I was honoured to have a page dedicated to me in the latest Intelligent Horsemanship (IH) magazine. My story is a small part of a huge movement to work with horses in a non aggressive way – I was lucky to have found my starting point with Monty Roberts, move on through some IH training, and then find my real world using the therapy which we all know and love to help our equine friends, myself and other veterans – please stand up Mr Jim Masterson!

We are all living in uncertain and difficult times and I have been in isolation since 2 weeks before the official lock down in the UK. There are a few reasons for this: our daughter was expecting twins and we needed to be available to look after her eldest daughter (that turned out to be 5 weeks until the babies were fit enough to come home); the other main reason being that I was waiting to have an ICD (defibrillator) implanted in my chest – just in case my heart decided to do silly things – this operation was carried out last week (10th June) under a local anesthetic which gave me the chance to use some great breathing techniques to help keep me calm. This has gone well and expect to outlive you all! It will be a few weeks before I am able to think about returning to the stables.

As a one legged veteran with PTSD etc the quicker I can get back the better – as we all know, we have to be calm to use the MM to its’ fullest advantage, this naturally keeps me calm and ‘in the moment’. Totally focused without the buzzing in my head waiting to explode. Many other symptoms have diminished as well – this enforced break isn’t helping but I’ve managed to maintain my humour and stay out of ‘dark places’.

At the end of the day Jim, without realizing, has given me a fantastic way of helping horses, helping other veterans and keeping myself sane. Not a bad result really. Oh yes I must also mention all of the lovely, helpful people I have met on the way – the other students; our mentors; the owners but most of all our equine friends – thank you to you all.