Firm, fair and fun equals respect, that’s Helge’s motto. Helge Buflod of Helge’s Horse Training conducts his clinics to teach natural methods to horse and rider. Anyone who has attended one of Helge’s clinics will attest to the fun part of his motto. I have yet to see anyone put more passion and inspiration into their clinics. Helge is about the rider partnering with their horse. He wants to give us human’s a chance to understand horse ‘language’ which in turn makes us better partners.
 
My experience attending Helge’s clinics is nothing more than inspiring! I take a lot of hands on knowledge home to continue building a better partnership with my horses. In the beginning of every clinic Helge has a ‘little about yourself and your horse’ session. He then, in great detail, goes through a variety of ground exercises. Make sure you are awake for the morning ground exercises because when you get to the desensitizing part of his clinics you never know what you are going to experience. After a break for lunch the true fun begins! I have experienced everything from gun slinging, to dirt bikes, wild turkeys, and my favorite…llamas. Helge always says, “Desensitize, desensitize, and desensitize”. The cowboy polo game (played with training sticks and rubber ball) is truly a fun experience between teams of clinic participants. If you think there is a meek and mild person in the clinic, watch Helge bring that out of them during a cowboy polo game!
Helge likes to take you and your horse for a ‘ride’ outside your comfort zone to experience something new and different. This brings me to Helge’s Confidence Course. I know he sits at night and just schemes of bigger and better things to include in the course! A lot of thought and imagination has gone into the course, because it is timed and everyone has a competitive edge to them, I have watched so many people, including myself, do stuff that you wouldn’t ordinarily do.  
 
I don’t want to give the course away, but a sneak peek I can do. How fast can you tack your horse up? You want me to put my feet in the seat of the saddle and stand up…do you supply training wheels with this exercise? I know it is called an adams apple but was your chin and adams apple really meant to carry an apple? Do I really need to put that raincoat on because well my horse says, no way! Ride bareback…are you crazy? Let me get this right, you expect my horse to jump that barrel and the object is for me to stay on his back while maintaining my hind end in the saddle? Cross water...my horse is allergic to water…next exercise please!
 
Taking one of Helge’s clinics is definitely an experience not to pass up. I know you will take lots of great information home and walk away with confidence you didn’t know you had.  
 
Starting in 2008 Helge will take the top three winners from each clinic’s Confidence Course and hold a ‘2008 Confidence Course Showdown’ at the end of the season. I can only imagine what he has in store for that course!
 
Along with giving full day clinics, Helge also takes two to four horses per month at his house for training. He has clients booked five and sometimes six days per week, either on the trails or at their farms. Helge books several private clinics a year.  
 
On a personal note: I felt I needed to get this across to the readers as to what Helge has done for me personally. A scenario I am sure some of you are familiar with, I had horses years ago, got out of them, got married, bought a house, got back into horses. I had a serious fall and realized that being lawn darted in your 30’s is a lot harder then when I was 16. Total loss of confidence and now panic! I have been with Helge for just over five years; the inspiration and confidence is a wonderful thing. To know that someone believes in you, when you don’t, is like no other feeling. I still get flashbacks occasionally of the accident but through everything Helge has taught me I can overcome them now. He gave me the tools to be an effective rider and a more confident one! You can see very clearly this is not just a job for Helge but a way of life.
 
Helge Buflod can be contacted at 937/689-9475 or you can visit his website, www.helgeshorsetraining.com.