About Backwater Ranch

Hi, I’m Kristy

I have always been obsessed with horses & nature. My passion for horses started when I got my first horse at 12 years old & I’ve been training & riding horses ever since.

After watching ‘The Black Stallion’ as a kid & realising it was possible to have such a pure connection with a horse - that they could somehow allow a person to ride on their backs with no restraints or restrictions & allow a person to direct their speed & direction with light signals - I embarked on my journey to learn how I myself could achieve this with my horse.

I always prioritise building a connection with my horses. I have six horses in different stages of development & I really love the journey over the destination when it comes to spending time with & training horses.

I want to be a person my horses love & want to be with, and I find it really rewarding to use as much restraint-free/freedom-based training methods as possible. I find the less we restrict & prevent, and the more we allow & acknowledge when we interact with our horses, the sooner those horses feel seen & heard & let down their walls, then we can really get to know each other with mutual trust & respect as the basis for our relationship.

I find horses help us feel seen, heard & felt on a deep level, that in itself is therapeutic. This is because in order to form a connection or bond with a horse, one needs to be present & in the moment, as horses won’t connect with us without them feeling that we see them on an emotional level, as well as an energetic level.

By ‘energetic’ I mean the actual energy emanating out of a person to the horse, and also us feeling their energy, learning their boundaries & allowances. Being outside in nature, tending to the needs of ‘other’ is good for the soul.

This is what has come to be the heart of what we do at Backwater Ranch - enhancing quality of life through the practise of ‘being in the moment’.