Shana Walters

 I was born in Perth, Western Australia, in June of 1991. My early childhood years were spent roaming around the Norseman, Kalgoorlie, Leonora and Laverton districts of Western Australia, living in mining camps and bush camps depending on where my parents had work.

When I was 3 years old we spent 2 weeks on holidays in Esperance on the south coast of WA. It just so happened that the Esperance Agricultural Show was on at the time and the Swan Brewery Clydesdales were in town. This was the first time I had ever seen a horse and while I found them terrifying because of their size I was immediately drawn to them. My mum asked the driver if I could sit up on the cart while she took a photo. I still remember this as if it was yesterday. This is when I first fell in love with horses.

For the next 12 years we continued to travel around Western Australia but every birthday and Christmas wish list had “Horse” written at the very top! I had to settle for Horse Books instead and I ended up with a huge library of treasured horse books that I read many times over. One Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a video called, “Anky van Grunsven – Dancing with Bonfire” and I immediately knew I wanted to compete in Dressage!

I attended a variety of schools in my travels and homeschooled through Grades 7 and 8. I eventually attended boarding school in Esperance in 2005 where I was lucky enough to participate in the Horse Mastery Course. 

In 2006 we moved onto a farm 50km east of Esperance that had facilities for horses and on  my 15^th birthday I got my first horse “Laci”, a 7 year old bay thoroughbred mare who was off the track and hadn’t done anything for two years.
She was quite a challenge but I was just thrilled that I finally had a horse of my own! On our first ride she bolted on me and while the warning signs came up, I was determined to do my best with her.

One day we went into the feed store and while we were waiting I noticed there was a Parelli Demo DVD playing and the things Pat was doing with his horses was amazing, but I wanted to do Dressage and this guy was a cowboy, so I didn’t look any further. Later I saw an advert in a magazine for a rein attachment that would help me when Laci bolted so we went to the local feed shop to see if they had one, the girl over the counter recommended Parelli and gave me a few DVD’s to watch and offered to give me a lesson! I went home and watched the DVD’s and then went out and played with few things I’d seen, it was fun and helped with handling her but I was still not seeing how this was going to help me achieve my goals of Dressage.

A couple of months later there was a 4 day Ken Faulkner clinic which I attended, I was in tears every day and feeling completely hopeless as Laci pretended she was a kite, rearing, pulling, leaping in the air and running around in circles as I was trying to listen to Ken’s instructions. By day 4 though she was so worn out that when we played the circling game she went out and jogged around like a star, finally giving me something to smile about!

Laci and I continued to improve and develop our skills and in August 2008 we found Yogi! Our intention was for Yogi to be mum’s horse, a nice safe partner for her to enjoy the horsemanship journey with me as I continued with Laci. When an instructor, Karl Cook, started coming down from Perth each month we jumped at the chance to receive any professional help and our horsemanship improved greatly. After several months I was starting to develop some of my skills at the canter and as this was Laci’s limitation I started taking Yogi to these clinics instead. It wasn’t long before Yogi and I couldn’t be separated!

We started going to some shows as well, starting with some in hand classes at the local Ag Show where we won every single class we entered as well as Champion Gelding! We continued showing and in 2009 we won our district’s first ever Horse of the Year award!

After leaving high school in 2009 due to health problems, I commenced studying for my Bachelor of Science in Equine Studies with Breyer State University and at the same time explored business ideas that would allow me to continue in my horsemanship journey. Finally in late 2009 I was able to attend my very first Official Parelli Clinic with Louise Atkinson. I enjoyed it so much and felt that it was just perfect for me that I knew from that moment on I would only focus on studying Parelli.

Several months later in mid 2010 I was fortunate enough to attend a clinic with Sam Caporn which was another huge stepping stone for me as my horsemanship started to improve more and some ideas and options op ened up for me. It wasn’t long after when a friend offered me a ‘horse training job’, playing with and developing three of their Parelli horses every day, and in exchange they would help me by paying for me to attend the Fast Track in Sydn ey! After months of preparation I attended a Supa Camp in Perth that was held by then 5* Instructor Carol Coppinger, who truly inspired me and encouraged me further to pursue Parelli as a career.

In March 2011, Yogi and I travelled 4000km to the other end of the country for four weeks to attend the first ever Parelli Fast Track Course in Sydney. It was here that I was awarded my Level 4 and a 100% Scholarship to attend an Externship in April 2011.

After spending 6 weeks at the enchanting Florida Campus and another 6 weeks in Colorado, I was able to experience things I thought were so far out of reach. I met a lot of wonderful people, saw some amazing things and thoroughly enjoyed being immersed in the Parelli culture where I could completely focus on my horsemanship and horse development goals. It was in Colorado where I also had my 20^th birthday.

I returned home to Esperance in July 2011 and I am currently concentrating on developing and competing my 6 horses and as well as teaching as a 2* Parelli Professional Instructor.

It is my goal to promote Parelli by example, and to do this by competing in Olympic level Dressage, ultimately helping others make the world a better place for horses.