I have been involved with horses since I was six years old. It all started when I first went for riding lessons with my brother and then I was lucky enough to be bought my own pony at the age of nine.

A lot of the knowledge I picked up was through help and advice from other people on the yards where I kept my horses. Make sure you don’t let him do that and give him a smack if he’s being naughty these are the kind of things I was told as I grew up. I had a lot of lessons on one particular horse I owned in my teenage years and I mean a lot of lessons yet I never seemed to get much better! Surely then I should have realised there was another way?

Before 2002 I had a number of horses and ponies, I started a few along the way and competed on most of them. Many of which were easy horses to handle, somebody along the way had done a really good job with them. I competed in show jumping all through my teenage years and thoroughly enjoyed it, which was fantastic as at the end of the day that’s why we own a horse, to have fun!

Around the age of 18 I had a couple of years where I didn’t compete, I was at college, allowed to drink and had discovered men!!

In 2002 just before I discovered Parelli Natural Horsemanship I took my fairly new horse Jazz for the first time to a local show and I suppose I expected to just sail round like I always had done, but this is where my problems started. Jazz had absolutely no confidence jumping and consequently destroyed all confidence I had when I had a bad fall on him and broke three of my ribs. It shook me up a bit as I had never been scared riding before this day but something happened that day that I’ll never forget.

I now realise it was a complete lack of understanding my horse and trying to put the art of show jumping on top of a really shaky foundation and as you would imagine we ended in disaster, I suppose it could have been a lot worse though!

It was as though Parelli Natural Horsemanship found me, I went to HOYS a month or so later and watched Dave Stuart presenting the ideas of natural horsemanship to the crowds of people. Watching Dave ride Shalom around with only a string round her neck was lovely to watch, but when I found out they were offering information on how to learn how to build this sort of relationship with your own horse you couldn’t get me over to the stand quick enough. I signed up and away I walked with my Parelli level 1 pack.

Nearly four years on, which isn’t that long a time considering I’ve owned horses for 18 years and I have learnt so much about how horses think, play and behave. Jazz and I have a wonderful relationship now and he has restored all my confidence because I now understand how to read a horse. If you can learn how to read horses and understand why they do the things they do the rewards you get from a horse when you build a relationship with them is breathtaking.

The smile that my horses put on my face when I go down to see them is wonderful and I hope they have the same smile when the see me arrive at the field. I truly believe a horse would do absolutely anything for you once they trust you and you are their friend. A saying of Ray Hunt’s which is quite fitting and don’t quote me exactly on this one is once you have developed a strong relationship with your horse you could ask him to climb up a tree or down a hole and he would try for you.

Over the last four years I have studied with many great horsemen and women from Parelli Instructors, Equine Ethology Instructors, and other natural horsemanship people. I have been on a colt starting course with Dave Stuart, watched instructors in France start young horses under Ray Hunt’s guidance and I hope to do a whole lot more.

I am very excited about sharing the knowledge I have learnt with others to help them see the same rewards that I have experienced with my horses. I hope to help teach people to read their horses and understand their behaviour better. The best teacher of all however is the horse.