02/12/2025
I’ve had a lot of new people following my page recently, so I thought it was time for an updated introduction!
Who am I?
My name is Tanya French, I live in Victoria, Australia.
I’ve been around horses all my life, 30+ years. I went through all the usual channels growing up with horses: pony club, natural horsemanship (pressure and release training), I rode with bits and my horses were shod when they were working.
I was very lucky to have spent so much time with horses from a young age, because I learned a lot about body language and how to read it (even though I’ve now learned that a lot of the things we see and interpret have the opposite meaning!).
About 20 years ago I learned about clicker training, the effect of a bit on the horse’s mouth and body, and how metal shoes can have a gradual negative impact on the hoof.
Watching someone ride one day, a friend had asked the question, “Why does that horse froth at the bit?”
In my ignorance I thought he was working “correctly”, he was a big fancy dressage horse, I just didn’t know why. At the time I was working as an instructor at a riding school and at pony clubs, all very traditional riding and handling.
She went on a Google search and found some things that were very disturbing to me. I needed to know more. I went on my own search that ended with me stopping riding completely and starting on the first step to healing the damage I’d been blind to in my horses. I also tried to change what I could at the riding school and pony clubs.
My friend says she ruined me. I can’t thank her enough. 😂
My journey started there, to improve the lives of the horses I have in my care and the many I meet along the way.
I studied a Cert IV in Horse Management, followed by a certificate in Equine Massage with a very strong basis in anatomy and physiology.
I then went on to the Diploma of Equine Podiotherapy. This was a massive eye opener.
It was the first time I really started to appreciate that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. Lots more anatomy and physiology, diet and nutrition, how pain affects conformation, the chicken and egg of how issues start, and that a whole horse approach is needed to get them back to homeostasis.
I’ve been working as a hoof care practitioner for the last 15 years and have met many amazing hoof professionals who are pushing the boundaries to make horses more comfortable and help them heal.
After the podiotherapy course I realised I needed to know more about healthy movement in the horse. This led me to classical dressage.
I learned there are a lot of different schools in classical dressage, and many clash in their principles. The one that seemed the most logical to me was La Guérinière. Born in the 16th century, he changed the way dressage was done. Those before him wanted to produce a horse quickly for war, they wanted to train as many as possible to a high level so they could be sent off to battle. They died quickly, hence the need for speedy training. La Guérinière wanted to train the horse for art, so they would stay healthy and able to be ridden for many years. This resonated with me.
I wasn’t so concerned with riding, but if I wanted to ride this was a way to do it without hurting them physically.
I got quite far into my classical journey before my horse started to show signs that he wasn’t coping mentally with the training. To be honest he was showing signs much earlier on, but I just didn’t realise what they meant.
I went and found force free training. I learned about calming signals, emotions, and choice and control for the animal. I stopped all of the training.
In 2014 I learned about a competition to train a wild brumby in 100 days. I competed in the first Australian Brumby Challenge. My beautiful little +R trained brumby won the yearling section. I competed in the 2016 challenge with my yearling gelding and we dabbled in some service/assistance horse training. This got me hooked on brumbies. I’m pro brumby and very passionate about humane management.
I started a certification to be an equine behaviourist. This once again blew my mind, just how much damage we can do with our traditional training and horse keeping methods, and how much we can do to heal them with positive reinforcement.
After that I enrolled in Dr Kellon’s NRC Plus nutrition course, something I’d wanted to do since I’d done the podiotherapy diploma. It made nutrition, science and maths based. Massive eye opener to the minefield that is equine nutrition. Highly recommend if you’re confused about what to feed.
I am slowly retraining the classical dressage movements force free, along with all the husbandry behaviours our horses need to know for living happy lives with humans, and lots of fun activities like horse agility and the odd trick.
My formal training now includes Cert IV Horse Management, Equine Massage, a Diploma of Equine Podiotherapy, Dr Kellon’s NRC Plus equine nutrition, Nerve release/bodywork training, and Equine behaviourist studies.
I work as a full time hoof care professional. I run online and in-person workshops to help owners understand their horses’ hoof care needs, maintenance trimming, diet, and positive reinforcement/liberty training. In 2024 I was also an educator at Equitana, which was a huge honour and so much fun.
This is where I am now: still learning every day and wanting to share everything I’ve learned with you, and help as many horses and owners as possible. 💛
