Michael Neumann - That's Me!
Born 1959 in Western Germany, raised in Eastern Germany due to my parents divorce, I’ve always been fascinated by the beautiful, majestic appearance of horses, the looks of horse with rider just thrilled me.
But my mother never allowed me to get even close to them, she was simply afraid I could get hurt by working with them, that’s why my only contact to horses as a child was gathering the horse droppings in our street for her roses…
I had to become 18years old to start my first job in the equine industry; I became a stable hand at a breeding and training facility in East Berlin.
But my mother never allowed me to get even close to them, she was simply afraid I could get hurt by working with them, that’s why my only contact to horses as a child was gathering the horse droppings in our street for her roses…
I had to become 18years old to start my first job in the equine industry; I became a stable hand at a breeding and training facility in East Berlin.
My first employer in the world of horses, Mr. Rolf Deichsel, I consider him to be the first natural horse trainer I had the pleasure to work with, most likely prevented me from seriously getting hurt or injured at the job by teaching me the gentle way of training horses, he’s been the first to tell me: ”You’ll never be stronger than the horse, but you can be smarter!”
This phrase has burned in to my brain, and until today I think of it, specially when I see a “horse person” standing in front of a horse, facing it while jerking the lead rope, screaming and yelling at the poor critter because it doesn’t want to go forward… |
In 2000 I left Germany and moved to the USA where I completely switched to the Western Riding style, it became more attractive to me because of a broader variety of competitions (and a more comfortable saddle too…).
Then, in 2001, I became the great opportunity to realize a childhood dream, with the help of friends in Mexico I organized and undertook a long distance trail ride, the Baja California southwards for 800 miles (about1300km) with just one horse and totally by myself. This ride actually became one of the highlights of my life; I got to experience close up what the first pioneers had to endure a few hundred years ago to explore the West of Northern America. This ride and later my work at different Endurance stables actually ignited my passion for Endurance Riding.
I’ve spent up to 10 hours a day in the saddle, and solved the entire distance in 26 riding days, with some days of rest of course for me and the horse, record has been one day with 79km (about 47 miles) because of the lack of water between two resting stops, the total weight including me, the saddle and equipment the horse had to carry has been just about 250lbs.
Then, in 2001, I became the great opportunity to realize a childhood dream, with the help of friends in Mexico I organized and undertook a long distance trail ride, the Baja California southwards for 800 miles (about1300km) with just one horse and totally by myself. This ride actually became one of the highlights of my life; I got to experience close up what the first pioneers had to endure a few hundred years ago to explore the West of Northern America. This ride and later my work at different Endurance stables actually ignited my passion for Endurance Riding.
I’ve spent up to 10 hours a day in the saddle, and solved the entire distance in 26 riding days, with some days of rest of course for me and the horse, record has been one day with 79km (about 47 miles) because of the lack of water between two resting stops, the total weight including me, the saddle and equipment the horse had to carry has been just about 250lbs.
After I returned to the USA I started to work for a number of different stables and ranches, permanently teaching and educating myself until I was capable of operating and maintaining a horse ranch with up to 60 horses unsupervised in sole charge in all aspects of horse work, usage of ranch equipment of all kind and the book keeping.
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During this time I as well deepened my knowledge in natural horsemanship / natural horse training by visiting clinics and seminars held by other well known natural horsemanship trainers, but first of all by hands – on – work and hours and hours of observation of horses and their behavior in their natural environments and non – natural environments people put them in to…
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