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Welcome to the Cascade Institute of Equestrian Studies (CIES), a higher education institution that offers college level certificate programs focused on horse training and the art of riding. We provide students with coaching in equine clicker training and help them discover how to use positive reinforcement in a horseback riding lesson program. We offer a ground work program for students wishing to learn about colt starting and young horse development, and a ridden training program for students wishing to advance their performance horse riding and training skills.

We think of our institute as a consortium of people with a natural instinct for horse training. We do not believe in instructing students - we focus on coaching - a process of guided discovery study that hones what students instinctively know. The job of the faculty is to keep frustration low, safety high, and to help students and horses make steady progress.

What sets us apart from most colleges and other schools offering equine science and equine studies programs is that we function as an association of individuals coming together with the objective of participating in a common activity and pooling our resources for achieving a common goal.

This model allows us to build the most important aspect of horse training - critical thinking and problem solving. There are countless horse trainers that will do their best to instill their particular equestrian doctrine in students. At CIES we don’t use this kind of dogma. Instead we give out students real-world situations with actual problems to solve, give them ideas about how to attack the problems, and help them discover a whole range of solutions. This focus on self-direction and problem solving makes our students fully prepared to tackle any situation that comes their way in a professional setting.

The trainers with whom we feel most aligned are Karen Pryor, Craig Stevens, and Linda and Pat Parelli. We are not affiliated with any of these trainers, however, and offer a distinct curriculum. Our certification program is designed to give students an understanding of horse psychology and communication and to provide them with a positive reinforcement based framework for horsemanship with respect to that understanding.