Deborah Davies
My life with horses is not just a career, but a burning passion and mission that is sparked from the very core of my being. From the time I can remember, all I wanted to do was be with a horse and to this day that is still my desire.
I began riding and working at stables in my home country of England before I was even a teenager. I won stable management and riding awards, belonged to Pony Club and remember spending endless hours learning about the care and training of a horse, but there was a gap for me. That gap was that I wanted to understand the horse from the inside out. To know him emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally. From that day my quest, along with my desire to ride, train and compete, was to understand all I could about the why’s and how’s of the horse’s mind, function, movement and responses, and today I am still learning from the horse, with the horse and about the horse. My business “Equine Self Expression, Understanding the Horse from the Inside Out,” reflects that deep soul calling that I still have within me.
After high school I completed my BHS training exams then travelled to Europe and spent several years as a working student, then apprenticing with several masters who had themselves trained under former classical masters such as Nuno Oliviera. I watched, I learned, I listened and I rode and that is what I have been doing my entire life and continue to do so. I am a perpetual student, first and foremost of the horse and second to the Masters who hold the highest regard for our noble equine teachers.
My earlier adult years were spent competing and training throughout Europe in both the dressage and show jumping realms, although 3-day Eventing was my discipline of choice. I had represented the UK as a Junior Event Rider yet the dance and flow of dressage was to me the foundation to all riding. In the 80’s I was invited by an Olympic showjumper rider to come to the USA, where I continued to ride and work on the international circuit, until I ventured out alone and started my own training and teaching facility, competing through upper levels in 3-day eventing and dressage.
Throughout this journey my soul calling to discover more about the horse from the inside out continued to push me out of my comfort zone, exploring avenues of horsemanship that I had not previously explored. Over the course of several years I spent weeks at a time out in the wild exploring, tracking, following, and learning from wild horse herds. The journey was as much an exploration of my own inner landscape as it was an inside view of the inner workings of the bands that I tracked. From orderly grazing to what appeared to be disorder at the water hole, I learned that it was all order; their order, balance, protection, harmony and loyalty. They changed how I trained, taught, rode, thought and lived my life. They taught me what I most needed to know about myself so I in turn could develop deeper bonds within the horse human relationship and work with them in their language.
My training and teaching changed with a deeper understanding of their natural environment and emotional rhythms, and was reflected in my work teaching from the inside out which took on another level as a rider and trainer. I began studying in the field of Quantum Energetics, followed by Cranial Sacral School and eventually Equine Osteopathy School, continuing to fulfill my desire to know the horse from the inside out. With the emotional awareness of the herd combined with an awareness of the biomechanics, viscera and nervous systems, my teaching, training and riding once again expanded.
Today I teach riding and correct posture in clinics around the globe and assist horsemen and women to recognize that not every issue is a training issue. With a deeper knowledge of the equine body and postural system, my students learn how to support their horse whether at the highest levels of competition or as a back yard companion, incorporating into horse care and training a deeper awareness of the mind and body balance, and our effect on the entire nervous system.
My passion and mission is to educate horse lovers, both professional and recreational, sharing the knowledge that I have been so fortunate to glean over the course of my career. A very important aspect of my programs is supporting students with their own personal growth, learning and healing through a series of workshops with the horse as facilitator. Finding our own personal balance and shedding the story that no longer serves us allows us to be more present both in our life and with our horses.
I have an educational facility in Indiana where I continue to learn and train based on the classical teaching of our great masters. I offer a multitude of lectures, clinics, functional support and body work for horse and rider based on my philosophy of teaching from the inside out. Harmony, balance, relaxation and emotional safety are the building blocks for all that I do and teach with both horse and rider.
Deborah Davies
Deborah’s 2024 Presentations
The 'Rubber Band' Effect of Your Horses Back! -
In this video, Deborah Davies offers a short explanation on the effect of the reciprocal apparatus of the horses back, using a rubber band as a demonstration of positive and negative movement patterns. Understanding this function can help students evaluate potential compensations in their horses, before basic movement, gait and inherent bio-mechanical disorders appear.
Three Foundational Steps Toward Riding A Shoulder Fore -
Does shoulder fore or shoulder in feel like a movement that is too
advanced for you and your horse? Or on the contrary, are you riding
a shoulder fore but noticing your horse is not relaxed, soft,
yielding, and perhaps losing rhythm or tempo? Or do you feel a brace
or tension in one specific direction, perhaps indicating your horse is
not connecting the 3 parts of his body that are required to work
together to perform a shoulder fore?
