30/06/2025
'You can be your horses best teacher, you just have to get curious ' - Kate Sandel
Curiosity is something I have in abundance and it is what led me off this weekend to the amazing Brandy House Farm to spend a few days with Kate Sandel of Soft and Sound.
It's taken me a day to gather my thoughts!
It was so lovely to spend yet another weekend in the presence of such aligned people, all there for the good of the horse. Although I was only there to spectate there was so much I have brought home that I can carry in to my work.
For those that don't know about Kate, she combines horsemanship, French classical style and compassion to help the horse access their body through in hand and ridden work.
I loved that each day there was no agenda. The focus of each lesson was 'what does your horse need today?' and 'how can we help your horse leave this arena feeling better than when he came in?'. For some that were on high alert that meant working to bring their nervous system state down and for some who were maybe a little restricted, how can we help you access parts of your body to help you feel and move better?
As you well know, my work heavily focuses on a mind-body connection so this style of working and listening to the horse really resonated with me.
We also discussed 'healthy weight baring posture ' which is the posture of the horse when ridden, how we can influence and improve that and how it's important to actually ride our horses to achieve this. The phrase 'posture needs to come from the inside out, not the outside in' sums this up beautifully - suggesting it's the deep postural muscles that need to develop and stregthen. I also loved the phrase 'long spine before long strides' suggesting the spine must first be free to move in neutral posture before the limbs can function biomechanically correctly.
The weekend was full of encouragement for both horse and rider, joy, love, laughter and reflection.
Kate asked on the first day ... What is your why? Simple ... To try to make this world a better place for horses through my own learning and passing this on to everybody i meet. So how do i do this?... By getting curious.
Lastly, I think everybody should get to experience the beautiful energy of Brandy house farm and the warmth that Medina brings to your stay, honestly, i didn't want to come home! Thank you for welcoming us into your home and providing such a beautiful setting for such a magical weekend.
The photo below was taken on my last evening as I sat on the hill reflecting on the last few days ๐