Ride Right Live! Virtual Online Horse Training With Berryhill Quarter Horses
Image courtesy of Berryhill Quarter Horses.
By: Brittany Bevis
Nowadays, it seems everyone and everything is online. But online horse training… really? Leonard and Leigh Berryhill of Berryhill Quarter Horses in Talala, Oklahoma have embraced technology to create a virtual, educational horse training tool they call Ride Right Live!
By utilizing a private YouTube account and easy-to-use question submission form on their website, the Berryhills can share their years of experience in the horse industry with a much larger audience.
How does it work? Leonard Berryhill took some time out of his busy schedule to give our EquineChronicle.com readers a behind-the-scenes look at what Ride Right Live! is all about.
The idea first came to Leonard about two years ago when he was trying to come up with a way to share his knowledge with those who might not be prepared to hire a full-time trainer or those who live too far away for a private lesson.
“For years, Leigh and I have received calls and emails from people wanting help, and we always struggled with those folks who lived some distance from us. So, I thought of the idea of Internet contact and lessons via video. After lots of study, polling around the country, and [talking to] a few overseas contacts, I gave some friends in Wichita, Kansas a video lesson on how to improve the lead changes on their reiners and cow horses. They loved it! It was so easy for me and very easy for them to see and comprehend. Since then, I felt it was going to work.”
To get the process started, riders are encouraged to visit the Ask A Question section of the Berryhill Quarter Horses website where they can submit a brief description about something they might be struggling with in their horse’s training. Riders can upload a link to a YouTube video for further explanation.
“People can send us an interaction in any form they like,” Leonard says. “If you send a video, it allows me to see what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. If the question is pretty general, like, ‘How can I teach my horse to change leads?’, then just the written question is fine. In any instance, I send that person a video of one of us on a horse, showing them what we want them to do. It’s a virtual lesson, and the cool part is that it’s all done through a private YouTube account, one on one.”
“I get more questions about changing leads than anything else right now, but we’ve had questions from about every discipline. Leigh is really good with the pattern classes and, with our years of experience, we feel we can be helpful in just about every department. As RRL grows, we want to be able to incorporate more trainers and horsemen with even more diverse backgrounds.”
Image courtesy of Berryhill Quarter Horses.
The cost of a RRL virtual horse training session is $59.99 per interaction. When compared to full or part-time horse training or a series of private lessons, Leonard considers the price to be fairly inexpensive.
“As I said before, I’ve been working on this project for going on two years,” he says. “Getting the legal things handled, the website running, and our social media kicked off has taken the most time. We have been in full swing since October. This is a new concept and we all know it takes time to take hold. From feedback I’m getting, I really feel it’s going to explode.”
“This venue is for everyone who wants help from trainers who are willing to do their best to give riders the benefit of their experiences. Our target audience consists of those who want to do it themselves, those who can’t afford to be in training, or those who are too far away to get to us. With this medium, it’s the next best thing to being there.”
We’d like to know what you think. Would you use this method to receive a personalized response to your horse question from a pair of multiple breed World Champion and Congress earning horse trainers and judges?
