Jo riding Cisco in Colorado, fall 2009.
My philosophy of how we should relate to horses is rooted in my lifelong, deep passion for horses, my unquenchable thirst to learn more about them, my desire to help people relate to and understand them better, and my hope of improving how horses are treated. I’ve ridden since I was a small girl, enjoying trail rides in upstate New York and participating in 4-H events from horse bowl to county fairs. After having to stop riding while I attended college (BA in Psychology) and law school in Boston, I took up my equine journey again, training for 5 years with advanced-level event rider Adrienne Iorio at her barn in Massachusetts and gaining a wonderful foundation in dressage.
Jo riding Rhiannon at Sowbelly Ranch in northwestern Nebraska in 2006.
Almost a decade ago, I left the field of law and embarked on a journey to explore the different schools of thought concerning the horse-human relationship through my work as the Founder and Director of the Horse-Human Relationship Program for the nonprofit Tapestry Institute. My nonprofit work has included researching the impact trail riding has on group meeting process, gentling wild Mustangs, creating and managing the Mustang Freedom Project (which provided a home for wild Mustangs at a ranch in Nebraska), conducting extensive literature research on the horse-human relationship, and teaching child and adult riders. I have researched many questions about the horse-human relationship over the years. What common themes and elements run through training methods centuries old and those declared “new and revolutionary?” How are different disciplines approaching the horse-human relationship and why? What can I learn if I put aside what I have been taught and simply spend time with my horses, without interpretations from others about what they are “supposed” to be doing and the meanings ascribed to those actions? What can I learn about the horse-human relationship by gentling wild Mustangs?
This is not the typical journey of many horsepeople, but it is one that has allowed me to gather, distill, and share a vast amount of knowledge about our past, our present, and hopefully our future with horses. The research and education I have done with Tapestry’s Horse-Human Relationship Program has allowed me to learn different ways of riding and relating to horses that I wish to pass on so that the horse-human relationship can improve for every person and every horse.
I have been very lucky to have the best teachers in the world, horses themselves, as mentors along this path. Wild Mustangs, gentled Mustangs, domestic horses, all of them have taught me valuable lessons about the horse-human relationship. I have learned that each horse is an individual and is as unique as each human being. Understanding this adds immeasurably to the relationship we can have with horses.
I look forward to sharing the journey of the horse-human relationship with you and with the horse(s) in your life.
Jo