Anke Growing up always involved horses in one way or the other. I clearly remember at age 11 being reprimanded at my first riding lesson as I flapped my legs and arms in an attempt to make my pony ‘Snowdrop’ go faster. The other kids were crying at the end of our lesson! I was swiftly moved onto riding ‘Black Label’ who bucked every time he was asked to canter! My family moved to the West-rand and my parents decided that it was time to have my very own horse. He came with the name ‘Geronimo’ and without the riding instructor, just some library books. Geronimo was a spooky chap and there were numerous times I looked up at him as I laid on my back from yet another fall. We competed in show jumping and a tad of cross-country, but the more we advanced the less we understood each other and the more problems we had. This ended up in me losing interest. After matriculating I went on to complete the National Diploma in Nature Conservation and part of the BTech Degree through Pretoria Technikon. I was posted out to SANParks, Golden Gate to complete my experiential training year and as fate would have it, I became the Stable Caretaker of Gladstone Stables.

We met at Gladstone Stables, Golden Gate in January 2004. As it was with all new students at Golden Gate, being able to ride was an advantage. Law enforcement patrols and game counts in the mountains were done more easily on horseback than on foot. Usually, students would learn to ride on a few 1hour treks, starting off with the basics. However, Stefan’s introduction was slightly different. On his second ride (without my knowledge) the guide saddled up ‘Flashman’ an ex-racehorse that had not yet learned the art of ‘ignoring the leg’, as it was/is the case with so many trekking ponies. Within a short period of time, horses were all that Stefan lived and breathed for as did I.

We were incredibly fortunate, the horses were kept all natural with mares, geldings, yearlings and foals living together in a herd. We learned invaluable lessons about their inborn natures as we observed social interaction between individuals and groups. These learned lessons ultimately helped us to understand how to interact with them in a way that seemed like common sense and made training the younger horses safer and easier. Stefan came back from a ride one afternoon and told me that whilst talking to one of the ladies on the ride she told him of this man in America that ‘chases’ a horse around in a pen. After a while the horse follows him out of free will and he backs them there and then. Intrigued by this, we wanted to find out more not knowing how this would change both of our lives.

In 2005, we decided that it was time to broaden our horizons and set off for England to continue working with horses. We accepted employment to manage a Highland riding and trekking centre in the North Yorkshire Dales and to prepare ponies for the show ring. As with Golden Gate, we kept the horses as natural as possible and the horses continued to teach us the lessons you don’t easily find in a book. In our time there, we backed youngsters and schooled them on, we showed colts from the local country shows to Ponies UK, claiming Champion and Reserve Championships as we went along.

During this time we met Sarah Kreutzer, who trained in America at Monty Roberts's Flag is Up Farm. By enrolling for the Learning to Listen Introductory Course in Horsemanship, Sarah laid our foundations in Natural Horsemanship training and soon we were working with 'problem' horses and their owners.

Whilst working at Learning to Listen, I came across Equine Bowen Therapy and was amazed by the good results that this non-intrusive therapy had on the horses receiving it.  The ‘bad behaviour’ of some of the horses in training stemmed from pain related issues and after treatment the improvement in behaviour was astounding.      

Stefan went on to investigate and study the different approaches to Natural Horsemanship to improve his own understanding and skill of working and training horses. Great horsemen such as Monty Roberts, Pat Parelli, Mark Rashid and Ken Faulkner unwittingly through their demonstrations and literature played a large role in our understanding of horses. A turning point came when Stefan met Richard Maxwell and participated in a clinic. Richard placed the pieces of the puzzle together in combining groundwork with ridden work and has greatly influenced the way that Stefan now works with horses altogether.

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