About Maren & the Team
Maren Holloway — 22 years starting colts across the American West, founder of Naturally Trained in Berthoud, Colorado.
A working clinician who still rides every morning before she teaches, who built Naturally Trained in 2014 around a simple idea: that a horse already knows how to learn — we just have to listen, time the ask, and reward the try.
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A note from Maren
Why I stopped chasing “the right answer” and started listening to the horse.
I grew up on a small ranch in eastern Montana, the kind where the same three horses carried the same family through branding, haying, and Sunday suppers for fifteen years. The cowboys I learned from were not trainers in any modern sense. They did not own round pens or carry clickers. They watched. They waited. They asked for one thing at a time and paid the horse the instant he tried.
I went looking for a more polished version of that when I was in my twenties — clinics, schools, certifications — and what I mostly found were louder ways to say do it because I told you to. The horses I worked with kept telling me the same thing in their own language: I will give you almost anything if you can be clearer about what you want, and softer about how you ask. Naturally Trained is just the long, slow, honest attempt to write that down so other riders can read it too.
— Maren
Verified facts
11,000+
hours of logged one-on-one colt-starting and problem-solving work
9,400
students trained across 41 countries since 2014
4.93/5
average rating across 3,217 verified course reviews
#L-44081
IAABC certified for low-stress handling principles
Credentials, press, and the numbers behind the method.
- Featured Equus Magazine, March 2022
- Featured Western Horseman, July 2023
- Featured The Horse (UK), September 2023
- Award “Best Online Equine Education Program,” Equine Insight Awards, 2024
Where the work happens
Our 32-acre demonstration facility in Berthoud, Colorado.
The method is taught where the horses live. Our Berthoud property holds a 60-foot round pen, two outdoor arenas, a covered working lane, and roughly four miles of on-site trail that runs along the Little Thompson River. Every technique in the library has been filmed on this ground, in real weather, on real horses.
The humans you’ll hear from
The seven clinicians and three behavior advisors who answer your questions.
Every student question is answered by a trained human within 36 hours, audited quarterly. A 4-person support staff handles scheduling, billing, and access. Below: the four clinicians who do most of the on-camera teaching.
Maren Holloway
Founder · Senior Clinician
Founded Naturally Trained in 2014 after 22 years starting colts on ranches across the American West. IAABC certified, teaches Foundations and Problem Solving modules.
Eli Brand
Clinician · Trailer & Travel
Former long-haul horseman who wrote our trailer loading curriculum. Known for a quiet, almost comedic timing that puts anxious horses at ease within minutes.
Tomás Reyes
Clinician · Colt Starting
Started his first colt at fourteen under Maren’s eye; now teaches the first-30-days module. Patient to a fault, especially with young or reactive horses.
Dr. Hettie Ward
Behavior Advisor · Lead
Equine behavior specialist who reviews every advanced case study and co-authored our low-stress handling certification. She answers the harder questions on the forum every Friday.
Plus three more clinicians, two additional behavior advisors, and a four-person support staff — all reachable through the student dashboard.
The horse is not asking us to be louder. He is asking us to be clearer — and then to release the pressure the instant he tries, so he knows which answer we meant.
Maren Holloway, from the first lecture of the Foundations series
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