Facing down your fears

TOP: One of the Moroccan Barb stallions Anne met on her desert adventure beneath the High Atlas Mountains ABOVE: Anne’s exciting 2009 adventure in Morocco helped bring horses back into her life again. special bond humans and horses often share was something Anne thought would make for fascinating reading. And with that, the idea for Great Australian Horse Stories was birthed and Anne began her research.

Anne’s background in journalism was more than useful as she began to gather stories, seeking out the hidden treasures in people’s lives. She prides herself on being able to interview people and draw out their stories and idiosyncrasies. “A lot of people think ‘Why me?’ They might have the most amazing stories, but most people are quite modest,” she says.

Many of the people interviewed for Great Australian Horse Stories are from the Gippsland area in Victoria, where Anne herself lives. “It’s because I knew a lot of people there, and then they knew people, so the book grew from that. For example, the lady who lives across the road from me, her mother, Beth, grew up in the days when you rode a pony to school and parked it in the pony paddock next door. So I talked with her about that.”

Further along the road from Anne’s home the Horse Workshop offers Equine Facilitated Learning, which encourages the interaction between horses and humans, an interaction that’s been found to benefit both people with disabilities, and those suffering from maladies such as depression or anger. “I’ve watched a session in progress,” she says, “and it was a really beautiful thing to see. So of course, I wrote about them and what they’re doing.”

Infused with heart, wit and drama, Great Australian Horse Stories brings to life stories of horses from all over Australia. “It was just fantastic talking about horses with people for months on end,” Anne says smiling.

One of Anne’s own experiences with horses, which she holds close to her heart, was thanks to a Zouina Cheval riding trek. The tour included a week’s ride through the stony desert below the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. At this point in her life, she hadn’t owned

a horse for years, but had never lost her love for them. “It was a chance of a lifetime thing. I specifically travelled to Morocco to do the tour,” she says.

Each day, the small group of riders mounted their Moroccan Barb stallions, ready for a long day’s ride through the stony terrain and sweltering heat. High valleys above them were splashed with patches of river-fed green, and the villages nestled on the mountainsides looked down over almond orchards and palm groves. Occasionally the riders came across a lush oasis framed by date palms offering shade and rest. For Anne, riding through the desert was both a thrilling and an unforgettable experience.

Arriving back in Australia after her Moroccan adventure, Anne decided that she’d like to own a horse again. “That trip really got me back into horses – now I’m more horse mad than when I was a young girl,” she laughs. And these days she has three: Poppy, a beautiful chestnut pony who’s been with her for 10 years; Harry, a chestnut Stockhorse colt bought for her by her partner in a “wildly romantic gesture”; and Angel, a liver chestnut on lease from Project Hope Horse Welfare Victoria. “Project Hope do fantastic work identifying horses that have been neglected and abused and finding new homes for them,” Anne explains. “Angel loves doing things with you, but she can be a little naughty sometimes and occasionally she can test you – but she’s a really lovely horse,” she adds, with real fondness creeping into her voice.

On being asked for her opinion on what it takes to be a good writer, Anne pauses for a moment and then says: “You have to be good with words and have a real love for them. And you have to re-read and examine every word you write. Obviously it helps be creative, but you also have to be accurate. Perhaps the main thing is to stick with it – and for that you have to be dedicated.”

A favourite place: Digger's Rest Station in the Kimberley, Western Australia.

FEATURE

As anyone who’s had a bad fall will tell you, the damage is as likely to be mental as it is physical. So how are you to get over the fear that you might fall again? AMANDA MAC looks at a unique program designed specifically for nervous riders.

Admitting your fears, whatever they are, is never easy, and overcoming them is usually even harder. But if it’s true that anxiety is just a state of mind, how do you flip that mental switch and regain your confidence?

If any rider ever had good reason to fear getting on a horse again, Alexandria Cragg, more usually known as Alex, is a perfect example. Half a dozen or so years ago she was riding a meanspirited horse that bolted and pitched her off his back. Landing with arms outstretched, both wrists were broken in the fall. Alex, who at the time had six Standardbreds in work, suddenly found herself incapacitated. However, it was just before the accident that she’d met her now husband Leigh Cragg, who willingly assisted with the Standardbreds. He also helped Alex overcome her understandable nervousness around horses, using a series of methodical techniques and carefully detailed exercises, firstly while on the ground and then while mounted.

In 2015, Leigh and Alex moved west of the Blue Mountains in Oberon NSW, and together established their dream property, Burilda Park Equine, settling down to a life in which they indulged their mutual passion for breeding and training horses. But in 2019, the unthinkable happened. Out on a ride to celebrate her birthday, Alex was thrown and dragged through the bush in a freak accident, breaking her right arm in five places. “It was horrific”, she recalls, “as well as being horribly painful. I was sitting in the bush for around 40 minutes waiting for the SES and ambulance. There were about 20 of us on that ride and I think everyone was traumatised by the accident.”

With her arm refusing to heal properly, it took an operation to piece the breaks back together. But unfortunately, damage to Alex’s radial nerve during the surgery left her arm paralysed. “My hand, my fingers, my wrist were all paralysed. I couldn’t lift anything and I couldn’t feel my arm at all. I was told that there was a possibility feeling and movement would never come back, but also a possibility that the nerve might regenerate. It really was touch and go.”

Alex shares that the months after the operation were very challenging both emotionally and physically. “I couldn’t drive and for seven months Leigh had to brush my hair, dress me, and often shower me. I was in constant pain. Then we got married and I couldn’t even hold my own bouquet. I was quite embarrassed by the whole thing, but it was an amazingly bonding experience for us.”

After such a terrible ordeal, it’s hardly surprising that Alex’s anxiety around horses was back with a vengeance. “I didn’t want to brush them. I didn’t want to lead them. I didn’t want to tie them up. I would feed them but that was it – and I certainly didn’t think that I’d ever ride again. But in reality, it wasn’t so much the fear of horses, as

MAIN: Happy to be around horses again - Alex and Chuck (Image by Louie Douvis Photography).

LEFT: One of Leigh’s specialities is resolving difficulties with problem horses (Image by Kate Gouldson Photography).

Alex and Leigh in emergency after her birthday ride went horribly wrong (Image courtesy Burilda Park Equine).

the fear of having another accident.”

As a way of dealing with the trauma, Alex, an ex-journalist, began writing about her experience on the Burilda Park Equine Facebook page. “Typing was slow and one handed,” she laughs, “but a lot of people, mainly women, felt the same and began to post about similar fears.”

If it hadn’t been for the techniques Leigh had used to help her regain her confidence after her first accident, plus the Burilda horses that were part of her daily life, Alex admits that she may well have given up. Added to that, there were numerous people writing to her about their own experiences: “I realised I couldn’t let them down and I couldn’t let myself down, so I just kept documenting it all,” she says.

Alex was receiving between thirty and fifty messages a day (she still does) and in the process built what she calls her ‘tribe’, people who are prepared to talk openly and honestly about their anxieties and lack of confidence in the saddle.

Thankfully, over the next 12 months the nerves in Alex’s arm regenerated, and Leigh’s program proved pivotal in getting her not only back on a horse, but doing so with confidence and joy. What Leigh had discovered was a way to make Alex feel secure again. “I knew that she needed everything to be broken down to the tiniest of details. Then she felt in control. And when she felt in control, she felt secure and wasn’t scared to try anything. So, I made every step easy to understand and gave her the reason behind it to keep her mind busy, limiting the opportunity for it to run free and catastrophise everything!” he explains.

Leigh’s methodical and considered approach had brought Alex’s riding back to life - but if it had worked for her, why not for others? Through their Facebook page the couple had become aware of the very real need to make Leigh’s techniques more widely available. As Alex points out: “It’s all very well and good to have a chat to people about their fears, but that doesn’t offer the solution that’s going to get them over the line. So we started to organise everything Leigh had been teaching me – the ground leadership and the psychology he uses, basically just teaching me how to be safe – into a program we could share with others. We call it Mindful Horsemanship.”

The program, which has proved hugely popular, focuses on safety and caters for nervous riders. Alex and Leigh believe that safety essentially comes from a black and white approach. “This is what to do, and this is what not to do. Leigh often says that you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know what to do next – and that’s what the program teaches, both while you’re on the ground with your horse and in the saddle. The whole program is broken down to such specific

It’s all very well and good to have a chat to people about their fears, but that doesn’t offer the solution ....

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elements and exercises that no matter

how nervous you are, you’ll get a lot out of it. It also takes you through all of the stages you need to train your horse to competition level,” says Alex.

Driven by their shared belief in the

program’s effectiveness, the couple organised a state-wide tour, purchased a gooseneck trailer, loaded up their horses and travelled around New South Wales, delivering their confidence-building holistic approach to horsemanship at booked out clinics. “The response was very humbling,” Alex recalls.

During the clinics Leigh also devoted time to problem solving, one of his specialities, including how to deal with horses that are hard to float, or are belligerent or pushy, or those that have become dangerous because they haven’t had the clear and unambiguous guidance from their rider that they needed.

It wasn’t long before the excellence of Leigh and Alex’s program was recognised by mindset coach and counselor Amy Watson. Amy joined them on the tour, expanding the scope of the training by coaching riders in her own sessions during each clinic. But in early 2020, the popular clinics came to a close when Alex fell pregnant (it’s a boy, he’s due in November, and no, his parents won’t divulge his name!).

So, using their Facebook page as a platform the couple took their program online in the form of a six week boot camp. With hundreds of riders from all over Australia and New Zealand joining the program, the Facebook offering has

been extended until the end of the year when it will be re-launched from the Burilda Park Equine website. The same methodical breakdown of horsemanship that guided Alex back on the path to confidence will then be available through a monthly subscription.

To accompany the Mindful Horsemanship program, the couple have designed a colour-coded lead rope with strategically placed markers to aid with the hand placements required during each of the program’s exercises. These are available for purchase through their website.

And if you’d like to attend a faceto-face clinic, you’ll be happy to know that Alex and Leigh are hoping to offer them once again in 2021, but this time with the addition of a very small cowboy to the team!

ABOVE: A Mindful Horsemanship clinic held at Eden Equine in Bilpin NSW (Image by Kate Gouldson Photography).

LEFT: Leigh working a client’s horse on a misty Hawkesbury morning (Image courtesy Burilda Park Equine).

To learn more about the Mindful Horsemanship program, contact Alex and Leigh through their Burilda Park Equine Facebook page, or visit their website www.burildapark.com.au

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