AboutOctagon
With over a decade of accredited coaching experience in the equestrian world, I pride myself in the ethos of keeping empathy at the heart of my approach to teaching, riding and horse care.
Specialisms:
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Eventing
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Dressage
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Young horse training/sales
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Exam preparation
Outside of my coaching practice, I have trained and worked under several 5* UK-based event riders - including Tokyo 2020 Olympic Silver Medalist, Kevin McNab (AUS) - in almost every role imaginable up the ladder, from competition groom, to mucker, to home exercise rider, to Head Person.
You can currently find me coaching and riding at equestrian centres and private yards across Vancouver Island, BC - get in touch for a friendly introduction and to find out more.
OctagonxIllamasqua
I recently teamed up with international beauty brand Illamasqua to talk about what beauty and pride mean to me.
Watch the video here for a glimpse into the mind of your local, proud transgender horse trainer, or watch the full film on Youtube below.
Background
Having started my life with horses by 'beg-borrow-stealing' any horse I could to join my local pony club, I have worked hard throughout my career to learn from the best attain the high standards of care, riding and coaching that I hold for myself today.
I was fortunate enough to be born to a young single mother who was studying at agricultural college for her British Horse Society exams. With no other horse-inclined members of the family, I spent the first couple years of my life attached to my mother's chest as she mucked stalls and eventually became a lecturer at the very college she started out at. I had plenty of access to horses as a child (after all, my free after-school club came in the form of sitting in cold feed rooms eating the horses' carrots), but was certainly not encouraged or pushed into riding for both ethical and financial reasons.
Much to my Mother's chagrin, the horse bug had bitten. I was allowed to join Pony Club at the age of 10 on a borrowed pony. At the age of 14 I was given my first serious competition ride by one of my mother's ex-students, and at 15 I became the youngest person in my area to achieve the Pony Club B test with distinction in every module. At 16, I became an accredited assistant instructor through the Pony Club, and two years later was fully accredited: all without ever owning my own horse or pony. By the age of 18, still horseless I had competed in and been placed at 8 National Championships in dressage, eventing, showjumping and tetrathlon. By the age of 21, I had taught at ten Pony Club camps, trained several students up to passing their B tests, and finally saved up enough money to buy my own young horse for the first time.
All this is to say - as a transgender, working class equestrian at the dawn of the end of my twenties - I fully believe in the transformative power that horses can provide for marginalised people. In a sport that can be so financially and socio-politically exclusive, I believe uplifting, supporting and advocating for riders from marginalised backgrounds is essential to the future of the industry.
