ABOUT ME

Black Tent Publications

I STARTED riding at four years of age at a small riding school which taught French principles of riding as taught at Saumur, the great French academy. After the owner, Percy Collins, retired, I experienced many other different horses, ponies and methods of riding, from children's ponies to racehorses.

In the 1980s, I was publishing EQUI magazine and, through it, met and trained with Desi Lorent, a classical teacher who had studied with and been a friend of the legendary classicist Nuno Oliveira for 20 years. Experiencing the old French school of riding was like coming home, and I have ridden and taught that way ever since.

I now combine with it the techniques of the emerging discipline of Equitation Science which, to me, puts the icing on the classical cake. It applies scientifically-proven animal learning theory (how they learn) to horses, giving the rider a precise system to follow, removing confusion in horse and owner, achieving even better results in hand and under saddle and preventing any possibility of abuse when correctly applied.

Probably, I am best known as an equestrian author, having written 44 books about horses, written guest chapters for several others and produced hundreds of magazine articles. I co-publish Tracking-up, an independent, quarterly magazine, with my friend, Anne Wilson, like me a classical rider, teacher, trainer and author. We also both write for every issue of Equi-Ads magazine.

• I have a Higher National Certificate in Equine Science and Management and am studying Equitation Science, being an Associate Member of the International Society for Equitation Science.
• I am a member of the Classical Riding Club, hold the CRC Gold Award and am listed in the CRC Trainers Directory.
• During the 1990s, I trained with Pamela Hannay and achieved the Level II Shiatsu With Horses certificate.
• In 1978, I co-founded The Equine Behaviour Forum with Dr Moyra Williams and am now its Press and Publicity Officer.

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