About me!
Hey hey! I’m Genna - a horse rider, gym goer and physiotherapist.
I started riding when I was 8-ish. My older sister, Eden always wanted a horse and as the "band wagoning’’ second child I decided I would also like a horse (please Mum). Knowing absolutely nothing about horses, Mum leased a pony thinking that in 6 months time Eden and I would lose interest and she could just give the pony back to her owners. 12 months later, Mum decided she better pay for the pony as we hadn’t lost interest ($120 for the pony, saddle and girth) and so the horse obsession started! The pony was called Nat, she was in her early twenties and taught every kid in the district to ride. We went to pony club for the first time and EVERYONE knew who Nat was, but we knew no-one!
Mum’s fatal mistake of leasing a pony soon led to my younger sister, Lucy, riding as well. We lived on a farm in Tintinara and spent most of our spare time riding around the farm and training our horses. We were lucky to have opportunities to ride across all disciplines - pony club, jumping, hacking, western and stockmans challenges, cattle work and dressage. Our horses were (and had to be) ultimate all rounders and bloody quiet. We never had schoolmasters, always green broken or unbroken horses with great temperaments. While our family couldn’t afford 3 schoolmasters, Mum always invested in getting us lessons. She figured if we could train our own horses, we could ride anything. I started riding green broken horses with my instructor in my early teens and broke my first horse in at 14 - the sweetest little QH mare who was just a dream! As I got into my late teens, I focused more on show jumping and dressage. I jumped to about 1m before deciding that I actually liked my horse having four feet close to the ground, so then focused solely on dressage. Riddler, better known at home a Piddles, was my first really talented horse. I got him when I was 18 as a green broken 4yo - he was big, hot and tricky. Whilst it was a steep learning curve through the first few years, I trained him through to Advanced before retiring him at 14. Piddles was my reason for getting into Equine Physio. In his younger years, he had a myriad of soundness issues - all which were solved with professional help from a good farrier, proper saddle fitting, physio, strength work and good coaching. It ultimately led to a pretty early retirement, as he developed early onset arthritis which ended his career.
I see so many clients who are sitting where I was with Piddles when I was younger - having a super talented horse who is clearly unhappy, but not knowing why or how to help the situation. There is so much misinformation that ‘the horse is just being naughty’, when really pain is cause of behaviour. These are the people I am most excited to help, because in 12 months we can create a completely different, happy and stress free horse who can start to enjoy their work again.
Lastly, I can’t stress enough how important it is to have professional people on your horses team - people with high quality education, who have studied in their chosen profession for several years to become qualified. This ensures your horse receives the highest standard of care with a scientific based approach, to promote health, well-being and performance.
Genna
