If creating an amazing partnership with your horse, based on love, kindness and understanding is on your bucket list and part of your dream life then I can help you. I have had many amazing partnerships with horses. Smoky, the horse pictured above was one of my best partners. This picture was taken about 25 years ago – it was a front page newspaper pic for a Gold Coast Newspaper. Smoky and I did several TV commercials, entertainment acts for various events, went into Jupiters Casino on the Gold coast for a HUGE function, performed at Equitana several times, competed in various competitions in dressage, jumping and vaulting and I roped and branded cattle on him. He was quite the all rounder.
I was offered quite a lot of money by Warner Bros. Movie World for him to play a feature role in a movie they were producing. Of course I didn’t let him go and do that – I wasn’t selling him or leasing him to anyone – we were close friends and had such a special bond. When he performed at big events he absolutely rose to the occasion. His magnificent spirit radiated out (because his spirit was never broken) and he touched and inspired many people. He was a young girl’s dream. I was 18 when I got him. He was totally wild, still a stallion and full of fear. To this day, I believe I have met very few horses with innate fear as deep as it was in him. I share this because it demonstrates just how amazing our partnership was that we did what we did and what is possible to achieve with horses, even troubled ones.
When we would perform the crowds and the environments were very scary for him but he had so much trust and confidence in me that he would stay by my side in all the liberty acts that we did and I could ride him bridleless in those environments. He stayed with me because I was the safe place, not because there were consequences if he left.
His early training was not all done by me. I taught him to lead but felt I was out of my depth to start him under saddle – I was too inexperienced at that time. A lot of the training done by me and others back then was not ideal and not how I would do it now. I made many mistakes and some of his training was too pressuring and too forceful so I am not proud of every part of the process in his training. I just did the best I knew at the time. He however forgave me for all of that and most importantly I learnt from it. He was a gift. Despite me not really knowing what I was doing, he gave me all, because we had a heart and soul connection.
Twenty Five or so years on, I know SO much more. I had a taste of what was possible with connection and partnership with Smoky. My quest became to find out how to create this level of connection with any horse. How do I connect to their soul, tap into their mind, win their heart and empower their body through optimal biomechanics? What did I have to learn and who did I have to become to achieve that? The next horses that came into my life were gifts in another way. They were gifts because they didn’t hand me things on a silver platter when I got it wrong. They gave me nothing until I got it really right. Right in the sense of how horses wanted things to be. Because if I didn’t want to use force and coercion I had to find a way to get them to want to do it. I had to inspire them to participate. They made me change everything I did, completely re-learn how to ride, train and interact. They were great teachers. In the last 25 years I have worked with hundreds of horses who were broken in mind, body and spirit and who wanted no connection with a human and I was able to turn them around.
I can now share all this knowledge, this life time of learning, with anyone that desires this level of connection and who wants to have an amazing partnership with their horse. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and apologise to the horses that put up with these mistakes. But I learned from these mistakes and can help you avoid them.
When you have a horse that is truly a willing partner and can carry him or herself in a state of balance and engagement, it is an incredible feeling – being in total Synchronicity together, moving and being as one, communicating through thoughts, intentions and energy and very subtle body language. I would describe it as magical. I think it is the fairy tale like dream most horse lovers had as kids, that we believed was possible and the way things should be with horses.
However for most people their reality with horses is not this. It is often quite the opposite. It is bracing against each other, pushy, heavy, dangerous, feeling unsafe together, disharmony, jarring, unbalanced and opposing each other. There is often fear, frustration, a feeling of hardness or discord and a whole range of other negative emotions.
We don’t have to be, and in fact can’t be, forceful or coercive to get amazing results of softness, lightness and togetherness. Harshness and hardness will never result in true softness, connection, balance and optimal biomechanics. Harshness and hardness could give you lightness, but it won’t be with softness, true balance, or ultimate athleticism. It definitely won’t give you an amazing feeling of connection. When lightness is achieved through harshness, optimal biomechanics and therefore ultimate athleticism, will never be achieved because there is internal tension – physically, mentally and emotionally. The ultimate in physical power is only achieved through deep relaxation – a principle I learned in martial arts. I would actually say it is the founding principle of the martial arts I learned. True Power comes through deep relaxation combined with alive, activated energy. Relaxation starts at a mental and emotional level. If a horse is stressed, feeling pressured, feeling railroaded into things without a voice or a choice and not comfortable and happy in their work, there will never be true relaxation. So we don’t have to “man” handle horses so to speak, be dominant or be aggressive. In fact we have to be the opposite to achieve the most amazing partnerships.
So if you are ready to take action in living your dreams, bringing your dreams to reality, get yourself along to some courses. I have loads of learning opportunities coming up via short courses but the one course where you can make the most rapid transformation is at the annual 6 week course “Foundations to Artistry” here at my home “Alchemy Place”. Spend six weeks with me and let me share what has taken me more than 45 plus years of learning on my life long quest, discovering how to inspire horse’s minds, win their hearts, connect with their souls and help them use their bodies with optimal biomechanics.
In this course you can immerse yourself fully, to develop skills, a mind set and programme good habits for you and your horse. These long term immersions are the fastest way that I have seen for people to develop themselves and their horses. It is why I offer them. These intensive learning opportunities can be truly transformational and life changing. The precursor is to be fully open to learning new ideas and concepts. As one of my mentors taught – “there is teaching and there is learning”. I can teach you all I know but YOU have to learn it. To learn it you have to have an open mind and an open heart. You have to be open to new ideas and new ways of being and doing. You have to turn loose and let go of the old ways of thinking and conditioning. You have to trust the teaching, you have to trust yourself, believe in yourself and get out of your head and into your body. You have to start feeling with your body because that is what horses do. You have to apply yourself. It requires commitment, dedication and focus on your part as I guide you through the process.
So, if you are ready to achieve your dreams with horses and learn how to create amazing, magical partnerships with horses, come join me and I will show you the way.