About

At the age of I5 I started work at the Scottish Equitation Centre which is situated in a small village called Greenloaning near Stirling in Scotland, where I did my N.P.S.S.A (National Pony Society Stud Assistant). From there I went to work at the Loch Ard Hotel, Aberfoyle at the foot of the Trossachs breaking, schooling and taking clients hacking. Whilst working there I met and worked for Peter Keenan the boxer and once a week he would take me up to Callendar to teach one of his friends daughters riding, he was one of the all time greats and a great guy to work for.

My next stop was working for Hugh McGregor who operated a trekking centre and stud farm for highland ponies. I enjoyed working for Hugh and he encouraged me to take my Scottish Trekking and Riding Association grade 3 examination, now known as the Trekking and Riding Society of Scotland.
After a break having my children I then went on to work as chief instructor at Garson Farm in Orkney, I taught Riding for the Disabled and had the responsibility of the running of the yard as well as the training of the students.

Loch Ness Equi Centre was my next stop, there I worked for Candy Cameron the international long distance rider, I started studying for my BHSAI, supervised the yard and was head student during my time there.
After another brief break I went to work at Straloch Bavarian Stud in Aberdeenshire during which time I became a Riding and Road Safety Trainer/Examiner. Whilst I was training students at Glencommen in Royal Deeside for their R&RS test I was offered a job from Penny Wardle which I accepted. It was here that I met my now best friend Fiona and after Pennys sad departure, we went on to run the yard for as long as was necessary then took our own venture on running our own yard in Peterculter, just outside Aberdeen.

During this time we started our own company (Essentially Equine) which prompted me to travel to Devon to complete a course in and gained certification in Equine Herbal and Natural Remedies studying under Chris Dyer. From there I went on to be a merit student graduate in Higher National Certification in horse management at Aberdeen College.
I then moved to the Orkney Islands, which is the far north of Scotland and started to study reiki and also research natural remedies further.
I have been practicing Reiki now since 2008 and researching and formulating products with essential oils and herbal ingredients since 1999 and loving every minute of it.

This community site is in honour of the business that myself and Fiona started, you can still find testimonials if you google it. I have learned a lot since I started work at 15, I am 52 now and the changes I have witnessed have been absolutely amazing. The old jute stable rugs with surcingle and a big bit of foam at the withers has been replaced by cross surcingles, New Zealand rugs have been replaced by rugs with high tech breathable materials that allow the horses skin to breathe. So many changes, but the best by far in my opinion is the huge range of NATURAL products that through much research has become available to us.

Well enough spouting from me, I hope that visitors to this site feel comfortable enough to join the site and the forum and start to exchange opinions about this that and the other, always curious to see what people think about gadgets, products, tack etc etc. Please feel welcome to join and give us your point of view on those subjects. We are also looking for photographs that our members or visitors would like to put up on our site, this is a flash site and photographs and images are protected from copying, or at least from the normal everyday web user. So what are you waiting for, join up now and lets get a conversation going.

WELCOME TO ESSENTIALLY EQUINE !!