I have been interested in horses from a young age, obtaining my first pony at the age of 12. When I left school I worked in a large riding school for many years gaining my BHS exams and experience in riding, handling and caring for a number of different types of horses. I left the riding school to work as a sole charge groom on a show jumping yard for the next few years which gave me an understanding of caring for competition horses.

However I had plenty of unanswered questions about horse riding, training, psychology and care. At that time Monty Roberts had just gained a following in the UK and the natural horsemanship movement was still very much in its infancy. I have always questioned the accepted methods of doing things, looked at the history and reasoning behind them, whether they are appropriate for our horses today and the alternatives.

Knowing I would not find the answers in my present position I left to take a degree in mechanical engineering, continuing my studies into natural horsemanship in my spare time and practising on my own horses and friends that I have helped with their horses. A member of the Classical Riding Club for over 10 years and a member of the Equine Behaviour Forum, my other influences are Monty Roberts, Mark Rashid, Kelly Marks, Pat Parelli, Tom Dorrance, Richard Maxwell and Tom Widdicombe.

My interest into how we are affected by the products we use began when I noticed the effects on my own skin. Biological and most non biological washing powders leave rashes, most shampoos cause lesions on my scalp and clothing deemed as ‘easy care’ actually causes my skin to shed faster than a natural rate. The research I did into what is in these products and what it can do to us threw up some alarming results. A lot of the chemicals in the products have more normal uses such as anti-freeze and embalming fluid. The skin is very good at absorbing the products applied to it. Skin applied pain relievers are now marketed as it is so effective, and deodorants containing chemicals called parabens are linked with breast cancer just through absorption.

Looking for natural non chemical alternatives I discovered the Neem tree products made by Junglesale. The use of Neem makes the products very effective but without the problems I suffered with the chemical based ones. The horses skin is also effective at absorbing chemicals so I started to use some of the products on my own horses and found they produced excellent results and also very effective remedies for common problems such as thrush and white line disease.

In conjunction with Junglesale I have developed the Neem Tree Horse range to create a range of horse products using the properties of Neem and other natural ingredients as an effective alternative to chemical based products.