About Martha - in short!
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I am a lifelong learner of people and horses and their interactions and have an eclectic approach to my own training.
HORSES
I began riding at the ripe old age of 13 at the usual ramshackle stables where we gave a five pounds to the lady and were left under the auspices of the older girls (all of 16yrs!) to learn how to ride, muck out, groom and care for the horses. Within I a year my family moved to Indonesia, where I had the privilege of learning to ride on beautifully trained schoolmasters with training from top Indonesian trainers and enjoyed competing with my mum regularly, until I was 17. Another family move brought me to an international school in Oxford,which had strangely acquired four horses and were offering lessons. This is where I was lucky enough to be taught by a wonderful quiet horsewoman called Christine Morris, who helped me learn to use my seat instead of my legs. Within a year, my parents had moved to Texas, so all holidays were taken up with working at Whippletree Farm which offered English and Western Pleasure. I learnt how to adapt to different styles of riding. My mum bought an ex-racing horse which she re-trained beautifully, and I realised I had an electric seat! So I enjoyed leasing a lovely Morgan called Mork and had great fun riding Diane’s old championship Western Pleasure horse, Frog aged 32, bareback playing with some of the western moves and, as I improved, got to ride Overtime, her 17.2 ex-grand-prix dressage horse.
I found early on that my real interest lay in training rather than competing: I loved seeing my mum transform horses she sat on, and wanted to make a difference too. So, my official training began with my BHSAI, and a year later, I decided a career in horses wasn’t for me. So I headed for university, spent plenty of time on stage and also with horses, learnt and competed in horseball, and enjoyed three years on the university riding team. The holidays were still spent in Texas until we moved to Pakistan where I first saw a horse dance.
After university, I knew how much I enjoyed working with people and, as a naturally creative person, I qualified as a drama worker in prisons, a great place to meet your soulmate! Thankfully Mick wasn't an inmate, but an inspirational YMCA manager and youth worker inside Wetherby YOI!
Then I discovered a whole new side to horses that I had missed. An inspirational lady called Anne Greenwood, who is wheelchair bound, introduced me to Natural Horsemanship. Before settling down in to full-time work, Mick and I spent nine months near the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt. I spent most of the time working with Egyptian Arabs at Blue Beach Hotel with my first natural horsemanship equipment, and the six page black and white hand-out, which was the extent of the original Parelli level one pack at the time! We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, riding bareback up the wadi and riding stallions in halters instead of their usual pelhams - ignorance can be a wonderful thing as it gives you confidence....and someone upstairs was looking after me!
When we arrived back in the UK, I thought I'd better get some training under my belt. After six months as a working student for Parelli, I learnt through Jayne Lavender about Ken Faulkner and within a year, with Mick's support, I starting organising Ken's UK tours. So for ten years I trained intensively under Ken for two months a year and had three trips out to Australia with Mick to film and train with him. He is a phenomenal horseman, who taught me how to watch and shape a horse for better balance and posture.
During my time with Ken, I met a wonderful rider and coach called Nikki Lickley, Kingswood Equestrian Centre. Not only has she helped me believe in myself by bouncing ideas on horsemanship and training with me, she also helped me combine the suppleness and connection I discovered with natural horsemanship with riding effectively in a bridle, to create a powerful and athletic horse. I look forward to training with her as soon as I am riding again!
I also have the good fortune to be with someone who understands how important it is to engage in each others' activities. So, since Mick bought his first horse, George, three months after I bought my second horse, another George, in 1999, he has shared the joy and physical labour of horse-owning. Moreover, he is always there to bounce ideas off and encourage me to be the best I can be.
SELF-AWARENESS: MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT
In 2006 I had a simple accident with serious repercussions. I broke my hip: nearly seven years later, 2013, I am still rehabilitating. It was a hard, yet excellent lesson. Thanks to James Shaw in 2007, I discovered a whole other side to riding – it is not just about the horse. .
By 2009 I also began to look at competing in paradressage as a way of moving forwards with Couscous. I had a wonderful lesson with Chris Porterfield during a paradressage talent spotting competition and some with Angela Weiss. I found I wasn't ready to accept the idea of being permanently disabled. It also helped me realise that I felt more inspired to move forward through coaching others than to feel the frustration in my crookedness and pain when I rode.
So later that year, I decided to find a local T'ai Chi trainer and I spent many hours privately and in classes for two and a half years training in Tai Chi and Qi Gong. These armed me, not for martial fighting, but with clear path of how to find and release all forms of tension through the body and to help me understand the dynamics of energy, breathing techniques and a healthy posture without tightness. Sadly this did not correct the extent of the muscle issues because of the injury and subsequent operations.
In 2011, I found Marian, a personal trainer, who specialises in muscle activation. Through my own rehabilitation he is helping me understand more deeply the complex interaction that muscle groups have on each other. This, of course, I then relate to tightness in the horse and see the horse becoming an excellent huge mirror for me to see where I, or a student, is tight. Part of his regime has been a ban on riding since November 2011. This has given me time to read and reflect on a much wider style of training from Carolyn Resnick and Gawani Pony Boy to Sally Swift, Heather Moffet, Andrew McLean and my favourite at the moment, Klaus Hempfling.
In 2014 I found the progress limiting with MAT and a I got tired of a trainer who kept telling me that the reason why I can't do the exercises and movement is 'it's 'in my head!!' With this unhelpful phrase been reiterated on numerous occasions, I started to search the internet for 'muscle forgetfulness/loss' and found 'muscle sensory amnesia,' a phrase used extensively by Thomas Hanna. So all excited I started to look for a local educator. Sadly nothing came up so I emailed an american practitioner who was really thoughtful and sent me books to peruse. And then facebook recommended a Hanna somatics workshop in Manchester post which I followed up, attended and met Chris Halliday. Chris has been fundamental in progressing my rehab from the last hip operation in July 2014 using Trager, Hanna Somatics and other modalities when appropriate. His approach has given me a further depth in understanding how the body learns, how the muscles release or hold tension, how retraining the brain rather than pummeling muscles is not only more effective - its also pain-free! The whole process is far more about educating and supporting the client through touch guidance, mindful movement and visualization which has, in turn, affirmed and developed my coaching style. Oh and its fun!
Of course, all of these challenges have been made so much easier by the overwhelming support and encouragement of Mick, my family and friends, Thank you!
BEING A STUDENT
As a trainer it is easy to forget what it feels like to be the learner. How suddenly you can't get something right, or your body seems to have a mind of its own, or simply how it feels to be corrected. I take great joy in learning new skills, partly to keep my creativity and open-mindedness and partly to remember what it is like to learn again, both for the joy and frustration of it! So I've tried many things over the years: rock climbing, paragliding, diving, t'ai chi, canoeing, playing the drums and the tin whistle, but my favourite at the moment has to be playing the double bass. I do find having a good sense of rhythm and riding interwine, so I have great fun in our Bluegrass band, where I am constantly being supported and taught by fantastic musicians - this does make learning fun - I'm just glad it only has four strings!
COACHING
Part of my learning process has been to appreciate that I am a coach at heart; I do not either need or wish to be ‘the expert’. Some of this stems from being trained as a drama facilitator, where my role was to specifically enable people to find the answers within themselves and within each other. I also think growing up in different countries, surrounded by people from many nationalities, has helped me to always look at things from different perspectives. There are as many ways to achieve results from horses as there are people and horses! I'm also lucky to have a mother who also shares an interest in how people tick, so grew up surrounded by a wonderful collection of psychology, therapeutic and self-awareness books and a family which enjoy discussing how to make the world a better place. I know that everyone interaction either horse or human is an opportunity for everyone present to learn.
I can offer techniques and tools to help you find the inner trainer, so you and your horse can train each other. I'll support and encourage you along the way.
HORSES
I began riding at the ripe old age of 13 at the usual ramshackle stables where we gave a five pounds to the lady and were left under the auspices of the older girls (all of 16yrs!) to learn how to ride, muck out, groom and care for the horses. Within I a year my family moved to Indonesia, where I had the privilege of learning to ride on beautifully trained schoolmasters with training from top Indonesian trainers and enjoyed competing with my mum regularly, until I was 17. Another family move brought me to an international school in Oxford,which had strangely acquired four horses and were offering lessons. This is where I was lucky enough to be taught by a wonderful quiet horsewoman called Christine Morris, who helped me learn to use my seat instead of my legs. Within a year, my parents had moved to Texas, so all holidays were taken up with working at Whippletree Farm which offered English and Western Pleasure. I learnt how to adapt to different styles of riding. My mum bought an ex-racing horse which she re-trained beautifully, and I realised I had an electric seat! So I enjoyed leasing a lovely Morgan called Mork and had great fun riding Diane’s old championship Western Pleasure horse, Frog aged 32, bareback playing with some of the western moves and, as I improved, got to ride Overtime, her 17.2 ex-grand-prix dressage horse.
I found early on that my real interest lay in training rather than competing: I loved seeing my mum transform horses she sat on, and wanted to make a difference too. So, my official training began with my BHSAI, and a year later, I decided a career in horses wasn’t for me. So I headed for university, spent plenty of time on stage and also with horses, learnt and competed in horseball, and enjoyed three years on the university riding team. The holidays were still spent in Texas until we moved to Pakistan where I first saw a horse dance.
After university, I knew how much I enjoyed working with people and, as a naturally creative person, I qualified as a drama worker in prisons, a great place to meet your soulmate! Thankfully Mick wasn't an inmate, but an inspirational YMCA manager and youth worker inside Wetherby YOI!
Then I discovered a whole new side to horses that I had missed. An inspirational lady called Anne Greenwood, who is wheelchair bound, introduced me to Natural Horsemanship. Before settling down in to full-time work, Mick and I spent nine months near the Red Sea in Dahab, Egypt. I spent most of the time working with Egyptian Arabs at Blue Beach Hotel with my first natural horsemanship equipment, and the six page black and white hand-out, which was the extent of the original Parelli level one pack at the time! We had a wonderful time playing on the beach, riding bareback up the wadi and riding stallions in halters instead of their usual pelhams - ignorance can be a wonderful thing as it gives you confidence....and someone upstairs was looking after me!
When we arrived back in the UK, I thought I'd better get some training under my belt. After six months as a working student for Parelli, I learnt through Jayne Lavender about Ken Faulkner and within a year, with Mick's support, I starting organising Ken's UK tours. So for ten years I trained intensively under Ken for two months a year and had three trips out to Australia with Mick to film and train with him. He is a phenomenal horseman, who taught me how to watch and shape a horse for better balance and posture.
During my time with Ken, I met a wonderful rider and coach called Nikki Lickley, Kingswood Equestrian Centre. Not only has she helped me believe in myself by bouncing ideas on horsemanship and training with me, she also helped me combine the suppleness and connection I discovered with natural horsemanship with riding effectively in a bridle, to create a powerful and athletic horse. I look forward to training with her as soon as I am riding again!
I also have the good fortune to be with someone who understands how important it is to engage in each others' activities. So, since Mick bought his first horse, George, three months after I bought my second horse, another George, in 1999, he has shared the joy and physical labour of horse-owning. Moreover, he is always there to bounce ideas off and encourage me to be the best I can be.
SELF-AWARENESS: MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT
In 2006 I had a simple accident with serious repercussions. I broke my hip: nearly seven years later, 2013, I am still rehabilitating. It was a hard, yet excellent lesson. Thanks to James Shaw in 2007, I discovered a whole other side to riding – it is not just about the horse. .
By 2009 I also began to look at competing in paradressage as a way of moving forwards with Couscous. I had a wonderful lesson with Chris Porterfield during a paradressage talent spotting competition and some with Angela Weiss. I found I wasn't ready to accept the idea of being permanently disabled. It also helped me realise that I felt more inspired to move forward through coaching others than to feel the frustration in my crookedness and pain when I rode.
So later that year, I decided to find a local T'ai Chi trainer and I spent many hours privately and in classes for two and a half years training in Tai Chi and Qi Gong. These armed me, not for martial fighting, but with clear path of how to find and release all forms of tension through the body and to help me understand the dynamics of energy, breathing techniques and a healthy posture without tightness. Sadly this did not correct the extent of the muscle issues because of the injury and subsequent operations.
In 2011, I found Marian, a personal trainer, who specialises in muscle activation. Through my own rehabilitation he is helping me understand more deeply the complex interaction that muscle groups have on each other. This, of course, I then relate to tightness in the horse and see the horse becoming an excellent huge mirror for me to see where I, or a student, is tight. Part of his regime has been a ban on riding since November 2011. This has given me time to read and reflect on a much wider style of training from Carolyn Resnick and Gawani Pony Boy to Sally Swift, Heather Moffet, Andrew McLean and my favourite at the moment, Klaus Hempfling.
In 2014 I found the progress limiting with MAT and a I got tired of a trainer who kept telling me that the reason why I can't do the exercises and movement is 'it's 'in my head!!' With this unhelpful phrase been reiterated on numerous occasions, I started to search the internet for 'muscle forgetfulness/loss' and found 'muscle sensory amnesia,' a phrase used extensively by Thomas Hanna. So all excited I started to look for a local educator. Sadly nothing came up so I emailed an american practitioner who was really thoughtful and sent me books to peruse. And then facebook recommended a Hanna somatics workshop in Manchester post which I followed up, attended and met Chris Halliday. Chris has been fundamental in progressing my rehab from the last hip operation in July 2014 using Trager, Hanna Somatics and other modalities when appropriate. His approach has given me a further depth in understanding how the body learns, how the muscles release or hold tension, how retraining the brain rather than pummeling muscles is not only more effective - its also pain-free! The whole process is far more about educating and supporting the client through touch guidance, mindful movement and visualization which has, in turn, affirmed and developed my coaching style. Oh and its fun!
Of course, all of these challenges have been made so much easier by the overwhelming support and encouragement of Mick, my family and friends, Thank you!
BEING A STUDENT
As a trainer it is easy to forget what it feels like to be the learner. How suddenly you can't get something right, or your body seems to have a mind of its own, or simply how it feels to be corrected. I take great joy in learning new skills, partly to keep my creativity and open-mindedness and partly to remember what it is like to learn again, both for the joy and frustration of it! So I've tried many things over the years: rock climbing, paragliding, diving, t'ai chi, canoeing, playing the drums and the tin whistle, but my favourite at the moment has to be playing the double bass. I do find having a good sense of rhythm and riding interwine, so I have great fun in our Bluegrass band, where I am constantly being supported and taught by fantastic musicians - this does make learning fun - I'm just glad it only has four strings!
COACHING
Part of my learning process has been to appreciate that I am a coach at heart; I do not either need or wish to be ‘the expert’. Some of this stems from being trained as a drama facilitator, where my role was to specifically enable people to find the answers within themselves and within each other. I also think growing up in different countries, surrounded by people from many nationalities, has helped me to always look at things from different perspectives. There are as many ways to achieve results from horses as there are people and horses! I'm also lucky to have a mother who also shares an interest in how people tick, so grew up surrounded by a wonderful collection of psychology, therapeutic and self-awareness books and a family which enjoy discussing how to make the world a better place. I know that everyone interaction either horse or human is an opportunity for everyone present to learn.
I can offer techniques and tools to help you find the inner trainer, so you and your horse can train each other. I'll support and encourage you along the way.
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Contact Martha mob 07791 539458 email thinkhorses@yahoo.com
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