One Woman's Odyssey from Horse Trainer to Horse Teacher

Horse people frequently ask me how I became involved with TT.E.A.M. Although I share the "horse-lover's gene" with a trotter-racing uncle, played "horsie" on the second grade playground and found terror and ecstasy at my first riding lesson art the age of nine, the real influence was a half-Arab gelding. Oscar's Favor started owning me when I exchanged three years worth of baby-sitting money for him shortly after my sixteenth birthday. He was beautiful, clever and a wonderful teacher. He even delighted in teaching an opinionated, headstrong teenager. His teaching opened my eyes to the idea that horses too could be taught on a much more conscious level than what I saw around me. Thus began my search for a method that went beyond stimulus-response. For the next 15 years I considered myself a kind and gentle trainer but was always looking for a way to teach rather than train. I had a long wait.

In 1983, EQUUS Magazine published a three part series on Linda Tellington-Jones and "The Touch That Teaches". I was interested enough to travel from Spokane to Olympia to attend a two-day demonstration. I was hooked. Could this actually be what I'd been looking and waiting for all these years? I'd never been this excited over how to relate to a horse.

I used what I learned from those two days and from the TT.E.A.M. Newsletters whenever I could, usually to overcome training problems. Finally, one Monday morning, lying in bed, I realized that, if I used TT.E.A.M. frequently to solve problems, why not just use TT.E.A.M. all of the time? It was the best and safest approach I'd ever seen or used for starting young horses, retraining, problem solving, developing a sense of responsibility in horses and helping riding students overcome difficulties. I immediately went to the phone and signed up for the next weeklong TT.E.A.M. training session in Edmonton, Alberta.

Participating in that week felt like coming home. We worked with a variety of ages, breeds and problems and every single horse for enormously better after being worked with by STUDENTS, themselves in the learning process. TT.E.A.M. worked even when people did it "wrong". All of this without pain, fear or force. In those seven days I developed a whole new set of eyes with which to observe horses, their movement and behavior. I as shocked by the obvious concept that horses don't do what we want them to do because either they can't do it or they don't understand what we want. Horses generally do what we ASK them - even if it's not what we want. I got the shock of experiencing, from the horse's point of view, how people create or exacerbate problems while having the best of intentions. (I also got to experience the guilt stage for all of the times I'd unknowingly blamed the horse for my short comings and confusing communications.) I realized a new respect for our equine friends for doing so well in spite of us. I got to see what partnership is about between a human and a horse and that's what TT.E.A.M and Ttouch is really about.

I committed myself to taking the next several years learning and training to attain practitioner/clinician status, attending week-long workshops around the country and being trained by Linda and her sister Robyn Hood (as well as the horses and other participants). I often had the opportunity to receive coaching from some of the finest riding instructors in the country, helping me connect the principles of the Ttouch, Awareness Exercises, Confidence Course and Riding With Awareness portions of the TT.E.A.M. Training work. Maintaining my practitioner status means participating in T.E.A.M. Trainings with Robyn or Linda at regular intervals, often in the form of assisting them in teaching week-long seminars.

I have, to date, worked with fourteen different species using TT.E.A.M. and the majority of the light horse breeds, mules and draft horses and helped horses and owners from the majority of disciplines. Each opportunity is a rare gift that offers great satisfaction and joy.

Julie travels throughout the Western States and Canada teaching and practicing TT.E.A.M. She is available for one and two-day hands-on workshops. She also does on-going work with horses and their humans, starting horses of all ages, offering riding instruction and helping to solve problems. She works in individual and group situations on a weekly, bi-weekly and monthly basis.

If you would like to contact Julie or have a personal consultation about your horse needs you can at (509) 924-9739 and visit her web site at www.horseandpeopletraining.com