Services

For me, good Horse Sense is all about being able to read and understand the horse, helping owners to better understand what their horse is communicating to them, in order to enhance their relationship and improve all round performance and safety. This approach unites all three aspects of my business: behavioural rehabilitation, training for all aspects of performance, and ridden coaching focusing on rider posture and balance.

 

Behaviour Rehabilitation

 

Do you have a problem with your horse’s behaviour? If so, the best thing you can do is contact a registered Clinical Animal Behaviourist such as myself for diagnosis, treatment and support. I deal with all kinds of problems, from leading to loading, catching to clipping, biting to bridling, mounting, shoeing, kicking and everything in between, with a focus on trauma rehabilitation. Over the past twenty years I’ve worked with everything from simple problems that can be addressed in a matter of one or two sessions through to ‘untouchable’ rescues and severely traumatised horses that have required detailed and ongoing support. Unlike many behaviourists, I believe it is really important to provide ongoing support in the form of practical face to face sessions with clients, so I recommend a commitment to weekly or fortnightly sessions over a period of time appropriate to the nature and scale of the problem. Initial assessment is done via telephone and questionnaire, followed by a practical assessment visit. Clients may take their own notes or request a written report (additional fee). Behavioural rehabilitation support sessions are classified as coaching sessions for fee purposes. A discount is available for block booking.

 

Coaching Sessions: Ridden and groundwork

Join my group of weekly, fortnightly and monthly clients for regular individual and group coaching sessions. As you will have seen on the home page, I offer riding lessons focusing on rider balance, posture and weight. As a trainer, I can help riders with their horses’ development, showing them how to train new moves with minimum stress for all concerned. All horses and riders benefit from groundwork and I use my training experience to help everyone understand how to behave safely and with manners on the ground. I also teach owners how to help their horses become braver, less spooky and more balanced emotionally. From this we can introduce classical in hand work that will benefit ridden work. I also teach the effective use of positive reinforcement in training. As one of the UK’s longest established horse trainers using ‘clicker training’ I focus on helping owners understand how the clicker as a tool can be easily integrated in to day to day training in a sensible and safe way. I don’t espouse ‘clicker training’ as a method, instead I like to emphasise the importance of understanding emotion, body language and how to train well!

 

Don’t have your own horse?

If you’d like to work on improving your skills at liberty, classical in hand work general groundwork, training using a clicker or target, or just gain a better understanding of working with different types of horses on the ground, you can come and learn with my horses. For more information just call or email me. There are only a limited number of lessons available each week.

It is also possible to come and observe me training, if you prefer to watch rather than do!

 

Workshops, Talks and Theory sessions

I regularly run workshops and talks on a wide range of topics- follow my blog and you can keep informed of the latest dates and venues.