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I did the usual stable duties and got to travel
with them as a groom to competitions, which was hard work but good
fun and I learned a lot, and I even got to ride a bit. I
continued to ride on and off, through university and my early
twenties, though it was more off than on. |
 Debs and
Poppy |
I moved to Cambridge in 1996 and met some friends
who rode weekly at a riding stable some miles away. I got back
into horses and riding again and eventually realised I could afford
to keep my own horse and, after quite a search, in 1999 I found
Poppy - a 15.3hh, 6 year old, coloured Welsh Dx mare and here is
where my NH journey sort of started. Poppy had
issues, first of all she wouldn't lead properly and sometimes pulled
back, on one occasion burning my hands with the rope. Some of
the people at the livery yard didn't want to handle her and I
realised this had to be the first thing I worked on. |
|
I had been to some Richard Maxwell demonstrations
and decided she needed some leading lessons. I bought the
Richard Maxwell constrictor halter and a 12ft line and video and
started working with her. From where I am now, the idea that I
used a constrictor sits a bit uneasily with me. However it did
work, and very quickly Poppy understood about pressure and release
and she became a nice horse to lead, tie up and be with on the
ground. After only a few weeks working like this, she was one
of the easiest horses in the yard on the ground to work with.
Happy with the results from this in 2000, I moved
on to Parelli method but with little support locally and no-one
around me doing the same stuff it wasn't easy. By chance, I
heard about Jayne Lavender, who at that time was doing home visits,
at last - some help and support. Jayne really got us moving
and told me about Ken Faulkner who was coming in the summer to do a
5 day clinic in Yorkshire at Charlie Wilson's home in Yorkshire -
Sinnington Manor. I knew we had to make the 400 mile round
trip. It was a hard and emotional week but it was worth it and
I met some truly lovely people - Martha and Mick, Judith and
Charlie, Paula with Cody and not least Ken. Ken is a good
teacher and a fabulous horseman but he expects students and horses
to get on with the job of learning no matter if it is challenging or
difficult. Jayne was also teaching at the clinic and helped us
enormously that week.
Once I got home, I continued working one the
stuff we learned from Ken and managed to get in contact with others
in the area who were using natural or Parelli style methods. I
hosted a clinic taught by Jayne Lavender and met Hev, Row, Sam,
Judith and Julie. I set up EANaturel for people doing natural
horsemanship in East Anglia. Others in the area started
organising clinics and from then everything snowballed as there was
support, friendship, enthusiasm and momentum. I heard from Row
about the Naturally Horses group, run by Liz and David, and joined
up. Must say what a great job Liz and David do at this point
as, although they claim no ownership for the group itself, they do a
lot of hard work organising and publishing and without them I very
much doubt we'd have anything like the support and activities that
we do. |
