Faith Davella runs a brush across Adrina’s coat. The white and gray speckled horse seems to lavish the attention while the 13-year-old grooms her. Davella finishes by cleaning Adrina’s hooves with a pick. A few moments later, she’s atop her horse, in an arena at Elliott Horsepower Ranch, where Rebeka Larimer teaches dressage horse riding.
“Go ahead and pick up your reins,” Larimer tells her student, guiding her into an hour-long training session. “There you go. Good. Go ahead and relax and remind her to keep her head down.”
Larimer is speaking into a collar-mounted microphone in the center of a rubber pellet-filled training arena, where she teaches 20 students per week. Larimer, who started riding on a pony as a three-year-old, has been training riders at Elliott Horsepower Ranch for about a year. But the 30-year-old Vancouver woman, who is certified to teach in 20 countries, has been teaching locally since she moved back to her hometown after training and working in Europe and Georgia three years ago.
Lessons are $45 on a student’s own horse and $55 on John, Larimer’s training horse. Monthly specials run $165 for four lessons in a month on a student’s own horse and $185 on John. Boarding and horse training is also available on site.
Larimer, a fit woman with a long ponytail that trails down her back, is the first to admit that she’s not the cheapest instructor in town. But she makes no apologies for her prices, either. She has a bronze medal from the U.S. Dressage Federation, she trained in Belgium and she helped prepare horses for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Even with her impressive resume, Larimer says the sport of dressage, with all of its European formalities, is a foundation for any kind of horseback riding and pretentious doesn’t have to go along with skill.
It’s something that her students say they appreciate from her: positive feedback and rigorous training.
Yacolt resident Kathy Cavanah started horseback training after she and her husband first bought five acres and then a horse to graze on it. Shortly after Saint Elmo started chomping on grass Cavanah said she figured she’d like to ride him, too.
“In order to feel safe on the trail, I wanted to take lessons,” Cavanah said.
After a recent lesson with Larimer, Saint Elmo, freed from his saddle, rolled onto his back and flicked through the arena, which has a heated viewing clubhouse adjacent to it.
Larimer explained the romp this way: A horse and rider are in partnership, with the rider holding a 51 percent stake and the horse 49 percent. The horse’s need must be met for the partnership to work and play is a part of that. But beyond the play, a horse that’s not feeling well – mentally or physically – won’t be inclined to roll and romp, so it’s a good way of knowing that everything is okay, besides the play of it.
“Their entire language is body language, Larimer said. “Once you know that, they’re an open book.”
