You’re not greeted as you enter Falling Star Ranch, except by the swish of a nearby horse’s tail as it bats flies away from its body, and a large rooster pecking his way along the ground.

A new visitor, you might wander and knock on the front door of the farmhouse. Finally, as you’re about to drive away assuming no one is home, you hear the sound of hooves beating against the ground. 

Peering through thick trees, a blonde rider on a buckskin-coloured horse can be seen gliding past. As you wander through a narrow road, you will discover a vast, open field tucked below the mountains of Dunster B.C., with happy horses grazing in the fields.

This is where Birgit Stutz makes her living training horses.

Stutz is a gold-certified Chris Irwin horse trainer – one of only 13 people who have achieved that rank – and she calls Dunster home. Horse owners from all over Western Canada bring their horses to the little hamlet in Eastern B.C. to see Stutz and learn Irwin’s unique philosophy of horse training. 

Stutz has been riding for more than 25 years. She grew up in Switzerland doing dressage and jumping, and began taking lessons before quickly moving to training and teaching. 

“I just loved working with horses and helping people find a better way,” she said. 

Eventually Stutz came across Irwin’s books, and began to feel a change in her riding. 

“It was just different than anything I’ve ever seen before,” she said. “I was disappointed that a lot of clinicians couldn’t give me the answers I was looking for.”

Once she started delving into Irwin’s world, Stutz was shocked to find she really didn’t know anything about the animal she had been riding for most of her life. 

“I thought, ‘I’ve been riding for a century and I had no clue,’” she said. 

Starting her training with Irwin in 2006, Stutz is now working to become a double-gold certified trainer. She currently holds her gold in ground work, and a silver in riding. She treats horses with a variety of different problems, from those that are hard to catch, to bucking and pushiness. Owners often bring their green horses for her to break to saddle using Irwin’s philosophy.

Watching Stutz react with her 11 horses is like watching best friends catch up. Machlon, her 22-year-old Arabian, nickers to her over a fence, even after the gelding was separated for bullying other horses. In the field a year-old colt is eager to greet her. Young horses are often shy, but Stutz’s body language invites a horse in, and teaches it to be calm in her presence. 

“That’s what we’re big on here, is trust,” Stutz said, as she explains the issues of the two horses she was working with, Sam and Buck. 

Sam is a “no” horse, she says, and the key has been to teach him to trust enough to say “yes.” 

Buck is the beautiful buckskin, and Stutz explains he was slated for the meat plant because he didn’t get along with his previous owner. 

As Stutz’s assistant Marjolein van den Berg circles the arena on the calm gelding with a loose rein, it’s hard to believe someone had given up on what looks like an easy riding horse. 

Irwin’s method is a simple concept, but one that can take years to learn. He teaches his trainers to read the horse, and react to them the way another horse would in the field. 

“Be the better horse,” is one of the mottos of the Irwin method. Stutz said she has watched riders go from being too aggressive with horses, to getting abused and taken advantage of as the horse reads their body language as someone to be pushed around. 

“Now I kind of see the opposite. People are actually being abused by their horses,” Stutz said. “People aren’t consistent. They want to be kind to their horse.”

Irwin learned by watching Mustangs react to each other in the wild, and Stutz recommends watching horses interact together to understand how they want to be treated. 

While each horse is read differently, Stutz said it starts from the tip of the nose, right down to the tail. Sam wrinkles his nose when he isn’t interested in what his rider wants of him. Others swish their tail, or their ears tell the story. 

“Everything has a message,” Stutz said. 

Irwin’s second book was titled “Horses don’t lie,” and Stutz said it is important to remember that. 

“A horse cannot think one way and express itself differently with its body,” she said. “Their mind and body are hard-wired.”

Irwin teaches people to learn to read the horse to solve behavioural problems, instead of using a band-aid method to fix it.

“He trains his students, his trainers, to think,” Stutz said. The method teaches horses trust, respect and confidence, so the animal wants to respond to a rider’s aids, instead of feeling forced to do it. “We want to make the horse more confident, but we still want to get what we want.”

While touring the tack room, Stutz points out they don’t use any fancy equipment, such as martingales, tie-downs or riding crops, just simple tack.

Stutz does not agree that riding a horse is a partnership, which is what many horse trainers teach. 

“It’s like with kids. It’s not 50-50. The parents are calling the shots,” she said. “Somebody has to lead the dance, and it better be us.”

The key is to get the horse to want to be a willing participant in the dance. 

“What a horse needs the most is safety,” Stutz said. “Horses are so simple really.”

Stutz takes in about two client horses a month. She has taken as many as five, but the burden can be too much, and the trainer likes to keep the numbers down to allow enough time with each horse. 

A horse’s journey to Falling Star Ranch begins with a lot of groundwork before Stutz gets into the saddle. She explains that horses read us like they would another horse, and many riders tend to be in tune with their horse in the saddle, but not aware at all times. 

“We have to care enough about the horse and their language,” Stutz said. “The horses are totally fluent in it, but for us it’s a second language.”

Being aware on the ground seems simple. Stutz says the easiest way to calm a horse is to bend away from it, keeping your belly button bent in while you are in to its personal space (the region surrounding its head), which draws the horse into you. She demonstrates this on Sam, and his head follows the direction of her body. The bond between the two is obvious. 

“They know we’re not horses, but they still read us like they would another horse,” Stutz said. 

Awareness and consistency are the two keys to Irwin’s method. 

“Good riders are very aware,” Stutz said. “It doesn’t stop when we get out of the tack.”

One challenge Stutz faces is working with the owners. Humans are a predator, and horses are a prey animal. It is important that each client takes the initiative to learn what Stutz has been doing with their horse. Each client gets a one-on-one session with Stutz as part of the training. 

“It’s not easy, and not every owner is that willing to change,” Stutz said. 

At Falling Star Ranch, the immense amount of work that has to be done – from tacking and untacking horses, grooming, feeding and haying in the summer time – is done by lucky volunteers who trade work around the farm for sessions with Stutz. 

Van den Berg has visited many times, but has continued to learn every time she makes the trip from Holland to B.C.

“If you’ve been here once, you come back if you can,” Van den Berg said. 

At only 21, Van den Berg is already a double-silver certified Irwin trainer. Stutz said she is one of very few who managed to jump right to the silver rating, skipping over bronze. 

Van den Berg teaches her own lessons and trains horses, but being in Canada helps her improve. 

“When I’m doing it at home, no one is watching,” she said. 

Being around Stutz allows her to get critique on her skills and improve, and the trainer has enjoyed having the experienced rider around. 

“She’ll ride anything,” Stutz said. “She’s very young but an exceptional horsewoman, she cares about the horse.”

Stutz’s training keeps her busy, and stealing a few minutes with her at the ranch to talk horses is like opening up a dictionary on horsemanship. She teaches several clinics a year and accepts horses for training each month. More information on Falling Star Ranch can be found online at www.fallingstarranch.ca