Always a keen horse enthusiast, I have been around horses for most of my life. Starting off with the childhood ambitions of being a top rider and winning rosettes and trophies to aims of being able to ride any horse, no matter what their temperament or ability.
As a teenager my dreams became a reality when I found my first horse, Mystery, a six year old thoroughbred with masses of scope and talent. Thrilled at finally finding Mystery, I found out the true meaning of being a horse owner as I managed to successfully juggle this with GCSE’s as well as working part time, teaching at a local riding school.
At sixteen I left school and started a working pupil position at a busy riding school come livery, showing and polo yard, where I trained for the next two years. I learnt a wealth of understanding and, including Mystery, would regularly ride up to six times each day which meant I was able to gain priceless experience with a huge variety of horses and ponies.
After achieving my Stage 2 and NVQ exams, I decided it was time to move on and applied for a full time position working on the yard at a nearby Equine College. I was chosen for the position, and filled with excitement, I started on the next stage of my journey of working with horses.
Here, I worked on the yard and trained the college horses for the students to learn on. I was also able to strengthen my teaching abilities and became more versatile in my approach, due to the wide variety of students and the need to help them pick up the experience and confidence required to be around horses.
After spending two years at the college, I decided it was time to continue with my own qualifications. I left the college environment to go back as a working pupil, undertaking three months intensive training at another busy equestrian centre. I successfully took my Stage 3 and PTT exams, and after completing my teaching hours I achieved my full BHSAI qualification.
During this time, I realised I wanted to work as a freelance instructor and had already begun to put the necessary plans into action. I started a company with funding from The Prince’s Trust to be able to teach people both in horse care and riding, through online training, holding courses and organising talks. I even went back to the college I worked at previously to lecture part time.
After helping many clients to learn more about riding and their interactions with their horses, I felt there was still something missing… I decided to take on a livery yard to give me a base to work from which I hoped would enable me to reach more people. But, instead of creating a place where people could come for help and understanding, I found that this time, it was the horses that came flooding in. They all needed someone to understand them and help them on their way and, with Mystery now in retirement, I was grateful to be riding again.
It was in this time that I discovered an amazing horse who would teach me more about life and life with horses than I ever thought possible, a five year old warmblood called Magic.
With Magic’s guidance and lessons, I began to reassess everything I had learnt over the years and I started to realise there is so much more to understand about our relationship with horses and the reasons why they enter into our lives.
With this in mind I began to understand more of the unseen communication that flows between horses and people. I noticed what horses were trying to tell the people around them, yet so often their actions were being misinterpreted and at worst, even punished.
So, I decided to get back into teaching full time and this time not just teaching riding ability and good horsemanship but also teaching an awareness from the horses point of view.
As the lessons with Magic then continued ‘Heart Centred Riding’ was created. An all encompassing way of being around horses which allows horse and rider to synchronise together as one, where the horse can be heard and the rider can be felt, creating a feeling of true connection.
I now teach riders in the techniques of ‘Heart Centred Riding’ and I am also a published author.
To find out more about the services I offer, please feel free to browse the rest of the pages on this site, you can also send me an email to – susie@equineinstinct.co.uk
If you would like to purchase a copy of ‘From Horse to Horse Rider’ – The path to clearer communication with your horse – then please click on the link below where you can preview and buy the book on Amazon. You can also purchase this book through the Apple iBookstore or from Kobo. Book price – just £4.99.
This is the first in a series of books from ‘Heart Centred Riding’.