I tend to add any feedback about my visits and work to the relevant entry on my blog so unless you go back in time you could miss them. Recently I was asked by a client to provide references for my work, a sensible precaution, and was pleased to hear that they had been glowing. I decided that I should put together a testimonials collection and was surprised to find that they added up to 81 pages of close print! That's 9 pages worth for every year that I have been an RA.
Praise is always lovely, not just because it makes me feel good, but because it is reassuring to know that I am making a real and lasting difference to the horses and people I meet. To be asked to go to France, welcomed in Mallorca and in Kenya, not forgetting the Isle of Wight, is a massive vote of confidence too. To be asked to train by the Dartmoor Pony Training Centre, The Moorland Mousie Trust, HorseWorld, The Caspian Horse Society, The British Horse Society, various Pony Clubs and Riding Clubs and to have my book appreciated by all of these organisations is the icing on the cake.
The truth is that it is only after you become an RA that you get real experience of working with the most difficult or traumatised horses and start to blend your IH techniques with the things that you learn along the way. Although I will never finish learning from horses and people (I hope!) I feel now that I can offer a really unique approach to horses and their training, as well as training people, because I have "sweated the small stuff" and really care about the detail. You can learn a lot from watching other people - even those whose methods you don't like - but it is the day to day hands on work that really makes the difference.
I tend to work with people on a one-to-one basis and avoid having the pressure of a queue of horses waiting for me each day. An hour with me is a full hour and any reports are completed afterwards in my own time. An hour with me at the fields is also an hour with me - it's not just twenty minutes to take into account the time I have spent poo-picking the horse's field. Occasionally a short session is exactly what the horse needs but another time we can go well over time taking the horse out and about on the forest. In that way neither the horse or myself are clock watching.
Here are those testimonials:
The Testimonial Collection
Lots of happy horses and lots of happy owners...
