Testimonials
Amanda
Thank you so much for the help and support you have given me with my horse, after struggling to get near him for 5 years, 4 of which I have owned him. I finally have a horse who is happy to be near me after only afew weeks of advice.
Amanda contacted me and has helped me. I was doubtfull as nothing had worked before, how wrong was I?
I have, or should I say ´had´ a horse which was near impossible to catch. I had tried every trick in every book but nothing ever worked.
The advice I was given was easy to follow and I could understand it from my horses point of view and also exactly why I was doing what I was doing.
I was given no false promises and have got more results than anybody ever could have imagined. I now have a horse who sees me coming and walks over. Instead of up to 6 hrs to catch him its now taking less than 3 mins. I never thought I would be able to do this.
Any problems I have in the future, I know who to call!
Thanks again!
Emma Turton
Amanda,
Just need to say a BIG THANK YOU for taking the time to listen to me. From myself and my friend and both our horses we seem much happier now. This has been a wonderful week followed with a trying weekend with my horse developing what I think is an abscess coming on - vet calling in the morning. I would have normally fallen apart and felt so negative about everything. But its like I have a new outlook towards my horse and dare I say that I feel more confident around him. (you said I would).
A week ago I would never have dreamed of trying to hot tub his foot let alone put a poultice (may not be the neatest but I will get better) on him without assistance, but you know what, I did and he was so so good for me standing still ground tied which is fantastic for a horse you could not even tie for a couple of seconds let alone treat his sore foot, just over a week ago.
This weekend has confirmed that clicker training was well worth
the effort. Anytime we spend with our horses we are training. I have learnt this and now I am looking at everything to turn it naturally into a desired behaviour that will benefit both myself and my horse who by the way thinks it great even wants to train while his foot is hurting.
You really have helped me so much!.
Thanking you
Maria and Donegal, September 2010 Well - Amanda´s first stop on her journey south was my yard to have a session with Duchess, so I can be the first to report that it was FANTASTIC!!
I LOVE clicker !!!!
A HUGE thanks to Amanda! :-)
Joni, July 2010
On Friday afternoon Amanda came and met Trooper to start us off on the clicker training road. He took to it like a duck to water. He has always been very mouthy and I was concerned about him biting more than he does already but after doing targeting first, we did ´grown up´s´ and he waited for his treat with a smile on his face. His whole outlook has changed since Friday - he is far more attentive and trying really hard to please. I am glad that Amanda could see how upset he gets when he is unsure and his lack of confidence really came out but I am sure he was really enjoying it. I have practiced with him twice since and each time has been exactly the same. No mugging and no biting and all this from a horse that has a very aggressive background.
I cannot thank Amanda enough. Trooper is thoroughly enjoying the attention instead of turning away form it. Trooper and I went for a ride at 5.30 this morning. We plodded round the lanes - a light rein contact, no spooking, no napping - what a delight horses can be when they are happy.
Mandy, July 2010
" Amanda has helped me and my ID x TB mare both from afar and in person for the best part of 3 years now. Her remote help as a behaviourist enabled me to help my mare with her separation anxiety as well as really begin to think through and understand possible experiences she had had before she came to me 9 years ago. Not knowing your horse’s early history means there are always question marks as to why they behave in certain ways. I never thought that I would be able to learn more about my girl after 9 years with her! Certainly not from someone who had not even met either of us at that point! How wrong could I be!!
Amanda asked me millions of questions to gain a really deep understanding of Dancer in certain situations – it felt like the Spanish Inquisition, but from the information I provided she deduces so much about her life prior to me as a result of her behaviour now – it was like she had known Dancer from the day she was born!
Amanda developed some behaviour modification plans to help Dancer overcome her anxieties about being left alone, feeling safer inside the barn than out in her paddock on her own and many others. I had been using clicker training for about 2 years by this point, but not following any particular method – just clicking what I liked, so Dancer was Clicker Savvy already to some degree.
Amanda incorporated this use of clicker into my behaviour modification plans, which really helped Dancer to relax in situations she found stressful. I then had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Amanda in person a while later when she visited the area on holiday. I booked up a lesson with her for that weekend, and simply have not looked back since! Amanda introduced me to Alexandra Kurland’s Clicker Training for Horses that weekend and I was blown away.
I had been searching for years and years for a training method which ticked all the relevant boxes on lots of different levels for me but which also had focus on balance and correct, light movement in self carriage as its goal from the outset.
I had immersed myself in many different alternative and natural training methods with success and was combining these with truly classical dressage for the balanced movement. However, none of them ticked every single box for me. I had my reservations about areas of each so I picked and chose what I liked from each and built my own personal training method – which worked pretty well.
The main issue I still had though was the essence of being the leader at all times, which meant the incremental increasing of pressure which all these methods seemed to advocate. I wanted Dancer to be an equal, a friend, someone who chose to spend her time with me of her own volition. She was already a totally different horse to the one she was 5 years previously, my own version of training included a lot of liberty work and she chose to work with me just on an emotional connection. She was mostly calm and relaxed until any pressure was upped to a painful level, and then she would dissolve into panic again with the look of fear on her face. I knew it was the painful pressure which was the problem, so I avidly avoided using any increased levels of pressure, because I knew neither of us liked it – just no idea as to why at the time!
So when I began to understand and learn Alexandra’s method through Amanda – I realised I had found the answer to everything I had ever questioned previously, the research and understanding based on a deep knowledge of Equine Psychological Behaviour was finally accessible to me, and this one clearly 100% ticked every single box on my ‘training list’.
In the short time I have been studying Alexandra, I have progressed with Dancer beyond all possible recognition - under the mentorship and incredibly educated and knowledgeable, watchful eye of Amanda. My horse is an absolute dream to handle, lighter than air, and openly engaged and actively talking and communicating with me every moment I am with her.
Amanda has been my rock and the most amazing mentor I could ever have wished for since. She is an incredible behaviourist, with a phenomenal level of knowledge and natural talent to read horses body language, interpret what they are communicating through such small and seemingly irrelevant non-verbal communication.
I began to understand that levels of pressure which cross the line into pain poison the cue, the equipment, the person, the environment etc. I now had the evidence to back up why I felt so rude and crude (and downright sick to my stomach) about increasing pressure to a painful level especially on such a physically and emotionally sensitive horse. But moreover, I had just come across a method which would enable me to avidly avoid it entirely!
I feel very lucky to have met her and be journeying on this path with her help and support. Thanks Amanda! " Jo and Dancer, Feb 2010
" Several people have given me some amazingly precise predictions about how various subjects would pan out, but nothing has ever stood out quite so spectacularly as what you said about Normans’ sense of humour.
With the pointers you gave me when you were here a few weeks back, I have managed to build on my relationship with Norman by a margin I wouldn’t have expected over years let alone weeks, and I have just enjoyed the most spectacular half an hour out in the field with Norman at liberty.
I have always known he is an amazing horse but today has shown me just what kind of communication it is possible to have with him.
While he has been the most playful I have ever seen him, he has also demonstrated the utmost of courtesy and control over himself, galloping over to me from the other side if the field and stopping gently in front of me.
I am beside myself, everything is coming together at the moment on all fronts and I just wanted to thank you sincerely for the last little bits of the puzzle you have provided for us in terms of our communications between each other.
Who´d have thought a slight change in my own understanding and 20kg of treats would have made such a difference.
I have noticed generally how much more confident he is about everything - we went in the school yesterday and he had no problem at all going up to the far end, even though the wind was blowing the door about. First time he hasn’t batted an eye lid up there and a sure sign he is focused on other things.
He is also so much more affectionate, he will wander up to me and nudge me with his top lip as if to say "hello, don’t forget me!"