JODIE KELVY
Managing Director
Creator of ‘Sixth Sense Horsemanship’™
Horse and Human Education
About Jodie
Jodie’s passion for horses never had a beginning it was always there. She was born in the City of Melbourne where apart from the odd trail ride and pony lead the only time spent with horses was in her dreams. She would constantly dream of horses.
At the tender age of 6 years old, her mother passed away and her father and 2 sisters made the move to 20 acres in the country town of Echuca.
She had an amazing father who while bringing up three little girls on his own still managed to buy her a horse called Silver for her 7th birthday.
Silver was a dream come true. A beautiful dapple grey Welsh mountain pony. She would call out Silver and he would come galloping to her every time!
A few months they shared together before he died of a snake bite, breaking her heart……wide open!
This marked the beginning of her life lessons through the way of the Horse.
From that day on she was driven to learn from as many horses as possible…not just the one.
Horses have a way of keeping us real and the lessons they gave her were very tough.
Having little parental guidance with horses growing up, she went on to discover most lessons the hard way through constant trial and error and help from Angels (there must have been for her to be able to walk away at times!) she learned a lot of what works and what not to do and over the years has refined her techniques and can easily explain through experience why she does it that way.
By the time she was 11 Jodie had started/ broken in her first horse. At 12 years old she was working weekends and school holidays for a local breaker/ pre-trainer named Denny Oliver. During this time, she was able to learn with all kinds of horses always under the experienced guidance of Denny.
She finished school and travelled Queensland working as a Jillaroo on large sheep and cattle properties. During this time of her life, she spent a great deal of her time working stock with horses and her team of dogs, gaining experience of overseer where she led other Jillaroo’s and Jackaroos.
Following her urge to learn more about life and horses she left the outback and travel Australia working in the thoroughbred racehorse industry and at 25 years old learned to ride track work on Racehorses. This experience challenges everything she had ever learned up to this time about horses.
Jodie’s experience with horses in the past had come from a perceived physical nature so she struggled both physically riding the horse and falling off a lot! Despite her getting fitter and stronger, she still struggled to influence these athletes of speed. Something was amiss.
. This started Jodie on a deeper journey into her awareness with horses. She discovered she had to become one with the horse and needed to be a follower before she could become the leader.
Realising this truth Jodie decided to become a student of the Horse.
The Horse became her teacher.
Spending years collaborating with different racehorse trainers and horse breakers all over Australia she discovered how ugly things can get when intimidation and force replaces trust and honest communication and what very little understanding a lot of horse people truly had about the nature of the horse.
This prompted her to leave the industry and start her own business “JKS Horse Sense School” in Port Hedland ,Western Australia where she educated horses and people.
Jodie is now back in her hometown of Echuca and in 2007 Established HorseHand Pty Ltd.
It has been a fulfilling journey for Jodie learning about the way of the horse. She is passionate about helping people to discover their own potential and learn the truth about horses.
“I believe that learning to understand horses helps us to unravel the mysteries of our own existence. As we take the journey to learn to communicate effectively to our equine friends, we become more aware of our influence within the universe.”
– JK