Three things shaped James’ experience that makes him the incredibly gifted teacher he is today:

1. CHRONIC INJURY 

By the time he was aged just 30 James suffered from knee injuries and chronic lower back pain. Determined to avoid surgery James learned how to heal his body through the healing arts of Ba Gua, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Laing Gong and how to prevent re-injury by using his body in a completely different way.

2. BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER CAN BE BEATEN (BY OLD LADIES!)

In 1996 James met a teacher that would change his life forever. Wen Mei Yu, a 68 year old petite Chinese woman showed him that no matter how fit, strong and well trained he was, none of that mattered if the body was out of balance and the mind is run by the ego. At the peak of his physical fitness and training in Kung Fu, this small and apparently frail woman put him on the floor effortlessly.

James understands the same principles which allowed Wen Mei Yu to topple him effortlessly can be applied to horse and rider. Meaning, a horse will always be bigger, faster and stronger than the rider and using strength to ride is a losing battle which results in disharmony, lack of connection and in the long term, injury to both parties.

Using strength and leverage, no matter how refined or invisible to the eye, is the traditional and accepted way to ride in every discipline.

3. GIFTED PERCEPTION

James always knew he was ‘different’ but did not have a label to describe his special gifts until relatively recently. Without an explanation for his profound gift, he did not speak about it publicly for many years. James has the unusual ability to ‘see’ from many angles simultaneously.

He sees this in pictures, 30 – 36 per second which gives him an incredible ability to assess the horse and rider almost in slow motion. James is also highly physically empathic, which means he feels rider tension and blocks in his own body. This gives him accurate knowledge of what is going on for each individual rider in real time and the fixes they need to release the tension. This is James’ secret to what appears to be miraculous changes in horse and rider that previously were thought of as unfixable.

Coupled with his highly developed sense of ‘knowing’ imbalance and tension in movement through years of observing martial opponents, James’ unique perception means he has profoundly accurate inner and outer vision for detecting blocks in the rider that directly affect the fluid and balanced movement of the horse.

DISCOVERING THE RIDING COMMUNITY

It was James’ sister, an accomplished dressage rider and trainer that introduced James to the horse world. In 1996, James was asked to do a weekend workshop at his sister’s barn to apply the healing, breathing and balance training techniques of Tai Chi and Ba Gua to riders which was an immediate profound success and the rest as they say, is history. 20 years later, James is a full time world-wide clinician whose body of work has grown way beyond the basics of breathing and balance.