About Me

I was the child that looked longingly out of the car window at every horse we drove past!  All I wanted was one of my own to love and ride off into the sunset on!

 

When I was finally allowed a horse on loan, it emerged that Goldie wasn't quite  as keen on me as I was on her! She didn't want to be caught, and when she had been, she'd rear and strike at me as I tried to lead her from the field.  That relationship was quite short lived!

 

Fast forward a few years, to Bailey, a young Irish-bred horse.  He turned out to be the horse of my dreams - happy to be with me, keen to be caught, jumping like a stag!

He and I competed at cross country and show jumping for a few years whilst I was still at school. Dressage was not his favourite thing by a long shot!

 

However, we still had problems - mainly his determination to go a lot faster than I ever wanted to!

 

When I left school, I knew what I wanted to do - work with horses! So I became a groom for a few years, working with eventers.

 

I still didn't know what I didn't know, and ended up frustrated, eventually getting out of horses for a while.

 

An accident in 1998 brought me back to Suffolk where I ended up buying Olive, the horse that led me to a different way of being with horses - Natural Horsemanship. She was talented, but couldn't relax, and all my years of traditional horsemanship didn't teach me what I needed to know to help her.

She and I were together for over 12 years and I couldn't have asked for a better teacher.   She taught me that it wasn't her with the problems - she was perfect until I arrived!!  She taught me that she needed me to put my relationship with her over my desire for competitive success, after all, she hadn't chosen me - I'd chosen her! And she'd never volunteered to be a competition horse!

 

Sadly Olive lost a battle with colic on 27/06/11.  She'd already undergone colic surgery in 2003, and I didn't feel it was fair to put her through it again, so I had to take the very hard decision to let her go. RIP Olive. 

 

I'm a Parelli level 3 graduate, and have spent 3 months furthering my education at the Parelli campus in the US.  I will be continuing to train with people who I consider to be masters in the Natural field.

 

My own herd currently consists of Olive's son Angel, Jasper, and Little Joe.