My family knew pretty much nothing about horses and the blessing in that was that we didn't realize that an ex pacer probably wasn't the best choice for a beginner rider - and so he was my ‘allrounder’ - I competed that horse in anything and everything - you name it and we had a crack at it - we lined up with the stunning hacks in the hack classes, we pigrooted through rider classes, we did dressage, barrel racing, pony club gymkhanas, we had a go at cutting, miles of trail riding, beach riding, jumping and cross country. I was pointed and laughed at by many, but these were the days when you didn't have a different horse for each discipline (or maybe thats just what my parents told me). That stubborn old coot taught me alot and I kept him until I laid him to rest at 27 years old.
In my early twenties I did what every young, broke, aspiring dressage rider does - I went and bought an ex racehorse straight off the track. And my next learning curve began.
Tank was a sweet and lovely horse, with a lack of forward but plenty of pigroot. He is the horse that led me to my first Ken Faulkner clinic. Once I was introduced to this way of horsemanship, I was hooked - I saw huge changes in my horse and the participants horses over the 4 days and I was amazed at how simple it really is, once you are talking to the horse on his level. I started getting to as many ‘Ken Clinics’ as I could and committed to learning this type of training.
It turned out that I met my partner at one of these clinics and my entire life
was about to change - I moved from the Gold Coast to Coffs Harbour and sold my Real Estate company. I spent the next few years figuring out what I wanted to do to ‘earn a living’ and all the while the ‘hobby’ of horses was growing and growing - Phil and I both had paint stallions, we bred some horses and purchased a couple, we kept going to clinics and local shows on the weekends. Every now and then Id be somewhere and someone would ask for a little help with their horse - which I was more than happy to do, I loved seeing the changes from a ‘fire breathing dragon’ to a placid and willing partner.
Love Thy Horse Magazine 25