Testimonial by Trisha and her horse Charlie

After being away from riding for a lot of years I bought a steady cob to begin riding again now I have the time. Unfortunately, due to a very nasty road rage incident between my horse and the driver of a particularly large lorry, which left my horse, traumatised and terrified in traffic, I looked in the Yellow Pages for someone to rehabilitate and retrain my horse to restore his confidence in traffic.

After trawling through various names offering horse re-training, I decided on Melanie Watson. I could not have made a better choice by choosing her. Subsequently, since being involved with horses again, I have realised how well known and how very highly respected Melanie is by equestrian owners of all disciplines and from wide areas, not just locally.

After a long conversation on the telephone where she outlined her strategy, she left me to think about, with no pressure to bring the to horse to her. After a few days, I contacted Melanie again and arranged to take my horse to her stables for rehabilitation where she actively encouraged me to visit and watch the progress that she was making with the horse. Nothing was hidden and all of my questions were answered completely and honestly.

My horse spent six weeks with Melanie, and in that time the change in him was remarkable. She has restored his confidence considerably; he was much more responsive in his general handling. Despite all Melanie’s efforts with my horse, my confidence was so badly shattered that I was only able to ride him with her walking beside me, which was not a long-term solution.

After another heart-to-heart talk with Melanie, it was decided that the best option would be to sell the horse and for me to try and regain my confidence by going to a good riding school in riding in an enclosed, secure space. She showed the horse to respective buyers for me and even transported him several miles free of charge, to another person who had showed interest in purchasing him. After a couple of weeks he was sold and I was sorry to see him go.

I am still in contact with Melanie and I cannot thank her enough for everything that she did to try and put my horse and myself back together again. The fact that I did not have the confidence to ride my horse again is no reflection on Melanie at all. Whenever she was there I was able to ride him, but unfortunately without her there to bolster my confidence, my courage failed me completely.

I was very lucky the day I picked Melanie out of the phonebook. She is such an honest and open person and a great friend to have who certainly knows her stuff has far as horses are concerned. During the time my horse was with Melanie, I saw her training/retraining various types and temperaments of horses and she was never anything else than calm, effective and professional in her handling of these animals.

This blog was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009