About Sally

"I love learning, and I believe that where horses are concerned, there is so much to learn and understand, that one lifetime probably isn’t going to be enough"

I take pride in offering a coaching service that delivers this vision and encompasses my values of professionalism, respect, empathy, attention to detail, and the highest standards of emotional and physical equine welfare. I work with all levels, disciplines, and ages of students. 

I have been involved with horses all of my life, and having started out as a pony mad-girl, my ambition was to compete at Horse of the Year Show. I’ve done that twice now, and whilst I still enjoy competition, I’m now more focused on the teaching and training side of the equestrian world. I love learning, and I believe that where horses are concerned, there is so much to learn and understand, that one lifetime probably isn’t going to be enough.

My particular interest is in how horses and humans learn, and the relationship between them.
I have always preferred to bring on my own horses and ponies, often via rehabilitation or rescue, and through doing this, I have a depth of experience in how to achieve success with the less-than-perfect horse, without compromising their welfare.

Despite being capable, I struggled at school, and it wasn’t until I had my first Ride With Your Mind riding lesson in 2001, that I realised that I was a kinaesthetic learner.

I now know that I learn best if I am moving around, and to acquire a new skill, I have to feel it and do it. This revelation also helped me understand why as a younger adult, I failed to make any progress in my riding, as all the instructions were given to me as declarative statements. That is, I was told how I should look and how the horse should look, and even shouted at when I couldn’t convert the words into actions!

What I wasn’t getting was any procedural information, i.e., the bite-size chunks of a skill that would combine to learn the whole skill. These bite-size chunks also had to be fed to me in a way that both my brain and my body could make sense of.

I now am much more empowered as a learner, and as a rider, I have improved way beyond my dreams.
I just wish there were more hours in the day! From my first Ride With Your Mind lesson, I became fascinated with the approach, and since then it's been my goal to assist other riders to make a fast-forward in their learning and be able to acquire talent and skills through their own learning styles.

My clients range from children building their confidence and having fun, to riders who like to get the best from their hacking, and also those who are focussed on national competitive goals.

I offer riding lessons and coaching for both flatwork and jumping to clients across Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex. I run clinics and workshops anywhere in the UK.

I train regularly with renowned author and international coach Mary Wanless. This includes co-teaching on her intensive courses to enhance my own coaching skills, and participating myself as a student on intensive courses. Also, I attend yearly Teacher Training for flatwork and jumping and other specialist courses that Mary offers.

I believe that training on the ground is as important, if not more, than ridden training, and my coaching encompasses the essential tools of in-hand training and how they dovetail into the successful application of ridden training.