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My life has been spent with animals, I grew up with both pets and farm livestock and learnt with them from my earliest days. My first steps were taken holding on to a dog. Horses have also always been part of my life, starting with my parents' small holdings where we worked the land with heavy horses.

On leaving school I attended agricultural college and began a career in agriculture. I set out deliberately to experience as many different business situations as possible. All through this time I kept my links with horses but couldn't see a way in to the horse world that I felt comfortable with.

In 1996 I found an opening to what is now my vocation, equine behaviour. I left my job to attend college and to travel to America to study further. While studying the methods of Monty Roberts at West Oxfordshire college I was invited to study at his ranch in California. Having completed 6 months of working with Mustangs, Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, Arabs and foals, I was asked to return to the ranch and help establish Monty Roberts International Learning Centre and become one of the first teachers of his methods at the centre.

Hear Ben talk about his approach to working with equine behaviour.

After 6 months of teaching it became clear that there was so much more to learn than just one method. Monty Roberts' methods were restrictive to me and my learning. However, I will always be grateful for the learning this time gave me, working with the finest teachers, the horses themselves.

Now the journey to horsemanship really began. Beginning to read and understand the science of behaviour, to question everything I heard and to challenge conventional and "natural horsemanship" training. On returning to England I established with Emma Kurrels an equine learning business, Company of Horses. This business developed on reputation and by word of mouth because of the quality of teaching and integrity it offered. I travelled the world teaching and assisting horses. We taught workshops and trained people in Australia, Canada, Holland, Southern and Northern Ireland as well as throughout the UK.

Work has been undertaken for individuals and larger organisations including the Blue Cross, The Donkey Sanctuary, Duchy College, University of Chester, The Widdon Stud, Mulloon Creek Farms and the Dutch Donkey Society. Company of Horses provided me with enormous experience of the equine world and with the practical application of the science of learning. I have spent hundreds of hours training people and equines, and have encountered a vast variety of equine problems, which has created my understanding of the needs of the equine owner and their psychology.

As with all journeys there are many paths and unforeseen twists in the road.

Emma Kurrels is working on developing a new concept for the equine industry in the form of http://www.voicesforhorses.co.uk.

I look back at my time working with equines and where I am now, and I truly understand there is no quick fix or easy journey. I look at videos of my early work and beliefs and see how much I have changed and grown in my understanding of equines. I am grateful to many people and horses, donkeys and mules for their part in my learning. In looking back I am disappointed at the lack of understanding of behaviour in my early work, but I know we all start somewhere, I am so grateful for the learning and the journey to horsemanship. If I was still doing today what I started out doing, I couldn't be a teacher because I wouldn't understand the process of learning or the fears and concerns of the people I work with.

There is a saying, "a person can have had ten years doing a job but only one year learning, while another has ten years learning while doing the job"

Ben talks briefly about leadership and honesty with equines.