Master and Journeyman Course Packages with Shawna Karrasch

Shawna Karrasch, Positive Reinforcement Trainer and Behaviorist at Terra Nova Equestrian Training Center in Santa Fe, NM using a target in training a horse.Training with a clicker is as simple as sitting on a horse, right? As simple—and as complex! Training well using Positive Reinforcement requires commitment. It’s incredibly fun, but it also takes time, self-discipline, physical skill, experience, and mental creativity. There’s a lot of great information online and in books, but nothing replaces in-person learning, with repeated submersion in both the science and the art of Positive Reinforcement with an expert teacher. If your goal is to excel at R+ training plus have the confidence and skill to teach others, we offer the 2019 Master and Journeyman Courses with Shawna Karrasch.

Because your learning will proceed more quickly and deeply through short, intensive learning periods with Shawna, interspersed with time in-between to practice at home, these course packages are ideal for absorbing and learning to apply the full spectrum of R+ skills in 2019. They will prepare you to address a full range of training situations and keep you focused on both the crucial fundamentals and your larger goals.

2019 Master Course

Register for a Master Course Package 

The Master Course is our “Pro-Track,” appropriate for trainers who wish to use Positive Reinforcement at an advanced level of skill in equestrian professional, competitive, and equine behavioral work. You may be familiar with equines and new to R+, vice versa, or somewhere in between. This is equine-specific training, including understanding of equine emotions and safe handling of large, unconfined, prey animals. It will draw on the vast archive of centuries of traditional knowledge of horsemanship, to teach you to recognize and develop new, positive approaches to old problems and concepts.

This Master Course package includes all seven of our Intensive Workshops for 2019. You’ll be starting March 1 and returning for a 6-day Intensive Workshop every 4-6 weeks until November—building and building on your R+ skills, working with many different horses (in addition to bringing a horse if you wish), both on the ground and under-saddle.

Each individual workshop includes 6 days with Shawna (see our Intensive Workshop page for specifics). R+ fundamentals and basic skills will be revisited at the start of each workshop, but with different horses each time, so the Master Course provides experience of successful methods of using Positive Reinforcement and bridge conditioning with a broad spectrum of equine personalities. The remainder of each workshop will provide experience with building toward intermediate and advanced goals, including themes such as trailer-loading, under-saddle work, and husbandry. As you progress in the course, you may teach some skills to newer participants during workshops.

Our goal is to bring R+ into mainstream equestrian pursuits. We want to plant the seeds with our Master Course. The demand for knowledgeable, experienced R+ trainers far exceeds the supply! Students who successfully complete the full course package will be eligible for consideration for referrals as R+ trainers and teachers by Shawna Karrasch, including a listing as Recommended on our website. 

Accommodation: Shared room with 1 King-Size Bed and Bath. 2019 Workshop dates are: March 1-8, April 5-12, May 3-10, June 14-21, August 2-9, September 13-20, October 11-18. Regular price $6800.  A one-time Early Bird Discounted price of $3780 is available first-come, first-serve, only until March workshop is full.

2019 Journeyman Course

Register for a Journeyman Course Package 

The Journeyman Course is a shorter, more flexible version of the Master Course.  You choose 4 dates out of the Intensive Workshops in 2019. This course is appropriate for enthusiastic amateurs and professionals.  

Accommodation: Shared room with 1 King-Size Bed and Bath. Choose 4 of the 2019 Workshop dates: March 1-8, April 5-12, May 3-10, June 14-21, August 2-9, September 13-20, October 11-18. Regular price $3900. A one-time Early Bird discounted price of $2350 is available first-come, first-serve, only until March workshop is full.

You will register for 4 Workshop dates. We want you to have flexibility, so if during the year you find you cannot attend one of your initial choices, we will do our best to accommodate you in a later Workshop. Our ability to fulfill your request will vary, and is at our discretion. Please give us as much notice as possible, so that we can fill your place. If we can’t accommodate your transfer request to another date, and you must cancel, see our Cancellation Policy.