Jonathan Field

  The Story 
                                                    

What is Jonathan Field Horsemanship

In 2006 Jonathan took all the theory, skills and experiences from his life with horses and integrated them into his own method of teaching people how to become excellent with their horses:  Jonathan Field Horsemanship, Inspired by Horses.

Jonathan refers to his program as Inspired by Horses because it is the horses that inspired him to develop it.  It is a program designed with the horse in mind through every step while developing the relationship between horse and human, or Ultimate Predator with Ultimate Prey Animal.  Teaching you to think the way a horse thinks keeps your horse interested in you, allowing you to gain access to something very special - the ultimate relationship with a horse.

With Jonathan’s natural ability to communicate, he’s made his program fun and easy to understand in a step-by-step format designed to teach you how to achieve your dreams with horses.

 The Field Horsemanship Program begins with an 80% focus on teaching you the skills, abilities, talents and traits to become a horseman or horsewoman and use these skills to further your horse. The program is divided into five Courses: Leadership, Unity, Feel, Engagement and Purpose.  Within these five Courses are the simple and balanced lessons you and your horse need to achieve your goals, without force and without breaking your horse’s spirit.  As you advance your skills and build your horse’s trust and confidence, you will experience how the Field Horsemanship Program carries you seamlessly through Natural Herd Development techniques to establish your relationship, and into Natural Psychology-based Training skills, to advance your horsemanship into higher performance levels. 

This evolution has taken Jonathan beyond his dreams, and he’s not stopping yet.  He is a gifted teacher, presenter and horseman with a driving passion to share his message.  A message that is proving amazing results world wide, with the Field Horsemanship Program now being adopted in England, Ireland, Europe, Australia and all over North America.  Join us in this moment in history when mankind achieves higher horsemanship and appreciates these wonderful creatures for who they are and what they’ve done for us.  It’s a time of more humane methods and true understanding of the horse.

Who is Jonathan Field?

Jonathan's parents introduced him to horses when he was just a year old and he's been around them ever since. Growing up in the rural community of Bradner, British Columbia, Jonathan spent many evenings and weekends with his family and friends spending time with their horses.  In a helmet and jodhpurs riding his small, buckskin
Quarterhorse 'Wee Mite Buck' everywhere, jumping everything, racing friends on the trail and competing in the local 4H club.

At the age of 13, a trip to a cattle branding with his family changed Jonathan's focus, spurring him toward another path with horses. He was now determined to be a cowboy. For four seasons Jonathan worked at the historic Quilchena Cattle Company, one of the largest operating cattle ranches in Canada. He lived the cowboy life, nestled in a cow camp, riding the range every day, driving cows, branding calves — rain, snow or shine. Each day was spent in the saddle, and a teenaged Jonathan could imagine nothing better.

In 1995 Jonathan's family hosted a horsemanship demonstration at their ranch. Still a cocky, brash young cowboy, Jonathan wasn't prepared for what awaited him there. The demonstrator was Pat Parelli.  Witnessing the relationship between Pat and his horses really opened Jonathan's eyes to the possibility of a similar bond with his own horses.

Life so often shifts unexpectedly, and Jonathan decided to pursue a stable future with his family's water well drilling company and his cowboying days were delegated to occasional opportunities. However, a well-drilling accident in the bush, 20 minutes from the nearest town, changed everything. A 500-pound steel casing fell from 20 feet in the air after its supporting chain failed, landing on Jonathan's arm, crushing and amputating all but half-an-inch of skin on his left wrist. After nearly succumbing to blood loss and shock during the almost ten hours of travel by plane and ambulance, four doctors at Vancouver General Hospital decided to attempt the reattachment and rebuilding of Jonathan's hand and wrist. After a remarkable and successful surgery, Jonathan awoke in a haze in the hospital's plastics and burns unit, obviously uncertain of his future. The painful months of recovery were the beginning of a journey that would change Jonathan forever, leading him toward a life with horses and a new perspective on life overall.

A New Reality

While in the hospital, Jonathan came to the realization that he was done with drilling rigs. His mind kept returning to horses and to the dream of the connection he wanted with them. That vision gave him purpose and conviction, and Jonathan decided to dedicate his life to achieving that goal: To become the best horseman he could be.

With (future wife) Angie and family by his side every day, the next few months were a period filled with intense pain, more surgeries, and anxiety over what the future would hold.

During the following months of physical therapy and pain management, Jonathan's focus on recovery was played out minute-by-minute. The doctors performed a miracle with reattaching tendons, aligning bones and transplanting nerves in a surgery that was not possible even just four years earlier. The doctors phenomenally performed the technical work, but the future mobility of Jonathan's hand was entirely up to his dedication toward healing.

Struggling with the realities of his future and feeling sorry for all he felt he had lost, Jonathan was about to encounter the one thing he needed to hear in order to move forward.

Late one night while working on stretching and strengthening and martial arts with friend and Judo expert, Osamu Kasahara, talk turned to Jonathan's accident. Osamu sensed Jonathan's struggle and presented him with one of the most powerful thoughts he'd ever heard. He said to Jonathan, "You have two choices. To suffer or to heal. This statement hit Jonathan hard and forced him to face that the future was in his hands. He took control and made the decision to heal, and to be better for the accident, instead of worse because of it.

Jonathan's healing and growth now turned internal, and the mental challenges escalated. Because the accident happened so far out in the remote bush, Jonathan was forced to watch himself bleed out in the cab of a jeep while cradling his mangled hand against his chest while traveling over a bumpy dirt road. This experience left Jonathan with Post Traumatic Stress, punctuated with periods of re-living the horror through terrorizing flashbacks and nightmares.

Jonathan will be the first to admit that prior to the accident he was not a patient nor sympathetic man. Had he been faced with a friend in this situation, Jonathan's reaction would have been along the lines of "Get over it!," "Cowboy up" or "It's all in your head." Well, at that point in time, the trauma was all in Jonathan's head. Instead of ignoring it, he realized that his head was exactly where the next recovery needed to take place. With the direction of a clinical counselor he learned about things he had never even contemplated, and began the road to healing emotionally and mentally.

This path of personal growth is a huge contributor to the empathy and sensitivity Jonathan now displays with fearful horses and worried people. If not for Jonathan's decision to heal, he would not be as sympathetic as he is today, nor would he be such a compassionate teacher.