Horsemanship Philosophy
“I am a huge fan of a concept that horsemanship is not a style or genre. I don’t believe it matters much what you wear or what you do your horse should be soft and engaged, carry itself, work with energy and be willing. Above all it should be relaxed and feel no fear or worry about what you ask of it and life in general.”
Ian is not one discipline focussed, and believes in having a horse balanced, supple through the body, relaxed and resistance/brace free. Regardless of any competitive pursuit, these are the foundations that he believes need to be understood, both in ground/in-hand work and under saddle. He strongly believes in the concept that allowing a horse to move freely and in a relaxed physical and mental state and not forcing trapped or confined helplessness in training is paramount to good horsemanship and performance.
His focus after many years of collated experience is in teaching people how to balance, soften and engage their horses, regardless of their ambitions – whether they be recreational riding, or performance based competition. Ian has worked with show-jumpers, eventers, dressage and endurance mounts, as well as camp drafters, polocrosse horses, reining horses and those focused on working horse disciplines and recreational pleasure horses.
All of them have one thing in common. In order to perform and maintain their physical and mental soundness through progressive work they need to work in a soft, supple, balanced, engaged, energetic and mentally focussed manner, and riders need to learn how to develop and importantly maintain this as they progress with whatever event or activity they choose to undertake.
Ian works in leading, directing and assisting handlers and horses through training techniques – you could describe his style as leaning more to classical horsemanship than anything else, combined with many years of developing skill sets and techniques which come from working with many horse/rider combinations over an extensive period of time. He is open minded about tack and equipment – providing it is used empathetically and is suitable/fits the horse correctly.
Ian
is a strong advocate for the horses mental and physical well-being.
He believes a horse that is not relaxed and comfortable cannot focus and work to its potential.
“We should do everything we can to remove the conflict from our horses’ lives.”
