Horsemanship provides unique PE experience

By Sam Ward

Nestled in a valley nearby is Bridlewood Horsemanship Center where the MHCC horsemanship classes are taught.

Gregg Shrake, the owner of Bridlewood Horsemanship and the instructor of the beginning and intermediate horsemanship classes, teaches the classes year-round.
“I started these classes in 1970 with one basic horsemanship class,” said Shrake. “I added intermediate horsemanship, horse science, and advanced horsemanship classes.”

Shrake also said there is availability for people under 18 to take his horsemanship classes with parent consent. He also has people in their 20s up to people in their 70s taking his horsemanship classes.

Shrake said, “These classes are set up for someone who doesn’t have a horse, has a friend who owns a horse that rides once in a while, has a fear of horses, has always wanted to ride a horse, had a problem with a horse, and who has a horse.”

Shrake explained what he teaches in the class. “We not only do the groundwork, but walking, trotting, stopping, turning, backing, saddling, bridling, getting on [the horse], getting off [the horse], parts of the equipment, parts of the horse and a lot of riding.”

Shrake also has horses that have varying personalities. “Some horses are automatic picking their feet up, and some horses it takes an act of Congress to pick their feet up to clean them,” he said. “Horses are like people, we’re all different. You’ll get one horse that’s entirely different than the next horse you’ll get.”

The average class size of the horsemanship classes is 12 people.

“[If] we start getting 15 to 18 students per class, I break it down to two students per horse,” Shrake said. “Two students can help themselves to a horse.”

Kathleen Mitchell, a student in the beginning horsemanship class, said she loved it.

“I couldn’t imagine a better introduction to working with horses,” said Mitchell. “We started from learning body parts, how to brush them, pick their hooves before we learned how to saddle and ride them.”

The beginning horsemanship class PE185HB has two sections. Section 1 is Tuesday from 2-5 p.m. and Section 2 is also Tuesday from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Intermediate horsemanship PE185HC has one section and is Wednesday from 2-5 p.m. A certificate is availible after taking two horsemanship classes (two beginning or one beginning and intermediate classes).