About Us
Heather Nelson has cherished horses all her life, and began horse-back riding in Northern Alberta eighteen years ago. She was introduced to training horses at a young age when she acquired a four-year-old mare, Maplestreet, who was straight off the race track.
Maplestreet required extensive training to make the transition from racehorse to a fully developed English horse suitable for a young girl. Heather developed successful partnership with the mare and they competed for many years in dressage, hunter/jumpers, eventing, and hack. They also spent many hours trail riding in the interior of British Columbia. Maplestreet remains with Heather and is enjoying a well deserved semi retirement, with occasional involvement teaching students.
Many horses have come and gone from Heather’s life, during which training became a major focus and interest. Each horse brought unique behaviors that required different training styles and approaches. Heather attended many clinics, seminars, demonstrations and lessons, including a three-week apprenticeship program with a certified John Lyons trainer to learn to start horses under saddle. Today, Heather enjoys combining the different styles she has developed, and tailors them to each horse’s needs.
During Heather’s adolescent years, she was a member of the Canadian Pony Club and taught classes and lessons for the lower levels. This introduced her to coaching and she discovered she enjoyed passing information on to facilitate the development of relationships between horses and people. She has been teaching ever since. Her greatest reward involves watching people connect with horses in a positive way that is easy, relaxing, healing and FUN!
In recent years, Heather has expanded beyond the traditional methods of interacting with horses, as she has become increasingly familiar with body language, energy, intuition, intention and interspecies communication. She is pleased to help her students build their intuition and is looking forward to watching this style of approaching horses become further integrated throughout the world.
