The Story...
My earliest recollection of horses was as a toddler on our annual camping holiday - decked out in shiny new wellies, as my parents pitched the tent I caught sight of a horse wandering the campsite (I guess health and safety was less of an issue back then!) - off I wobbled in pursuit of his tail alarming the poor beast who let fly clipping me under my chin. I still bear the scar but reckon I must have been extremely lucky that day. I obviously wasn't put off but I was 7 before I got chance to reconnect with horses giving up the Saturday morning dancing lessons in favour of riding lessons at a stables on the edge of town. Lessons there consisted of being put on top and led up the lanes for a few weeks until able to cope with a rising trot. then you were on your own. It was another 7 years of these weekly visits to the stables, digesting Pony Club manuals and begging rides from friends of friends who had ponies before we moved to the countryside to a house with our own 2 acres - at last my dream could become reality.
After 40 years of traditional riding and competing cross country, dressage, show jumping and team chasing I stumbled across a whole different approach to being with horses. PARELLI Natural Horsemanship came into my world early 2009 and since then everything has turned upside down. At last I am getting answers to why some things worked (or didn't) over the years. I am now a student in the Parelli program currently working in Level 4 - perhaps only just beginning to "get it" - along the way it's as though I have opened Pandora's Box - at every turn I seem to uncover something else. I am studying as much of Robert Miller, Ray Hunt, Tom Dorrance, Buck Brannaman, Mike Bridges, Walter Zettl and Martin Black that I can find or access. I'm sad in a way that at 50 something I have already missed many opportunities but I fully intend to make the most of whatever time I have left and hopefully encourage others to open their minds and see what I've been missing all this time!
THE MORE I LEARN THE MORE I REALISE THE LESS I KNOW
Welcome to my world and give thanks to the wonderful creatures that inhabit it - especially horses - I'll try to share a little of my journey with you along the way
