Alena Seidel
Ingerid Fosli
Ingerid came to us as one of our very first working students in 2017/2018. When she was having a break from her Master's degree, which she was doing in California. She started riding as soon as her parents let her, but has never owned her own horse. Her main duties included horse chores, and nannying for Piper, but she also had time to ride when she wanted. Here's what she has to say about her experience:
We have had many working students over the past few years who have been from a wide range of countries and have all had great learning opportunities with us during their stays.
Some of our working students have gone on to run their own training business back home, such as Damien McNickle from Ireland who was able to compete in the 2018 Australian Brumby Challenge alongside Georgia during his time with us. Damien now runs his own business training horses back in the UK.
Others have undertaken other careers in the horse industry, such as Holley Pickin who is training to be a farrier.
Alena spent time with us as one of our fist working students in 2017 and 2018. She has a background in dressage, as well as training her own rescue horse. She grew up in Germany, where she's been riding since she could walk. Alena came here as part of a gap year after finishing high school. While here, she spent a lot of her time working and riding horses as well as helping with Piper.
Past Working Students
As part of our expanding business, we have had many working students since 2018. Our working students have a variety of roles, based on their abilities and interests, but the focus in recent times was for Georgia to have help with the day to day running of the business from feeding and caring for the horses to assistance with riding and training clients horses and our personal horses. We currently are not offering many working student positions due to a change in structure of the business to instead having a formal assistant trainer position. However we will still consider applications from individuals who are very dedicated to their horsemanship and wish to learn in a working student position alongside Georgia and any assistant trainer/s.
If you are interested in being a working student please email us at g.c.natural.horsemanship@gmail.com.
I've really enjoyed and appreciated my time with Jimmy and Georgia. I've learned so much from them, and they're great people. One of the first things Jimmy asked me when I came was what I wanted to learn while I was here. Clearly, they're invested in making sure I learn what I'm interested in, and they're still open to my preferences changing. I have learned a lot in my time here. I didn't know what groundwork was before I got here, but now I appreciate how important it is. I often go with Georgia when she travels to give other people lessons (so I can keep an eye on Piper) and I'm often surprised by how much I can learn from just watching her work with clients. And I've loved spending time with Piper, watching her learn to crawl and sit up and stand, and just playing with her.
While in Australia, I've also gotten the opportunity to travel around. On days off, we would sometimes take family trips and see the local sights. I also traveled for a month – I spent some time with Dan Steers (from Double Dan!), a couple days in Sydney, and a week in the Victorian High Country on an adventure ride. Their connections and flexibility has let me experience a lot more of Australia than just Geelong, and it's been amazing. Georgia and Jimmy and Piper are great people, and I like hanging out with them, and how much I've learned from them. They've been great about inviting and answering all my random questions about horses or Australia in general, and I'm really grateful for the time I've spent with them. If you ever have the opportunity to come here, I 110% recommend it.