During her whirlwind trip to South Africa, SA Horseman was privileged enough to catch up with Kelly Marks and to find out a little more about this remarkable horse(wo)man, teacher and advocate of intelligent horsemanship, and author of numerous books.

Kelly was lucky enough to grow up around horses. Her father, Douglas Marks, was a racehorse trainer in Lambourn, England. Nevertheless, Kelly had to wait until she was 11 before she was given her first pony.

Initially she competed at show jumping, but later became a professional jockey. It was when she retired from race riding that she met up with Monty Roberts, “father” of intelligent horsemanship, for the first time. Intelligent horsemanship is the name Monty gave to his kinder and more natural approach to the “breaking” and training of horses.

After spending some time living with and observing wild Mustang horses and their beha­viour and communication, Monty began using their own “language”, based on their natural herd instinct, behaviour and body language, to communicate with them. Kelly would become Monty’s first authorised instructor in intelligent horsemanship, conducting courses at the West Oxfordshire College.

Kelly now travels the world giving displays and demonstrations with the help of her associate, Ian van den Berg and his wife. She works with horses with problems, as well as the owners. Many of the horses Kelly works with have been abused or have had some horrific experiences.

By “speaking” to the horse in his language, she is eventually able to provide him with a feeling of safety and security around people, replacing fear with trust. This is something she then helps the owner to do as well, so that the relationship can be forged.

During one of the displays she did in South Africa, one of the horses brought to her had a terrible fear of people. The previous owners had, among other things, castrated him without anaesthetic. After doing “join up” with the horse, they eventually managed to get a saddle and a rider on the horse. But, Kelly says, something like that is not fixed in a day. It is a process and, apart from the horse, she has to provide the owners with the tools to be able to continue the process.

Simply put, a horse is a herd animal and as such, is always inclined to look for a “leader” in whom to place his trust. In a human-horse situation, it is up to the human to provide the leadership in such a way that the horse will unquestioningly place his trust in the human and follow him.

In a herd situation, the worst that can happen to a horse is that he is ostracised from the herd, something that makes him vulnerable and open to outside attack. With “join up”, the aim is to first drive the horse away from the human, “ostracising” him and then to invite him back in. By knowing what signs and body language to look for, the human then, with his own body language, invites the horse to him, offering him protection.

If the horse is not ready to “submit”, he is driven back out again, until he is ready to submit to his leader – the exact behaviour and tactics that the leader of a herd in the wild will use. When confronted with this language which he understands, the horse, after a while, places the human in the position of leadership and will follow him without question, allowing himself to be handled, saddled and ridden, confident in the knowledge that this new leader has his best interests at heart.

Many will have seen the documentary Kelly made in the Namib Desert, where they caught and backed two wild Namib stallions. Kelly laughs when she talks about that. “It was so incredibly easy,” she says. They were horses who only understood their own language and responded without question when addressed.

The toughest horses to work with, says Kelly, are ones that had been bottle-fed and hand-reared. They have not had horse-behaviour imprinted on them from birth and have a whole repertoire of tricks up their sleeves.

When asked if she has ever come across a horse that she could not train, she says no, not in the way I mean. There are, however, horses that cannot meet the unrealistic expectations of their owners. Bad horsemanship, she says, is about unrealistic expectations, fights and egos. If one finds one person with many “bad” horses, one only has to look at what those horses have in common – the owner! Often one just needs to educate the owners and adjust the goal posts a little.

Kelly does a lot of charity work. On leaving South Africa, she was headed for India where she was to do some work with the working horses there, attempting to educate those that use them and to make the lives of the horses just a little easier.

When asked what message she would like to give to horse lovers, Kelly responded that everyone needs to learn to take responsibility and to take the time to learn how horses react. Don’t blame yourself, because by doing that, you achieve nothing and cannot help your horse.

Kelly on safety

When Kelly was six years old, she had a serious riding accident and she suffered severe head injuries and is probably lucky to be alive. As a result, she is adamant about wearing helmets when riding and even when working with horses from the ground. In her line of work, she says, she cannot afford to have to worry about her head around unruly horses. She urges all riders from whatever discipline, to take this seriously and to wear head protection at all times.