Testimonials

Loading Problems

I was fortunate enough to have Karen come out and work with my new horse which had loading problems. Straight away I was impressed with how Karen took the time to assess my horse and took a genuine interest in him.

She handled him well with plenty of patience. The aids given were clear and consistent and my horse quickly understood what was being asked with no confusion. With this established he became more responsive and I was amazed at how quickly he progressed.

Not only did Karen give my horse confidence in loading, she also gave me confidence and taught me the ‘tools’ to continue to use in the future to carry on the good work.

I now have a confident and relaxed horse that is happy to load on the truck. I am rapt with the results and would not hesitate to recommend Karen to anyone who requires help with their horse.

S.H., Wainuiomata

Retraining young pony and ex-show-jumper; riding lessons/confidence building

We bought a lovely 5 year old pony for our daughter. Soon after we got the pony home, she lost her steering – napping, shying and refusing to go where asked. My daughter could hardly ride her and the situation was rapidly deteriorating.

Karen showed us how to give clear signals and to be effective and safe in riding and training, producing a pony that responded brilliantly.

My daughter has gained skill and confidence and the pony has her basic training back in place. The pair is having fun – working beautifully at walk and trot, cantering a bit, hacking out safely and jumping up to 30cm and they compete in their first gymkhana next month.

Karen has also guided me in addressing in my 20 year old ex-show jumping TB: falling in at the shoulder, rushed upward transitions, rushing in and out of jumps and inability to maintain self-carriage.

As a result he is more relaxed and controlled in all his paces and is a much happier horse; I have achieved a huge boost to my confidence with enhanced enjoyment of riding and many new skills.

I am impressed with Karen’s approach for several reasons:

• She takes time to assess the individual horse, and understand habits and behaviours, both positive and negative.
• She also assesses and works with the handler/rider’s skills.
• She obviously loves horses; is kind, patient and observant.The animals are always treated with dignity and understanding.
• She gets fantastic results.

A.L., Wellington

Bucking, bolting, retraining ‘stop’ and ‘go’ to achieve self-carriage

I was a spectator at a Dr Andrew McLean Clinic which Karen organised. We had just bought a young horse and I needed some direction for his training. I was very impressed with the clinic but I didn’t really apply what I had learned for fear of doing the wrong thing.

The initial ‘little’ problems with the horse became bigger and bigger. I was told by an experienced person that he was ‘just being naughty’ and ‘taking advantage’ of us. He was ‘lazy’, ‘spooky’ and was bucking in the canter so much so that I stopped cantering him altogether. I started to have him professionally schooled but the problems became worse, and he suddenly bolted in the arena and was behaving quite erratically. He seemed very confused, scared and tense.

Upon contacting Karen, she demonstrated all the things I had forgotten and we had a wonderful session. Our horse has improved so much, he has become a LOT more relaxed, he is FORWARD moving with the lightest aids, easy to handle on the ground and most of all, I feel very confident that I am doing the right thing.

I am finally enjoying owning a horse and working with him – the whole method makes so much sense, is easy to apply and relaxing for both horse and handler.

At the second session we worked at the dreaded canter – and two weeks later he hasn’t bucked and is starting to get lighter. We still have a long way to go, but Karen gave us the tools and confidence to apply the training method ourselves.

I can’t wait for the next session….

D.R., Wellington

Float-loading

I took a huge risk buying a horse that had floating problems – he had to be ridden home 50km one day when he didn’t get on the float. His previous owners were at their wits’ end, not knowing from day to day whether he was going to float that day or not.

Other than his floating problem, I thought he was a beautiful, honest horse and decided to take the risk and get him trucked to Wellington from Dunedin (which apparently also took some effort) knowing that if you couldn’t help him, no-one probably could.

I thought your method was great, and of course it worked. I have now lost count as to how many times he has now been on and off the float, out and about to various places.

I would certainly (and do) recommend you to everyone!

So thanks again, Karen, “you’re brilliant”.

L.R. (& the horse that “does” float – Shadow), Wellington