My Horsemanship Journey .
Steve & Saruman
My first interest in horses started in 1979 shortly after my family moving to South Australia from England.
I met and later married Irena who had a passion for horses and I realised if we wanted to spend more time together I would have to become involved with them too.
I purchased my first horse with very little knowledge and was guided by Irena in those early years.
We became involved with Western riding and both competed in shows every weekend for
nearly ten years.
During the first years of involvement I attended many clinics and lessons with Western Trainers, attended judging seminars and spent most weekends at local competitions.
This is when my greatest teacher and long time partner came into my life.
We bred an Appaloosa colt in 1988 and named him Silver Snow Fox (Foxy)
Foxy was left entire for 2 years as we wished to show him in halter classes and there were no gelding classes for
Going for a jog
yearlings at that time.
To say that Foxy was a challenge for me when it was time to start him would be an understatement.
However over the next few years Foxy and I managed to be successful in competition including State Champion awards in Reining, Western Riding and Trail classes.
We also purchased a weanling Quarter Horse colt which he showed over several years to win multiple State Champion awards and futurities at halter with both the Quarter Horse Association and Palomino Society.
However something was missing. I seemed to be forcing the horse and to perform and win ribbons. Maybe there was a better way but I had no idea what it was.
It was around this time that Irena booked us to watch the first Pat Parelli
course in South Australia.
Saruman laying down
That really started me down a different route and I became a Parelli Instructor in 1995 where I had the opportunity not only to learn from Pat but a couple of his other Instructors Ken Faulkner and Philip Nye. They both stood out from the crowd as their horses always looked more relaxed and softer.
Philip Nye in particular stood out with his bareback and bridleless riding with his Arabian stallion.
In 2002 I decided to make a break from the Parelli network and go out on my own.
I was changing rapidly in what I believed and wanted to head in a different direction and needed more input.
I went to see Buck Brannaman when he visited Australia and again my belief system had a readjustment. Buck had the ability to get to the inside of the horse and it was this quality that I saw Philip Nye years before.
I also went to see Ray Hunt and got to see the same amazing ability to work from the inside of the horse.
This is my goal now with any horse that I have the opportunity to spend time with. I also want to help all horses by educating their owners that there is so much more available to them in the relationship between horse and Human.
I am also very interested in the Californian Vaquero style of preparing a bridle horse and am trying to learn and adopt these principles to develop my own horses and help anyone else that is interested to do the same.
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