Jackie became a Parelli Professional in 1999 and taught the Parelli Program worldwide over more than 21 years. Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jackie was passionate about helping horse lovers gain the knowledge and skills to have fun, stay safe and excel in the equestrian world beyond their wildest dreams.
Jackie was a 4 Star Senior Instructor, Horse Development Specialist and Finesse Specialist with the Parelli Professionals team. In her later years she pursued a new direction with Linda Parelli and the Happy Horse Happy Life programme, where she was certified as an Instructor and Mentor.
Based in Christchurch, Jackie ran 1–5 day courses for all levels and abilities as well as private and group lessons and Progress Weeks catering to individual or group needs. She had taught at all of the Parelli Centres around the world — the US Centres at Pagosa Springs and Ocala, the UK Centre, and the Australian Centre — in lead teaching roles. As one of Linda Parelli’s most experienced instructors in the field, Jackie had a rare talent for teaching and presenting natural horsemanship concepts in a way that helped riders progress and achieve their dreams with horses.
Jackie’s journey
After attending her first Parelli clinic in December 1996 she never looked back. With a background in showing, dressage, show jumping and eventing, Jackie’s move into natural horsemanship seemed to happen by accident — she went along to a clinic thinking she might learn how to handle young and difficult horses with more success. Little did she know it was about to change her whole life.
“In the first half hour of that Level 1 clinic I realised just how much I didn’t know about horses. How could I have expected to get extraordinary results with horses if I didn’t even understand how they feel, think, act and play? I learnt that horsemanship could be obtained naturally through psychology, communication and understanding — rather than mechanics, fear and intimidation. At the time I had a very difficult thoroughbred ex-racehorse, Archie, with a lot of emotional displaced behaviours causing him to be extremely sensitive and unpredictable. Nothing was easy. By following Pat Parelli’s system I gained much more insight into horses, and learnt that if difficult situations came up I now had the strategies to diffuse them. I had discovered the Parelli system would not only fix problem horses, but more importantly, problem people. It was my responsibility to learn to communicate in a way my horse could understand. It was the relationship that needed fixing.”
“The results started speaking for themselves and I began to actually enjoy being with my horse again. It had taken away the frustration and I found myself setting more goals and having more fun. I had realised that before I could expect my horse to dance with me, we needed to have a strong foundation — a partnership.”
Jackie qualified and was accepted into the Parelli Professionals Instructor programme in 1999 after flying Archie to Australia to study directly with Pat Parelli. She continued to study overseas with Pat and Linda Parelli every year to stay progressive with her own horsemanship and to attend instructor training.
In May 2002 Jackie travelled to Montana, USA to study with Pat Parelli and Ronnie Willis on the topic of starting young horses under saddle. She was awarded certification as a Parelli Horse Development Specialist before being invited to stay on tour with Pat and Linda as part of the tour team, assisting and demonstrating at Savvy days and horse fairs across the United States. Then it was on to the PNH International Study Centre in Colorado, where she gained valuable teaching experience working alongside the Parellis’ top instructors on a daily basis. Jackie returned to New Zealand later that year with her 3 Star Instructor status. From 2003 to 2011 she travelled to the UK each Northern Hemisphere summer to teach clinics at the UK Parelli Centre and throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as presenting and demonstrating at large horse shows for Parelli.
In 2009 Jackie became the first Parelli Professional in the Southern Hemisphere to be awarded her Parelli Level 4 horsemanship — a remarkable achievement, earned with Archie at age 23, the horse that had brought her to Parelli in the first place. In June 2010 she was awarded her 4 Star Senior Instructor status for the experience and achievements gained through her dedication, passion and loyalty to the Parelli programme.
Archie sadly passed away in April 2010, but he will be remembered always for the inspirational demonstrations he and Jackie performed together. The short tribute below was made in his honour.
A tribute to Archie — the horse who started it all.
In September 2011, after intensive study with Linda Parelli, Jackie was certified as one of only six Parelli Instructors in the world to teach The Game of Contact, and later the Finesse Training Sequence and The Precision Box. She was deeply passionate about this revolutionary approach to riding with contact, and about bridging the gap between natural horsemanship and the dressage world. She went on to teach Game of Contact clinics at the Australian Parelli Centre and throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Rocky — Astek Rockafella
Jackie purchased Rocky as a 2 year old in February 2009. By Ramirez (Holsteiner) out of a Thoroughbred mare called Zara, Rocky was a high-spirited left-brained extrovert with right-brained extrovert tendencies. To many he would have been too much of a handful with his energy — but for Jackie, he was her perfect partner.
“He was unspoiled, a fresh clean slate from the stud where he grew up in a herd. Having the chance to put a great natural foundation on my future super horse was such an exciting experience for me, having had such a challenging journey with Archie and all of the other horses (teachers) I’ve had the pleasure to learn from over the years. Rocky is a super learner — if you present things to him the right way. He has such an active mind and loves to be challenged or he is easily bored.”
Rocky reached a solid Parelli Level 4 in all savvys and became a great demo horse along the way. After a year and a half off while Jackie was pregnant and caring for her baby boy, in July 2015 she took Rocky to his first dressage competition — placing second in his first test and winning his second with a score of 73.4%, a wonderful start to his dressage career.
