleep on it for a day or two (and if you're not sure if you want to sign up at all, you can also sleep on it). We'd prefer you took some time to think about it & were sure of your choice rather than make a snap decision you might not be happy with.
Once you've decided on how you'd like to participate (and so your payment option) and you've read, signed & returned the Program Trading Terms, then your deposit becomes non-refundable, we organise your payment(s) and you get IMMEDIATE ACCESS to the program platform, overview & 1st module, to start making yourself right at home
And there you have it
I hope that helps you feel more comfortable about the process
Again, I'm all about kindness & having a lovely horsie conversation with you. There is no pressure to join the program because that's entirely your choice as an independent adult (& I'm just not into that kind of sales-y peer pressure stuff, I tried to work in sales once & failed after just a few months). We want to share a learning adventure with you IF it's going to be the right fit & IF you want to come on board.
On completion of From Green to Growth, participants:
have a bunch of new knowledge, ideas, skills and a much clearer direction with their training
unlock access to an exclusive Abbey’s Run Equestrian membership that is only available to those who have completed From Green to Growth
receive a certificate of participation
and a small, very adorable unicorn trophy/ornament to mark the milestone (and a reminder to ‘beware the unicorn moments’)
Abbey’s Run Equestrian Membership?
We know from decades of working with students that initially, you often need more frequent & regular help to get going, to get the tools into your toolbox. But then, once you’ve more 'tools in the toolbox’ you still need support from an instructor but in a less intensive way.
At the end of From Green to Growth, you’ll unlock the option to join an online community membership with us for continued support. This membership includes a safe & supportive community, training tips, fun challenges, conversations with special guests, and access to additional short, focused workshops on hot topics.
We share more about the Membership with you when you’re part of From Green to Growth (or you can ask us for more in the Discovery conversation).
When you support our small business, it enables us to pay that forward and support other small, ethical, local & beyond businesses - something we feel very passionately about.
Wait… what… there’s no prices listed anywhere here… ?
Yup, we know :-)
There are multiple options for how people can participate in From Green to Growth and well, it gets complicated and confusing to explain on a webpage (we’ve had people confirm this in their discovery calls when we start explaining & they let us know it would have been confusing on a webpage). The options are something we discuss on the discovery calls IF From Green to Growth is going to be the right fit for you (and it won’t be for everyone. If From Green to Growth isn’t going to be a good fit for you, we point people to other awesome trainers and/or resources to help them get where they want to go - we love helping people find their path forward, even if it isn’t with us.
If From Green to Growth IS the right fit for you, that’s awesome & we’ll do what we can to help you be able to participate. If it’s not, then we’ve had the joy of talking horses with you for a little while and can direct your traffic to something best suited to your needs.
