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Watch For New Link To
Nate Bowers' Natural Driving Site
Welcome to The Bowers Farm’s Web site! We are a small, family owned and operated farm near Fort Collins, Colorado (see map) where the emphasis is on the promotion of the use of draft and driving horses through books, videos, workshops, and private lessons. The message we want to convey is that horses have a place in today's environmentally ravaged world. Even those who would never make use of real horse power directly, are highly supportive of those who do. Our job is to make it possible for you to use this environmentally responsible energy source by providing high quality educational materials for those who want to get involved in driving.
Besides raising grass-fed beef, we also keep a number of saddle and draft horses here as work and trading stock. Steve Bowers has been training horses for the public for the past thirty years, and is now making the transition to offering more training of the draft and driving horse owner, through lessons, workshops, books and videos. Bowers Farm has run one of the longest- running original draft and driving horse workshops in the country that it has been doing around the region since 1980. We are currently offering this workshop at various locations around the country, making it easier for our students to get to a Bowers Farm presentation without having to drive so far. The workshops we do in Colorado will be at the Adams County Fairgrounds' indoor arena on the day before each Colorado Draft Horse and Equipment Auction.
We have been selling quality custom-made harness for a number of years, as well as some of the necessary equipment of draft and driving horse use that you might not find elsewhere. Our driver-training videos, called “HARNESSING, HITCHING, AND DRIVING THE DRAFT AND DRIVING HORSE”, and "LEARNING TO DRIVE MULTIPLE HITCHES...", and our new book, "A TEAMSTER'S VIEW: MORE AND DIFFERENT" are designed to teach about driving, training, and using horses. Before you buy, you can get a glimpse of the teaching style and depth of information offered here by reading one or two of Steve's previously published articles that are a part of the book.
(Cartoon found in The Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Opinion page, Sunday, July 21, 2002)
We admit, it would be hard to live without our cars. But it would be nice if we could live a little more responsibly. Some suggestions:
................Support the use of solar, wind, and draft animal power as alternatives to polluting.
................Live where you can walk, ride a bike, or drive a horse to work.
................Support those who support sustainable agriculture and logging, especially those
................using horse and oxen power.
................Support locally grown and locally produced.
................Love your neighbor.
................Love your enemies.
................Learn to relate well with an animal, especially an animal that most people never
................relate to... like a horse, pony, or bovine. Time spent with riding or driving horses
is clean, environmentally.friendly activity.
Nate Bowers, our son, is shown practicing one of his favorite midwinter activities - skijoring! Our horse, Peaches, seemed to have just as much fun as Nate. They went around the arena a few times and then headed out into one of our big fields for some wide open fun. Peaches is only wearing a breast collar and an open bridle. Nate holds the reins in one hand and the traces in the other. Downhill skis and ski goggles complete the setup. Fort Collins, Colorado, our home town, is having a real Winter this year (2006 / 2007), with lots of snow for a white Christmas and New Years, too.
You may also click here to see a video of Nate Skijoring.
This is a large file. If you Pause the player for a few seconds to allow the streaming download get ahead of the video, the sound will not be interupted and play much better for you.
If you do not have a broadband connection you can click here for a smaller version of Nate Skijoring
If you don't see video on these links,
you will need to update your Browser by
downloading the latest FREE Flash Player.
Steve teaching a bunch of hardy people in 34 degree weather (with 20 mph wind) near Chicago on March 4, '07. Most of these folks had traveled from around the country to be at the Carriage Operators of North America convention, where Steve also did some teaching. This Belgian mare was just beginning the process of learning how to be lead by a human - instead of the other way around! Overall, it was a great day, regardless of the weather, with lots of carriage operators getting excited about this new way of training horses.
Welcome to The Bowers Farm’s Web site! We are a family owned and operated farm/ranch near Fort Collins, Colorado (see map) where the emphasis is on teaching about natural driving. From the basics of how to harness, hitch and drive, rein handling techniques for multiple hitches, and the latest in natural horse training techniques, you'll find solid, sensible instruction here. We want you to be successful and safe! Our job is to make it possible for you to use this environmentally responsible energy source by providing high quality educational materials and oportunities to get involved in driving. Whether it is for farming, ranching, on the street, in the woods, in the show ring, or just for fun, horses appreciate a knowledgable driver - and knowledgable drivers appreciate well trained horses!
Steve Bowers has been training horses for the public for the past thirty four years, and is now offering training of the draft and driving horse owner, through lessons, clinics, books and videos. Bowers Farm has run one of the longest- running original draft and driving horse workshops in the country that it has been doing around the region since 1980. For 2004 and beyond, we are offering private lessons and clinics here at home and at various locations around the country, making it easier than ever for students to get to a Bowers Farm presentation. For those who are interested in an in-depth learning experience, we now are offering weeklong driving horse school experiences and weekend clinics for people who bring their own horses to Bowers Farm. Click on the Latest News button below to see some of the exciting things that are happening at Bowers Farm!
Professional photographer Kelsey Cain stopped by our place to visit on his way home from Cheyenne Frontier Days this past summer ('06). He took some really great looking photos of our Canadian mares, Chrissie and Jennifer (left and right in photo). This is one of our favorites. You can see more of Kelsey's photos and read more about him on his web site at www.kelseycain.com. The mares are wearing New England D Ring leather harness in natural russet color, with wood hames. We sell this kind of harness, and lots of others, custom made to fit your horses.
Want To Learn To Drive Multiple Hitches?
Bowers Farm is the inventor of the bicycle 4-up simulator shown here. Your hitch driving skills will go from "all thumbs" to "expert" after a few weeks of driving this team! Even though there are no horses involved, this simulator is the best way ever to get real skill at driving multiple hitches.
Click here to find out more about this great new invention.4-Up Video and Bicycles
EDUCATIONAL GUEST RANCH
"HARNESSING, HITCHING AND DRIVING" DVD
"A TEAMSTER'S VIEW: MORE AND DIFFERENT" BOOK
"FARMING WITH HORSES" BOOK
"TRAINING THE DRIVING HORSE" DVD
"LEARNING TO DRIVE MULTIPLE HITCHES" VIDEO
"TRAINING THE DRIVING HORSE" CLINICS
PRIVATE DRIVING AND RIDING LESSONS
NATION-WIDE HORSE EXPO TEACHING
CUSTOM MADE HARNESS
BICYCLE DRIVER TRAINING DEVICES
( See It In Action)
ACCESSORIES
We plan to change the free articles from time to time, so check us out again in the near future. If you'd like to talk about something, send me an e-mail, or call or write (see below for addresses and phone number). Thanks for stopping by!
Visit our Link Page to find other related sites
Horse Training Lessons
Draft and Driving Horse Workshops
Horses, Harness, Equipment
4269 N. Co. Rd. 13
Fort Collins, CO 80524
970-484-9419
E-mail: sb@bowersfarm.co