After almost disappearing from the horsemanship scene here in California for the last six years, Leslie Desmond is back on U.S. turf. For most of the coming year, she will work with her students that train horses and offer instruction in horsemanship through feel.
Leslie plans to divide her time between her students in California and what she calls her “hideout” in Oregon, where she will complete the print version of her audiobook, Horse Handling and Riding Through Feel, which was released in May 2006.

Riding: How long have you been living abroad, and why did you go?
Leslie: Back in 1995 I had the opportunity to coach a woman who kept several Arabs and ran a small boarding facility outside Stockholm, Sweden. I discovered that the ratio of horses to people in that country is extraordinarily high. With a population of nearly nine million people and between 350,000 and 400,000 horses, there was a gap to fill. It feels wrong to turn away from people who ask for help.
Aside from that, I have to say the Swedish countryside is reminiscent of the landscapes that were common in the U.S. back before suburbia sprawled across it. I was raised in the country, so it was a welcome invitation in that respect as well.

Riding: With all the travel, and living in a foreign country, do you manage to keep a horse?
Leslie: Yes, I still have two mares here in the States, both of whom I started and look forward to working with again. A little Quarter Horse mare named Cali San Benito has been living in Colorado, and a Paint mare that taught me quite a lot is turned out with about 60 others at a friend’s farm in upstate New York.
The third horse I don’t really know too well. Our paths crossed as I was leaving for Sweden last March, and he needed someone to step up for his expenses. Luigi seemed like a good name for this snorty, stout young cast-off from the Premarin industry. My plan is to use him in the mountains and get him good around cattle. I will gather all these horses up when I get home and see if they are rideable or not. They could be about half-feral by now.

Riding: When did you begin coaching trainers, and why did you decide to do that?
Leslie: I started coaching instructors of children here in California about 12 years ago. After a while it seemed like a good idea to put some basic concepts together in a video series, which I did in 1995.
I was criticized left and right by people who felt I should aim at a larger audience than children, but I still feel that there is a child in us all that can learn faster and better than the adult that many of us have become.
Learning as an adult from an adult that you admire and respect is something that many people find difficult. For some it is impossible. I had awful battles with myself over this issue of learning new things, but the worst part of it was the unlearning of unconscious habits, the physical and mental/emotional patterns that I had learned to have around horses.
The aspects of my horse handling and riding that I formerly considered skills or even “natural talent,” because others had said so, were a nightmare to defend, demolish, live up to, discard. It was a whirlwind there for a while.
Then there was the agonizing process of convincing the muscles that they must forget a lot of what they had learned so well.
One day I realized a lot of other horse trainers and riding instructors were having the same dilemma, but they had not had the good luck I did when it came to instructors.
The clear need for coaching other coaches became apparent when they would come to watch me teach their own students at a clinic somewhere, or come to a demonstration and then write or call for further clarification of whatever held their interest at the clinic.
I soon realized that giving advice to someone you don’t know who is having trouble with a horse you cannot see or handle is not the best way. I made the decision four years ago to start working exclusively with coaches and trainers, horse handlers from any discipline, who want to learn how to get along with their horse better. So far it’s been terrific.

Riding: What is the most common problem you are asked to help with?
Leslie: Perhaps the most difficult job for a trainer is to help their beginning riders and first-time horse owners who purchase young horses understand how to position themselves, and to act, around a horse using feel. Nowadays most people are getting their horse training information from magazines, DVDs, and Internet discussion groups.
While it seems that capable clinicians are holding events all the time and just about everywhere now, for someone who cannot grasp the nuances of timing and feel, a large public clinic for a shy or unsure rider with a new horse is just too short a time.
One has to be around a reliable source of advice for a long while before some things sink in and stay in an accessible place. Most of the time, it’s just a person and their horse, and the many questions that both have about the other, and a lot of these rarely get answered in time for things to develop smoothly.
I enjoy helping trainers who have students and horses involved in this common and sometimes irritating dilemma. The best place for this sort of clinic is outside, where you have access to a huge arena, roundpens if need be, and a lot of time to ride and relax with the horses in nature. The horses and the people can unwind and be themselves, and we take it from there.
I take only 10 riders, for a minimum of five days. We get a lot accomplished and we have a great time doing it. When we have it like this, those who come to watch are not adding pressure to the situation as is sometimes the case in a regular clinic format.
Instead, the auditors become part of the experience in a valuable way. After we ride, we build community and share ideas, experiences, and the seemingly wide gaps between students and teachers, trainers and owners, wanna-bes, oughta-bes and gonna-bes just melts away . . . because we all love horses.
To contact Leslie Desmond and/or to learn more about opportunities to work with her, please visit www.lesliedesmond.com.