The joy of connection
Heartland Equestrian’s Kim Thompson is a Liberty work coach, performer and trainer. AMANDA MAC spoke to her about the things near and dear to her heart.
When Kim Thompson, based in Buln in Victoria’s east, began training in Equine Therapy, her relationship with horses underwent what can only be described as a profound shift.
Influenced by her mother, Kim grew up around horses. They have always been her passion and some of her earliest memories are of trail riding in the bush with her mum. “I went to the local Pony Club too, and I was quite competitive in eventing with a horse I’d bought at a market when I was 13. She was an off the track Thoroughbred who hadn’t been retrained and was the craziest horse there.”
Kim’s mother, concerned for her daughter’s safety, initially vetoed any idea of bidding on the mare, but Kim’s determination eventually won the day. “We went to find the buyer and I had to offer him $100 more then he’d paid to buy her from him,” Kim laughs.
After retraining her new and somewhat self-opinionated mare, together they went through to Pony Club’s top eventing levels. But despite her success, Kim, recognising the intense competitiveness of the sport, decided not to pursue a career as a competition rider. Although she knew horses were always going to be a part of her life, she had to make a living and opted to follow up on another interest by studying orthodontic therapy at Melbourne University – at which point horses had to take a bit of a back seat with riding a weekend-only occupation.
After graduation, Kim worked in orthodontics for around 16 years, eventually launching Heartland Equestrian as a part-time venture in 2017, and shifting to it in a full time capacity when COVID changed life as we knew it.
Over the years, she had remained a keen competitor in eventing and show jumping, but it was after a personal trauma and the realisation that her horses had played a pivotal role in helping her to heal from that experience, that she felt prompted to study Equine Therapy.
Having never been previously involved with Liberty training, the course was her very first exposure to being able to work with a horse free of any equipment. It was the understanding and the lightness of that experience that shifted her perspective of why we do things with horses and how much gear we use on them. “I started to understand a different way to be with horses,” Kim explains, “and that’s why I started Liberty training and bitless and bridleless riding. Up to that point I had been very traditional in my thinking, but seeing a horse work at Liberty made me think outside the square and I began to love that aspect of being with a horse, creating a connection with them that for me, was magical.”
Feeling as if this was the missing piece in her horsemanship, Kim started investigating Liberty more deeply – and her progression from that initial first experience is an interesting one. It began here in Australia with natural horsemanship, which was Kim says, mainly based on the Parelli approach: “But that didn’t completely resonate with me because I was trying to achieve lightness, and I found that some of it wasn’t as light as I’d have liked,” she says.
Next, she contacted a number of Liberty practitioners in Europe. “One of my biggest mentors was Frenchwoman Alizée Froment, an internationally recognised Grand Prix dressage rider. She was working in both Liberty and bridleless and I started to implement some of the concepts I learned from her,” Kim tells me.
Next there was Melanie Ferrio-Wise, a bridleless rider competing in America, and both she and her then husband became mentors on Kim’s journey. She also connected with New Zealand’s Alycia Burton, another advanced level bridleless rider, and while she wasn’t formally trained by any of these experts, she learned enough to start working out a system that suited her situation. “Because I have nine horses, all with different personalities, I had to figure out the best approach to connection training for each of them as individuals,” Kim says.
As her understanding of Liberty and bitless/bridleless riding grew, it began to have a significant influence on her involvement in competitive riding, which by then was predominately show jumping. “I started taking my ego out of it and questioned why I was competing. I really had to have a hard look at myself.”
At the time, Kim had just bought a horse to compete with at a high level, but after being ridden by his previous owner in an extremely strong bit, when she got the horse home she found she couldn’t control him. “So I decided I had to find a better way, and I ended up being able to ride that horse over big jumps bridleless. It took quite a lot for me to understand that it was relationship that mattered, and not the gear,” she explains.
For Kim, working at Liberty and bridle-less riding is all about our connection with our horses, and that in turn comes down to our energy. “It’s the self-mastery of our emotions and how we’re feeling. If we’re in a positive space and emitting emotions like love, calmness and relaxation, the horse feels secure. Conversely, if we’re anxious or fearful, it creates an atmosphere in which they feel unsafe,” she says.
This foundational understanding proved to be a game changer when she purchased Yardan, a Friesian who had put his previous owner in hospital. “Because he was a bolter, I need to be calm and confident for him to allow me to ride him in the way that I now can.”
And that’s the approach Kim instils in her clients: “I don’t just teach physical aids, I also teach mental and emotional aids. So, although I don’t work specifically as a therapist, Equine Therapy coincides with what I do. Liberty and the connection training all blend together. My clients all have different stories and horses help us to heal naturally, no matter what we have gone through. I believe that the connection side of it is part of that healing,”
Kim loves to showcase what’s possible and regularly gives Liberty and bridleless performances at Kryal Castle, renowned for its Baroque Horse Festival and jousting tournaments. Her first performance there was with Yardan followed by one with his half-brother Wylder, another rebellious Friesian who she rehabilitated. But the connection she achieves with her horses is, she believes, possible for everyone, and the moment when one of her clients first makes that magical connection with their own horse is pure magic for her too: “It’s just incredible, I can’t begin to tell you. And for that rider, they’re on a high for days sometimes, completely overwhelmed with the changes that they experience. It’s just such a beautiful thing to witness.”
But there’s another issue that’s very close to Kim’s heart. When she first presented as an educator at Equitana in 2022, she noticed that those headlined as ‘Star’ presenters (as opposed to those in the lesser paid Educator roles) were predominantly male, and that the situation was much the same in that year’s Outback Spectacular. “I was really surprised, because this is a female dominated sport, so why weren’t there more women in these roles?” And, Kim notes, nothing much has changed over the intervening years.
Wanting to seek guidance on how to correctly and appropriately advocate for positive change, she contacted Dr Emma Fulu, Director of the Equality Institute at the International Women’s Development Agency, and has now launched an awareness campaign designed to work towards addressing these gender imbalances. “I have absolutely no objection whatsoever to male presenters,” she stresses, “but in a female dominated sport, surely we should see more women in those star presenter roles – particularly when there are so many amazing female presenters in Australia. For me, it’s all about showcasing women’s talents to help and inspire other women to be their best selves.”
And who would argue with that.
For more information, visit Heartland Equestrian, or follow Kim on Facebook.
