"No Hype - Just Horse sense"

Cynthia Cooper - my path to instructor

From the age of 6 I wished for a pony and finally got one when I turned 8 and proved it wasn't a passing whim! My mum loved horses and as well as supporting my love for them, started my interest in breeding them. She had an Arabian stallion who was bred to various mares to produce some nice riding horses which went onto provide me with pony club and show mounts.

Owning a property in the tourist and holiday area of Port Arthur, inspired our family to put all the horses to work by offering escorted trail rides which naturally led me to instructing people in the basics of horse riding. Then local kids sought me out to help them and before too long, I'd formed a riding club which is still going strong 20 years later.

Having bred our own young horses and handled them from birth, it was also natural that I'd start them under saddle with guidance from the 'Tom Roberts' books and 'The Jeffrey Method', both known for their horsemanship skills in Australia. Once word got out that I could do this, people were soon asking me to start their horses too.

Cynthia and Manny (Examiner Photo)

I'd always admired Arabians so while working for a stud in Queensland, I took the opportunity to get my first purebred - a colt, who I educated and competed with to become the best performed Arabian stallion in Tasmania. There wasn' t much we hadn't tried and been successful in - led and ridden shows, endurance rides, dressage, picnic racing, jumping and western events.

As I gathered a small group of mares to breed with him, I also played polocrosse then started campaigning his youngstock in the show ring and at endurance rides.
After such a varied equestrian career, I became very dissolusioned with the methods people were resorting to for success, and with no desire to compete and mix with them, I lost my enthusiasm for riding.

That was until I saw Pat Parelli in 1992 at his first clinic in Tasmania. I knew I'd found the way I wanted to be with horses and jumped right in, buying all the equipment, videos and registering as a student.
With enthusiasm coming in waves (mostly inspired by Linda Parelli's newsletters and Philip Nye's acheivements and encouragement), it took me two years to have Level 1 assessed, then I got serious about my horsemanship and aims of being an instructor.

This led to organising many clinics in Tasmania and taking on the role of Area Coordinator for the State. After reaching level 2 thanks to inspiration from Ken Faulkner, I started my annual pilgrimage to Braidwood in NSW to learn more from Pat. I then studied at his International Study Centre for 6 weeks in 1996, the first year of ISC courses.

The following year, qualified as an instructor, my career was now with horses, something I'd always dreamed of. But then a back injury forced me to stop riding for almost a year so reaching Level 3 seemed to take forever and was finally achieved mid 1999.

Now after many courses and many years of experience, I have the knowledge that I've always wanted to be able to offer my horses. With 13 of them (and a mule!) to play with, I'll have no shortage of projects to broaden my horsemanship skills.

Having earned my living from instructing now for over 10 years, I have and will continue to learn from my students and their horses too. I believe experience is the greatest teacher of all.
My interest in providing as close to a natural environment for my horses as possible has led me to develop skills in hoof trimming for barefoot performance, feeding and treating most health problems naturally.

Developing more awareness for what horses prefer has led me to making my own design of Bitless Bridle, Bareback Pad and saddle (coming soon).

As my horsemanship awareness grows, I am exploring the various ways of communicating with horses, truly understanding what they want and how they can heal us as much as we can them.

I am now in the process of recording all I've learned by writing a book I plan to have published by the end of 2008.

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• Teach people through private lessons, workshops, 2-5 day courses and seminars in Tasmania and ocassionally overseas.
• Train foals, young horses and trailer loading
• Teach and consult on hoof trimming
• Consult on horse psychology and horse problems
• Consult on natural horse care
• Give Appraisals for horse purchases
• Teach and mentor TAFE Equine Hoof Care Students

The view from our place on a winter morning.

See more photos of my place here.

Read about Live-in student experiences here.