What does it mean to be a teacher?
For me, the idea of being a teacher comes with a commitment to being a lifelong student. A student of horsemanship? Absolutely. But it’s more than that. If I am to call myself a teacher, then I must also be committed to learning more about myself, and finding ways to grow in being a secure and emotionally balanced human, so that I can show up for my students and their horses.
There are distinct moments in my life, particularly with horses, that have sent me further down the path of learning and questioning. I remember when I started to question more modern methods of working horses, but at that time I didn’t really understand what I was questioning, or what there was to replace the things I didn’t feel were beneficial. When I was introduced to more “natural” horsemanship, it felt like I had found the holy grail of working with horses. I soaked in everything I could, and blindly followed until the questions started to creep in again. When I tuned out the noise, I started to realize that again, what I was seeing and feeling was not benefitting the horses like it claimed to. I soon realized that questioning, or thinking in a different way, would not be welcomed in the world I was in. I began fumbling around in the dark, and mostly on my own. I studied and practiced, and finally realized that there are people out there who were living what I was looking for.
I stumbled upon teaching several years ago, not because I felt like I had some gift to offer, but because I saw others struggling like I had, and I was open to helping in ways that I had worked to help myself. I soon realized that people are hungry for something different, and something that makes sense. Sometimes people ask if I subscribe to different people who have marketed programs. My general response is, no. I try to take a more common sense approach to working with horses, and I have sought out teachers who are artful and who truly understand the horse on a deeper level than I will ever know.
Being someone who helps others is not something I take lightly. In teaching, I am leveraging all the lessons and mistakes I’ve made with horses, I’m leveraging high quality instruction from some of the best teachers out there, I’m leveraging my progressional training and experience in school psychology, and all the life experiences I’ve had. Paying for a lesson means you are paying for my obsession. I think about my horses and students as I fall asleep and when I wake up. I ask my teachers questions about your horses, and I work other’s horses in lessons and clinics. I spend time and money to learn practical skills, like trimming, so that I can help the horse who needs to be drugged feel confident about having his feet done. When you take a lesson from me, you are not riding with someone who knows it all or is a master; you are taking a lesson from someone who has openly committed to never stop growing as a person, horsewoman, and who will take risks, make mistakes, and recover.
I love teaching, and the people and horses I’ve met along the way have all influenced the way I approach helping. This is a photo of a lesson with my dear friend Laurie from summer 2024. Here we are helping her horse find better alignment and balance without Laurie feeling like she has to micromanage and shove parts of the horse into a “frame.” What a blessing it is to help people experience something like this with their horses.
