David Simons has been involved in the horse industry for over 20 years.
He began riding as child at Pony Club, Riding Club and competing in novelties
in the Geelong (Victoria) area. After leaving school, he travelled to the Northern
Territory where he worked as Head Stockman for a large company. This lengthy
stay, (approximately eight years) gave him a vast experience in all aspect of
horsemanship. He was responsible for mustering hundreds of horses that had never
seen man and then break them in using traditional methods.
On his return to Victoria, David knew there had to be a more humane, natural
and less frightening approach to enable horses to be broken in and fter an extensive
search, came across the 'John Lyons' method of natural horsemanship.
He intensified his search and gathered all available literature which he studied
and tested very successfully over the past six years.
In 1998 David spent seven weeks with John Lyons at his property in Colorado,
USA, where he underwent a one on one intensive accreditation program. This program
covered all aspects of John's training, which consists of round pen work, ground
control, ridden work and problem solving on many different horses.
David has found the John Lyons method to be tried and proven with all types
of horses and equine disciplines, promoting calmness, responsiveness and effectiveness
in its training.
David has now taken it upon himself to share his knowledge and help all horse
lovers to discover this new and exciting world of horse management. By combining
hiw own experiences with John's teaching, David has established a method that
proves ahy horse can be taught and trained in a non-threatening way. The end
result is a happy, responsive horse.
David lives with his wife Sandi and family at Drysdale near Geelong, Victoria,
where they run their establishment for private trainingm but much of their time
is now spent on the road as David has become a highly sort-after rider for both
entertainment and deminstrations at events such as Equitana.
David is one of Australia's leading horse and rider educators and conducts regular
clinics and symposiums all over Australia. His training caters for all disciplines
at all levels, and is easy for amateur horse people to apply.
Even today David is Australia's only accredited John Lyons Trainer.
LETTERS OF REFERENCE–JOHN LYONS SYMPOSIUM Inc July
1, 1998
To whom it may concern,
This letter is to serve as an introduction and recommendation to David & Sandi
Simons. For the last sixweeks, I have worked with David training horses here
at my place in Colorado. For most of that time, David and I have worked on a
one on one basis with horses that were at different levels of training. During
this time, I have gained a great deal of respect for David. David & Sandi are
both extremely committed to learning more about training and improving there
skills with horses.
David came here with a great deal of experience with horses already, however
he was very eager to learn more and was open to hear and try new ideas. To come
to the US for six weeks with all the costs incurred, leaving their children
and business to come and work with and learn from a person unknown to them personally,
demonstrates their commitment to their equine education. In today's world this
type of commitment is rare.
I found David very knowledgeable and experienced about horses when he arrived,
and an accomplished horseman and trainer. He rides well and demonstrated to
me that he cares about the horses he works with and their safety and cares even
more about the people he works with and their well being. He is a tireless worker
and is easy to be around. He puts as much emphasis on helping people work with
their horses as he puts on the actual training of the horse. He is willing to
listen closely to new ideas and has the necessary skills to implement those
ideas. David and I have spent many hours talking and riding together and I have
grown toÊrespect him as a person and his judgment both about horses and people.
For the reasons that I have already mentioned and because David is the type
of person who will always be learning and perfecting his skills, I would recommend
him to anyone looking for help for themselves and their horse. Some of the trainers
who come to learn from me get to a certain point in their education and develop
a closed mind. They become satisfied with what they have learned and actually
quit searching for and learning better training techniques. David is definitely
not like this. He is downright thirsty for knowledge. David has been able to
understand and implement ideas we have worked on together in a short time of
training. I have been very impressed by this, as most people I work with will
take a great deal more time to understand and apply these principles.
I like David as a person as well as a trainer. Sandi is a nice compliment
to David and will only make David better. Together, they are a great team. I
believe in both of them and think they will do a great deal to help both people
and horses. I give David and Sandi my highest recommendation. They are both
very special people.
Sincerely
John M Lyons
__________________________________________________________________________
To whom it may concern,
This letter is in regards to my new dear friends David and Sandi Simons,
who have been visiting and working with us this past month from Australia. What
a pleasure it has been to get to know them and have them here. They are very
kind, extremely humorous and easy to be around. I have enjoyed their company
immensely. I have found both of them very dedicated to learning and definitely
not afraid of long hours or hard work.
They both ride beautifully and seem most talented. I only saw Sandi a few times
astride a horse, but she has a wonderful seat and is most relaxed and competent.
Dave had his hands full with the mare he was training but never seemed frustrated
or angry with her. He just persevered with the exercises at hand. The horse
is much calmer now and on her first trail ride out, did very, very well. I'm
proud to call Dave and Sandi friends and I look forward to a long, lasting friendship.
I wish them all the best and can't think of any horse problems they wouldn't
be able to help with.
Good luck and may our Lord Jesus richly bless you and yours.
In His Love,
Susie Lyons & 'BJ'
All
material © David & Sandi Simons
