Gosh where do I start with our journey…. We ended up at Karen’s after getting what we thought was the prefect word of mouth “free” horse for our teenage daughter.

However, it become apparent rather quickly that she was too much horse for our daughter and so I took her on as my own.

I rode extensively as a child in New Zealand, but stopped riding when we moved to Australia… 24 years ago.

My beautiful new *shiny* thoroughbred mare of 16 years was gorgeous with impeccable ground manners but unfortunately once that saddle went on she would get very nervous, chomping at the bit, jiggy and incredibly “hot”. Those that saw her under saddle described her as “dangerous” and “explosive”.

But I could see the potential in her so I tried, in vain, to teach her to relax.

I loved on her with carrots and pats, I enlisted the services of red light therapists, Chiro’s, saddle fitters, dentists, farriers, I gave her Magnesium, brought her new soft rubber bits, worked on her ground manners but nothing I tried made a difference… Where I excelled in persistence and love I lacked in experience and knowledge.

I was nearing defeat…. ENTER Ms. Karen White!

After a few phone conversations with Karen we made the decision to move Angel to Karen’s property for re-education. It was our last ditch effort at making things work.

Karen took a comprehensive look at Angel and everything that encompassed her and devised a training plan as well as a new diet plan to help Angel on her new journey to relaxation. When the plan didn’t quite go-to-plan, Karen tweaked things to get the best out of Angel, explaining along the way what she was doing and why and then teaching me the techniques she was using so that I could confidently continue with Angels re-education.

Angel is now back home and that was only made possible because of the skills Karen has taught me and the re-education Angel has received and although Angel will always be my nervous nelly she has gone from an anxiety riddled girl to a beautiful more relaxed pleasure mount where we are now both able to enjoy our time under saddle.

I can confidently say that Angel will now live out the rest of her life years in a loved, nurturing and calm home and that truly is all thanks to Karen which was by no means an easy feat when you take into account my 24-year hiatus from riding and Angel’s previous history as a OTTB, polo cross, barrel racing, endurance racing, trail riding mount!

Oh and did I mention, Karen also taught me how to safely float my girl… so now we are mobile… look out world, Andrea & Angel are on the loose!