About Me...
I was the pony mad girl who dreamt of having a special relationship with a horse for life. I did anything I could to be around horses even if I didn’t get to ride them. At the age of fifteen, my parents bought me my first horse. A beautiful dun 15hh Arab x. She reared, bolted, bucked and rolled with me. So started my life with horses. The story continued and I just thought this was how it was and I got on with it. Without really realising, my confidence was slipping away, but still I wanted these amazing animals in my life.
A couple of years after qualifying as a doctor, I took a sabbatical and went to work in a livery and hunting yard as a working student studying toward the BHS exams. I learnt a lot from an excellent instructor, but I just felt that something was still missing. After a few more years of being a freelance groom, I became a bit disillusioned with the horse industry and returned to the medical profession, in which I still practise.
Then a special horse fell into my life. She was a beautiful black shire x TB who was due to be put down by her breeder but I thought I could get her going and find her a good home.
That was seventeen years ago and I still have this mare to whom I owe so much. It was because of her that I found Parelli Natural Horsemanship!
”When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.
She was extremely unconfident and with my confidence ebbing away, we lacked trust in each other and were on the road to nowhere. Then I saw a tall Australian cowboy riding bridleless, casually jumping around the big arena at the South of England show and it blew my mind. I bought the starter kit without a second thought and after six weeks I passed my level one and could walk, trot and canter in a halter AND STOP! I was finally learning about leadership and my mare, Pumpkin, thanked me for it!
That was 2002. I attended a few courses in the UK and then I knew I had to head to the States to see Parelli at the source, so in 2005 I attended the ten week school module in Colorado. Over the last 6 years I have spent a total of ten months at both the Florida and Colorado centres, having tuition from Pat, Linda and top instructors in the program.
Now a 3 star Licensed Parelli™ Professional, I have been teaching in the southeast and assisting at the UK Parelli centre. I am also enrolled in the mastery program and am committed to spend time with Pat and Linda over the next few years to continue my self development in all aspects of horsemanship, business and teaching.
My goal is to help people find what I found, that you can have your dream of that special relationship. If you put that relationship first and have a solid foundation, then the rest will follow, whether that be enjoying a fun, safe hack or competing at high levels.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you somewhere along the road, Keep it Natural!