"Hello, I’m Beth, a 39-year old from Sussex. Over the next four weeks I’ll be attending a “Fast Track” course at the Parelli centre in Florida, USA, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to blog about my experience here on H&C.

Although I rode quite a bit as a teenager (hacking out over the beautiful Ashdown Forest in Sussex) my horsemanship journey really started about five years ago when, after a long break from horses, I went on a riding holiday on Dartmoor and discovered this thing called ‘Parelli’. Little did I know it was to be the beginning of a much bigger adventure which led to me buying my first horse, a now 11-year old American Paint mare called Solero.

Bitten by the bug

I’d never heard of Parelli before I went to Dartmoor, but what I experienced there blew my mind and I just knew that I wanted to know more. So to cut a much longer story short (you can read some of it in my bio), here I am in Florida looking to improve my horsemanship skills further. I knew I’d arrived in horseville when the customs officer started telling me about his Tennessee walking horse and the taxi driver who took me from the airport to Ocala told me all about his Paso Finos, pointing out all the horse farms along the way – there are a lot!

Chomping at the bit

Today has been an opportunity to rest and acclimatise. After a brief visit to the Parelli centre with my housemates and fellow course members from Germany, I went to meet the horse who will be my partner for the next four weeks, a beautiful and sensitive 16.2hh Friesian mare. I then met up for dinner with 20 or so people also attending the course. Tomorrow we check in for the first day. In my next blog I’ll tell you more about the course and how our first week goes. I can’t wait for it to begin..."