Scottsdale, Ariz., was the setting in November 2006 for a tribute to one of the horse industry's most acclaimed ambassadors: Linda Tellington-Jones, a healer, trainer, inventor, teacher, mentor, author, Renaissance woman. The event celebrated the 30th anniversary of her world-renowned Tellington Method--a unique system for working with horses--with an educational conference and four-day training attended by nearly 200 people. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on the life of the woman who has dedicated herself to improving horses' lives through a philosophy that emphasizes compassion and understanding.
Horses of All Sorts
Linda Hood was the kid who got on the tough horses after they bucked off their riders. From the time she was 11, she would ride her pony, Ginger, home from school, and then head to Briarcrest Stables in Edmonton, Alberta, to ride three or four horses every day until dark.
"I was fortunate to ride for five years under the tutelage of Alice Greaves Metheral, a leading hunter-jumper trainer of the day," says Tellington-Jones. "My other good fortune was that during the winter we had education classes, where we learned details from the British Horse Society about training, breeding, judging, conformation, tack and breeds. It was a wonderful foundation when I became a U.S. Pony Clubs instructor and opened my own school for riding instructors."
Even as a child Tellington-Jones saw many horses buck early in their training, and she was dumped numerous times by animals who had had tumultuous starts. She reasoned there must be a better way, so she began ground-driving youngsters before saddling them. "I started my first horse when I was 12, with no bucking," she says.
At age 13, Tellington-Jones was teaching riding lessons and showing. By 15 she had retired the prestigious Calgary Herald Challenge Equitation Trophy after winning it three times. Stepping in for an injured rider that year, she earned the coveted Knock-Down-and-Out jumping championship at the Edmonton Spring Horse Show, clearing obstacles taller than 5 feet 2 inches.
From there, Tellington-Jones went on to compete in a remarkable variety of disciplines. She has won top-level competitions in endurance riding, eventing, dressage, Western events, jumping, steeplechasing and more. She completed her first of five Tevis Cup 100-mile rides in 1960, with her Arabian mare, Bint Gulida.
Guiding Lights
Tellington-Jones's grandfather, Will Caywood, had a profound influence on her. "He was a gifted horseman, and I grew up with the idea of hands-on with horses," she says. "My grandfather believed in letting a horse get used to you in his own time to develop a common trust." Caywood hummed, sang and whistled to horses to calm them and develop a relationship with them. He also introduced his granddaughter to the idea of using massage to improve their performance.
An equally positive force was Tellington-Jones's first husband, Wentworth Tellington. Before graduating in 1956 as an officer in the last U.S. Cavalry class in Norwich, Vt., he competed at Madison Square Garden on the U.S. Cavalry team. It was standard procedure for the officers to work their horses in the company of others, often making their way around obstacles as cannons were fired. The men also rode the horses out of the arena in a straight line.
Their techniques became the precursor of the Tellington Method's Playground for Higher Learning, a training course of obstacles that teaches confidence and cooperation. "When I began developing ground exercises," Tellington-Jones says, "I found that horses learned much faster when worked through a maze of six 10-foot ground poles that we call the Labyrinth."
An Emphasis on Education
In 1961, at the dawn of the era of the backyard pleasure horse, the Tellingtons established the Pacific Coast Equestrian Research Farm and School of Horsemanship, a nine-month residential school for riding instructors, in Badger, Calif. The students were required to show in Western pleasure and hunter classes, achieve at least a 50 percent score in a First Level dressage test, complete a 50-mile endurance ride and start a young horse without bucking.
"In 1964, Went and I realized there was a growing need to find a method for teaching adult beginner riders," says Tellington-Jones. "At that time, adults joined junior riders in classes, and this was very frustrating, because few adults have the natural coordination and ability that many juniors have. That's what made us decide to concentrate on equine adult education." Putting the concept into action, Tellington-Jones taught a series of eight-week evening classes for adult riders in the early 1970s at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
"Went encouraged me to share knowledge," Tellington-Jones recalls. "We coauthored the first book on equine massage and physical therapy in 1965. We also published a quarterly newsletter and wrote a monthly magazine column. I was inspired by his desire to make a difference in the world."
