Amanda Wilson & Turbo
Amanda Wilson is a top New Zealand showjumper and horse trainer, having competed at the highest level in the sport as well as working with, and training, hundreds of different horses over the years with great success.
Her horsemanship approach is purposely set with the psychology of the horse in mind, which has been greatly benefited through her own study of human and animal trauma.
Amanda’s philosophy is to teach her horses to respond to questions asked of them through the thinking side of their brain; instead of reacting through survival responses. This technique produces very relaxed happy horses that are easy to teach and thrive in ridden work.
She has honed this ability through years of working alongside wild horses, (having tamed many wild stallions in New Zealand as well as Brumbies in Australia and Mustangs in America), studying the world’s best and starting countless horses of her own under saddle, since the age of 15.
Her passion is to bring more awareness to the psychological aspect of training a horse and how they process stress and store trauma. She hopes that her techniques will begin a new way of looking at horse behaviour.
Turbo is a 14hh, 3-year-old (rising 4-year-old) colt from Zone 20. He is named after his sire ‘Sprint,’ whose band often disappears from sight the moment a human is seen in the distance. He is a very sweet guy but can show a bit of a fight response at times but this is improving with every session.
At this stage he has had first touches and has learnt a basic draw and hind quarter yield but he has had sporadic work as I have been so busy. Most of the time he lives out in a big paddock with other colts.