The Reality:
Most professional horse trainers balance client lessons, travel, and financial commitments while trying to protect time for slow, deliberate training with their own horses. Psychology based horsemanship requires depth over intensity and depth takes time.
The Hidden Trade-Off in Professional Horsemanship
There is a conversation few professionals have publicly. It sits underneath the glossy competition photos, the polished arenas and the well-timed social media wins. It is the daily trade off between earning an income and investing slow, deliberate hours into our own training.
As I prepare for Brisbane 2032, I am deeply aware of this tension. I am 47. I have financial commitments which need to be serviced, and at the same time my pathway is built on a psychology based approach to horsemanship and this big dream of the Olympics. I am not chasing intensity; I am building depth. And depth takes time.
On the days my horses rest, I teach. I travel to properties and arenas across the Central Coast and beyond, working with students who adore their horses and want more clarity, softness and connection in the partnership. These days are a privilege. They are also the financial foundation that allows me to train approximately five hours per day across my own horses.
This is the reality for many professionals. The public often assumes successful riders spend all day riding their own horses. In truth, many of the most capable trainers are struggling to balance client lessons, clinics, travel, administration and family responsibilities. Slow training can be the first thing to disappear under financial pressure. I sure know how that feels.
What Psychology-Based Horsemanship Demands
Yet slow training is where excellence is born. James Wofford, US Eventing Olympian, Team Coach, Trainer and Author, wrote about the value of systematic preparation, building a horse’s understanding layer by layer rather than chasing speed or spectacle. Psychology based horsemanship mirrors this. We are shaping the horse’s emotional fitness before we ask for physical brilliance. We are training the nervous system as much as the body.
How Financial Pressure Erodes Horse Training
When financial stress enters the picture, urgency can creep in. Urgency tempts us to take shortcuts we would never ordinarily take. If we give in to that temptation, those shortcuts erode trust between us and our valued colleague, our horse.
But we don’t have to pick one or the other – our horse, or financial security. For me, the solution is not to reject earning, but to integrate it consciously. Teaching cannot be separate from my Olympic preparation. I use it to sharpen my own skills and continue my education with the best possible teacher, the horse.
Why Teaching Sharpens the Trainer
When I coach a rider through a brace in the reins, a horse who rushes fences, or a mare who pins her ears during saddling, I refine my own eye and timing. By articulating psychology based principles more clearly, I learn more deeply, teach more effectively, and ultimately do what I am here to do: help make the world a better place for horses and the people who love them.
In this way, every lesson becomes a mirror, not only for the student, but for me. I continue training myself even when my horses are not physically present. We all benefit from the work. This is where professional satisfaction becomes important. While income matters, it should not compromise our training – and vice versa.
Finding the Right Students for Your Journey
Some circumstances in life demand that we sell our time. But most of the time, a purely transactional professional life leads to teaching the wrong students, being mismatched as teachers, unsatisfying interactions, and a waste of resources, both time and money. Ensuring we, as trainers, match our students’ needs is essential. A mismatch, even one that brings financial remuneration, can quietly sabotage our own training. It can frustrate us, distract us, and cost us more in our connection with our horses than is immediately obvious.
For me, the path is clear. Every day I teach students and horses who help me refine my eye. Every hour I train or teach builds the depth of my understanding and capacity. Every choice I make either strengthens my own training or weakens it.
I choose to work with students whose generosity of heart supports my dreams as much as I support theirs, because my work is not really about us humans, it is about the horses. Yes, students pay me for helping them overcome their challenges, but they also know that with me, they are part of something bigger.
Connection Before Correction: A Broader Shift
Together, we are demonstrating that every horse matters from a paddock ornament to a high-level performance horse. Whatever we do with our horses, it does not need to cost them their emotional wellbeing. Together, my students and I are showing that psychology based training can sit alongside ambition. We are a team, a family that supports one anothers’ goals and dreams. By showcasing psychology-based principles in both training and competition, we are part of a broader shift in horsemanship; connection before correction.
And that is something worth building, slowly and deliberately, together.
Key Takeaways
- Slow training is where excellence is born—we shape emotional fitness before physical brilliance
- Teaching sharpens a trainer’s eye and timing, making it part of Olympic preparation, not separate from it
- Financial pressure tempts shortcuts that erode trust between horse and rider
- Matching with the right students supports both their goals and yours
- Psychology-based training sits alongside ambition: connection before correction
Frequently Asked Questions
Psychology-based horsemanship focuses on shaping the horse’s emotional fitness before asking for physical brilliance. We train the nervous system as much as the body, building understanding layer by layer rather than chasing speed or spectacle.
Many trainers use teaching days to sharpen their own skills. By coaching riders through challenges like bracing, rushing, or resistance, trainers refine their eye and timing—making every lesson part of their own development.
It means prioritising the horse-human relationship and emotional wellbeing before focusing on performance outcomes. This approach demonstrates that ambition doesn’t need to cost horses their emotional wellbeing.
About Merja Sumiloff
Merja is Australia’s only psychology-based horsemanship coach, a Certified MBTI® Practitioner, and the only Australian Happy Horse Happy Life Instructor (certified by Linda Parelli). She is currently training for Brisbane 2032 while coaching riders across the Central Coast and beyond. Her book *Safe Spaces* is available on Amazon.
