Ken Faulkner
Training & Horsemanship
Ken Faulkner was born in a small Australian country town called Stanthorpe where he grew up and worked around sheep and cattle stations. Ken acquired his first horse at fifteen, and began “starting” (breaking in) horses while still in his teens. Over the next almost fifty years, Ken has continued his life with horses – breeding, starting, training, showing, demonstrating and teaching.
Ken believes working with the horses’ natural instincts helps enhance the communication and bond between horse and human. He focuses on teaching horsemanship in such a way that it can be incorporated into any horsemanship discipline or program the rider chooses. He believes that creating a unique bond with your horse and building communication skills and understanding, enables you to enhance your horsemanship, and life skills. The result will be a horse that is mentally alert, physically willing, emotionally collected and creates a lasting partnership with the handler.
His life with horses has taken him to all parts of Australia and New Zealand as well as Europe, Asia and the United States. He continues his own education attending other clinician’s courses both in Australia and overseas and spending time comparing notes with the many and varied horse people he meets during his travels.
Ken’s clients both in Australia and across the world ride in many disciplines ranging from English and Western Dressage to Polo Cross, Camp Drafting, Eventing, Endurance Riding and Racing. Some of his clients have gone on to use his techniques to help people with emotional traumas or for communication and confidence building. Ken believes that learning how to use body language to communicate with horses and creating a bond can be a life changing experience.
This has been evidenced by the feedback received from the “Brumby Safari” that Ken conducts each year at his property in Somerset Dam. Clients are coached through the various stages of building trust and communication with a newly caught Brumby. In ten days the Brumbies progress from being wild, to willingly following their handlers and tackling obstacles together. The course usually ends with a happily tearful sit around the campfire comparing the wonderful moments together between horse and human.
In 2012 Ken showcased his skills winning EQUITANA’s The Way of the Horse. Although it was a competition, Ken considered it an opportunity to show the horse community a more humane way to break-in and train horses.
