Wendy is also an equine welfare and behaviour specialist and operates a large rehabilitation facility from her home in County Durham, North East England. I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t drawn to horses and my life and career has subsequently been dominated by these beautiful animals. From a non-horsey family, I was almost entirely self-taught to ride as a child. Agriculture was however my o
riginal career of choice and after college I travelled to the USA for two years working on farms and ranches and studied at the University of Minnesota. I rode western too, which suited my cowboy style, before returning to the UK, where I eventually learned to ride in an arena and discovered what diagonals were in trot! The decision to concentrate on a career in equestrianism came soon after my return to the UK. This led to more education and then into teaching. I worked for almost twenty years as North of England Manager, for the UK’s largest equestrian organisation and prior to that, I spent seven years as Head of Equine Studies in an FE College where I also lectured in Agriculture and Small Animal Care. My interest in Equine Health, Welfare and Behaviour developed around this time and years later these subjects have become specialisms. This led to the development of an Equine Training and Rehabilitation Facility, where for over fifteen years now, the team here have worked with literally hundreds of horses and ponies, most of whom joined us with serious health, welfare and behavioural issues. The influence of the last few years, culminating in the test that was 2020, has been instrumental in shaping the decision to now offer the following:
• Post-injury/illness and Post-op Rehabilitation.
• Short Term and Holiday Boarding and/or Training
• Horsemanship Clinics and Camps
• Private Tuition
• Lectures and Demonstrations
In 2017, I was honoured to be the first person to achieve the new BHS Level 5 Coach in Complete Horsemanship certificate (the replacement for the BHSI). The following year we launched a new equine charity ‘Here4Horses’ which goes from strength to strength. Please visit www.here4horses.org.uk and support our work there, in any way you can. Throughout my life I have enjoyed competing on mainly homebred horses and Covid 19 aside, have no plans to hang up my boots just yet.
