About the Owner

I grew up on a small farm in Gauteng, where horses, animals, and hard work shaped every part of my childhood. My mother farmed fruit, vegetables, livestock, and crops, while my father ran a hardware business. From an early age, my siblings and I were expected to help with whatever the farm demanded, be it feeding calves, packing fruit, running the roadside stall, or caring for the German Shepherd and Toy Pom dogs we bred and raised.

But the horses were always my center.

Before I was even old enough for school, I was responsible for feeding them morning and evening. They lived out with the Jersey cows, so I learned early how to find them, bring them in, and earn their trust. If I wanted to ride, I had to catch the one horse I was allowed to ride and convince him to let me slip on a bridle. Saddles were optional. Training was minimal and mostly gleaned from reading everything l could about horses. Curiosity and instinct were everything.

As a teenager, I was given a five month old Anglo Arab filly. Without knowing it, I was practicing what would later be called natural horsemanship and liberty work. By the time she was a year old, we had a remarkable bond. She became my first event and dressage horse.

Much to my parents’ dismay, I declined university and chose a life with horses. I worked in a riding school, backed yearlings for racing, and eventually rode with the Lipizzaner team in Kyalami. In 1983, I opened my first livery yard and later ran a breeding operation within a larger yard.

My competitive career grew steadily. I rode my first Interprovincial dressage team event in 1994 and my first Prix St. Georges test in 1995. Over the years, I’ve represented my province multiple times, mostly on horses I backed and produced myself.

Early in my career, I realized something essential:
Riders are athletes.
Their bodies, minds, and nervous systems matter just as much as their technique.

This led me into the fitness industry, where I studied to become a personal and aerobics trainer and managed a gym while running my livery yard. I’ve spent decades exploring rider specific conditioning. Riders require strength, suppleness, balance, weight management, and proprioception.

My fascination with the rider’s inner world led me to become a certified Life Coach and NLP Practitioner. Today, I use NLP techniques to enhance rider mindset, confidence, biomechanics, and body awareness. The combination of technical riding skills, biomechanics and NLP mind training is powerful in rider development.

Across four decades, one truth has guided me:
The horse and rider are like dance partners – body, mind, and spirit. This applies to all riding disciplines.
My work is to help riders love the ride, while becoming the partners their horses will love.

And, because we love all creatures, we have a pet boarding facility too. While you are on vacation l get to play with your pets – all of them. Have a look at the Pet Resort section.

What Lynn says about training horses and riders

I grew up around horses on a farm and have always been responsible for the care of my own horses. I used to feel that if only l could have more lessons and have someone tell me how to ride an exercise or movement l would be sure to be able to do it. Then, l began to realise that no trainer could tell me how to do it. It takes more than that to be a good rider or a good coach, or even a good horse. The main ingredients are integrity always, along with tenacity.

Integrity – honest strong principles, whole undivided hard work, responsible, respect, trust, humility and consistent, patient assistance and service. That is integrity, and what all good coaches, riders and horses need to learn to offer as a team effort in order to produce excellence.

Tenacity – way better than talent, always ready to try again, and tomorrow yet again.

As a coach of riders, or a trainer of horses l am challenged to communicate the mix of science and biomechanics. Along with that goes the ethereal thing we call feeling, and a whole pile of horse and human psychology. I must direct all of this towards achieving the ambition of my client, and possibly lead them to achieve more than even they thought possible. All the while this needs to be presented in an enjoyable, stimulating manner with a healthy pinch of challenge for horse and rider. Not too much but just enough.

My pleasure in working with horses and riders stems from my own enjoyment of striving for excellence. Excellence is not defined by Olympic medals, but rather by reaching the ambition of the rider and maximising the ability and beauty of the horse. No ambitions are small.

In the equestrian world a good coach can change your competition, but a great coach seeks to change the life of both horse and rider. Always for the better, for both.