I started taking weekly horse-riding lessons when I was 8 years old and by the time I was a teenager, I was spending all my weekends and holidays helping out at the stables, watching and learning. I was small, so I also got to back and ride away the young ponies.

When I left school I became a working pupil at a riding school/livery yard/stud and took my BHSAI a year later. I spent a season working in a leading showing yard but I soon returned to teaching and was the head girl in a riding school/livery/competition yard for a while. I then decided to take an office job so that I could, for the first time afford my own horse, but continued to teach freelance in my spare time.

In 1991 I took my BHSII and by this time I was starting to compete regularly in anything and everything on my own and others’ horses. My interest started to focus on dressage and I was more drawn to the classical training methods but still enjoyed competing. Over the following years I remained a keen student and in addition to continuing the classical training, I also explored natural horsemanship.

In 2010 Grace came into my life, a kind, gentle and affectionate horse, but also anxious and reactive and she was proving a challenge. She brought into question all the beliefs I had about myself and the way humans interact with others; everything I thought I knew about horses was turned on its head and very soon I realised that in order to help my horse I needed to be open to making some changes myself and something I had always known deep down became my main awareness and the beginning of a new direction.

It’s not just what you do that matters, it is how and who you are.

I had to ditch a lot of what I had been taught over the years, stop listening to those who labelled Grace naughty, dangerous or just plain bad, and start listening to her as she desperately tried to communicate to me that something had to change.

In 2018/2019 I qualified as a Trust Technique Practitioner for both Large and Domestic Animals, which allowed me to make a connection between my own mindfulness practices and how that could be applied to help people build trusted relationships with not just their horses but with all animals.

In 2024 I qualified as a Mindfulness Teacher so that I had more tools to assist the human half of the partnership find value in addressing their own stress, worries and habitual patterns through greater self-awareness. It is so often the case that animals who, at first appear to be challenging are simply looking for the feeling of safety that comes from a human carer who experiences a strong sense of  who they are and who are able to stand in their own power. Our animals can be our best teachers and guides towards this place of authenticity if we can be open to what they are communicating to us through their behaviour and feeling.

Certification:

1991 BHS Stage 4 Senior Eventing Coach (formerly BHSII)

2018 Crossfields Institute Level 3 Diploma in Mindfulness for People with their Animals: Trust Technique Practitioner

2023 The Centre for Healing: Trauma Informed Coach

2024 UK College of Mindfulness Meditation – Certificate in Mindfulness Teaching

2025 Mentorship with Lockie Phillips – Emotional Horsemanship

2026 Trust Technique Pioneer Program with James French