Q: When did your interest in horses begin?

A: I was about 11 when some men began breaking in horses on the property just over our back fence. I was hooked from the first time I saw them work. I used to spend as much time getting in their way as possible, and learning what I could. Soon after my parents bought me a cross bred quarterhorse who was in foal. Unfortunately she lost the foal but I just about lived on her after that.

Q: When did you begin starting horses?

A: I was about 14 when I started a stockhorse filly in the traditional manner. It went pretty well, and in retrospect, was a very forgiving horse. She taught me more than I taught her but it went pretty well considering.

Q: What other horse related activities where you involved in when you were young?

A: My sisters and I used to compete at games days which were held near home. They were pretty competitive and we used to go fairly hard. You don't see a lot of the games that we competed in now. I guess they would be considered fairly dangerous. Rescue races picking up a second rider and galloping home, Indian cup races (involved several riders sliding to a stop and diving to pick a cup up off the ground) that sort of thing. No helmets either I don't think I would like my kids to do that. I rode in my first rodeo when I was 16.

Q: Did you continue to Rodeo?

A: I rode saddlebroncs and bareback horses from that time and continued to ride saddle broncs for about 15 years. I travelled all of Australia at some time or another and competed as far north as Broome in WA and as far south as Margate in TAS and once won the bronc ride at both those rodeos in the one year. These days I prefer it if a horse never bucks.

Q: Where has most of your horse training experience come from?

A: When I turned 16 I spent 2 weeks at accounting school and hated every second of it. I spent a year working on grazing properties in Tasmania and of course taking my horses with me until I joined the army at 17. I spent three years in NSW as a soldier but continued to rodeo and ride at every opportunity. I even spent my leave one year droving cattle on the road with a great horseman called Darby McMartin. Since then I have worked on cattle stations from the Kimberly's WA to Far North Queensland where we spent 10 hours a day on horseback. Those horses taught me much as they were pretty feral and you never knew what you would be riding next. We started lots of them and also worked with some fantastic horsemen. Since then after a couple of short stints in the family's engineering business, and working as an irrigation installer I moved back to the vocation I truly believe I was born to do. For several years I honed my skills starting hundreds of horses used for all types of vocations including dressage, racing, western, showing, stockwork etc. With every horse I tried to improve my methods in order to make life easier for not only myself but also the horses involved. I have been lucky enough to have spent time learning from horsemen whom I consider some of the best in the world during this period. I also spent some time running a horse drawn tour operation running a pairs of Clydies on a wagon. That was a learning curve on its own.

Q: What do you do now that you didn't do then?

A: In 2005 I moved to Southern Tasmania to be closer to my kids. At that time I decided not to take horses for training any more. In the past I had worked on quite a few with the owners involved and found that the long-term results were always better. Its not much point sending a green, or even a trained horse, back to a home that has not been shown how to work with it. It just wont work all the time. I enjoy working with horse owners and teaching them to overcome problems themselves (I still am very hands on). When you teach horse owners to overcome their own problems you are guaranteeing that problem won't return and giving them the skills to prevent others occurring. I have also started horses lately in a group environment with the owners doing most of the work. This has been very successful and the focus has been on making this fun for both the horse and rider.

Q: Do you think you were born with a gift?

A: No. I think that every good horseman I have ever met was born with, or has developed, the attributes required to make them good with horses. Those are mixture of patience, a tolerance, practicality, will power, confidence, courage, a penchant for learning, compassion, awareness and persistence (these same attributes also make great horses) No person is born with the knowledge that only experience, trial and error, hard work and learning can bring.