About Shannon
Shannon (age 3) & Dandee |
Shannon grew up in the Northwest, where she sat on her first horse at the age of three. By age 7, she was spending her days exploring the local golf course, countless farmer’s fields, and creeks, all from the back of a horse. If she wasn’t on a horse, she was pretending she was a horse. By the time Shannon was in her early teens, she had been in the local 4-H program for several years and started her first horse at age 12. Throughout high school, Shannon trained professionally in her small town, and continued showing both English and Western throughout the Northwest.
She continued to ride while in college, but upon graduation, she entered the United States Army to fly helicopters. Over the next several years, Shannon would try to get horseback anywhere she could. After 5 years without her own horses, Shannon asked to be sent to Texas. Within a year of arriving in Texas, Shannon had purchased Beau, her first horse since joining the army and was managing a stable with 25 horses, which brought her consuming passion for horse’s right back to the forefront.
Shannon (age 10) & Choco |
About a year after purchasing Beau, Shannon decided it was time to make a decision in her life, she wanted to leave the Army, and get back to working with horses full time. It was around that same time that she found two young paint horses who she bought as resale projects. The mare was quite troubled and kept her up many late nights thinking of new ways to get through and wondering how she could help this troubled horse with her fear of humans. She had tried everything she knew about horses, and even made new things up. Nothing was working with Roanie. Then late one night while standing in a dusty round pen in the July Texas heat, she realized she was in way over her head and thought about giving up. It was only then that this filly came up behind her and touched her gently on the back as if to say “please don’t give up on me.” It was clear that this was the horse that was going to cause her to truly explore and search for a new level in her horsemanship and her life. Shannon was looking for some answers and stumbled upon a book written by horseman Mark Rashid. She had never heard of him before, but something in the two titles spoke to her, “Considering the Horse” and “Horses Never Lie” She bought the two books, and after the first chapter of the first book, which was titled ‘the horse’s point of view’ she decided she was going to Colorado to ride with Mark Rashid. At that point she didn’t even know that fact to be true, afterall, she still didn’t know who this horseman was or if he did anything other than write wonderfully entertaining books.
Roanie |
In mid 2005, Shannon loaded Roanie into the trailer and headed north from Texas for the 1,000 mile trip to Colorado for a week long clinic. She was looking for a new start in many ways, for both she and her mare. She thought she was taking Roanie to a clinic to help her overcome her fears; however she learned the majority of the lessons that week needed to be learned by her, not Roanie.
Shannon has continued to ride with Mark Rashid two to three times a year since early 2005, and in the fall of 2008, accepted Mark's offer to become a "student teacher", which means she meets up with Mark and Crissi throughout the U.S and helps teach at various clinic venues. Shannon also travels throughout the U.S. teaching and working with riders and their horses, contact her if you are interested in booking horsemanship lessons at your location. Throughout this journey, her most important lessons came in accepting and trusting herself, and then getting out of her own way. Somewhere along this path, Shannon realized the beautiful connection which surfaces when the inside of the rider and the inside of the horse connect, something she had experienced unknowingly as a child as she worked with horses. She continues to learn from each and every horse and rider she encounters while she pursues her own true passion in life. She’s just riding, and sometimes life is just that simple.
