Hi, I’m Emily

Emily Osborne Petrichor, RWYM Accredited Coach; R+ Horse Trainer

I have been riding since the age of 7, beginning with lunge lessons during summers visiting my grandmother in Connecticut. Once back home in Northern VA, I begged for lessons and rode at Tamarack Stables in Lorton, VA until high school. I attended Wilson College in Chambersburg PA, graduating in 2000 with one major in Equine Facilitated Therapy and another in Equine Management: Teaching Track.

I spent almost the whole of 2002 in England, studying with Mary Wanless, internationally renowned biomechanics expert and author of many books about the biomechanics of good riding. I then worked with Francie Dougherty of Seneca Sport Horses in Poolesville, MD for three years before coming to Great Strides, in Damascus MD to serve as Barn Manager and Instructor.

I started at Great Strides in April of 2005 and worked there until it was sold in 2019. During my time there, I organized two Mary Wanless clinics per year, and held some of my own clinics at local barns in the Greater DC area. I achieved Competence of the first level of Mary Wanless's Coach Accreditation in 2012 and am in the process of completing the necessary work to achieve the next level.

I have been attending Mary Wanless Ride With Your Mind (RWYM) Teacher Trainings every year or two since 2002, and have organized and hosted Teacher Trainings as well. I am constantly studying, learning, re-learning and refining my understanding of what makes a rider improve. I periodically will pick up a new hobby or skill so that I can remember what it's like to be a beginner again, learning something new and feeling what it's like to not know the answer. This is the place a lot of my students are coming from, and I respect that they put their trust in me.

In 2015 I was certified as a TAGteach Level 1 Instructor. What is TAGteach™? A revolutionary new way of teaching, it’s a tag point. The tag point is the specific learning goal that the teacher will mark with a tag that highlights success for the learner. It has made my lessons more effective than I ever thought possible, mainly because it gets me to shut up and let the learner do what I just told them to do ;)

In my horse training journey, I started learning about horse training in college and began experimenting with, what was in 2000, all the rage in the horse world: “Natural Horsemanship”. I attended a workshop with “Horse Whisperer” Frank Bell in the summer of 2000 and went on to use his methods for a short time until I was kicked in the jaw by a very pregnant mare who was having none of it. Having my mouth wired shut for 6 weeks made me hesitant to work with horses again, but a friend of my mom’s let me take my time with her gentle Irish Sport horse “Red” and I then found my way to Mary Wanless in England in 2002. While at Francie Dougherty’s in about 2003-4, I was introduced to Clicker Training after I read a fascinating account of a lady who had taught a mini horse to be a guiding eye for a blind person. That trainer was Alexandra Kurland. I tried it and it was fun. I taught a horse to pick up a bucket, but sadly at the time I didn’t pursue the training as I didn’t understand it fully and couldn’t see the implications of what a massive paradigm shift it was from the horse’s point of view.

However, the concept that horses were intelligent, could learn brilliantly, and had much to say stuck with me. I finally stopped using “Natural Horsemanship” for good one day in about 2014 at Great Strides after a horse gave me a look that could only be interpreted as “what the heck do you want, and why are you doing this?”

I couldn’t answer the question, so I decided to learn more about the training I had been so fascinated by all those years ago. It took a while to find someone to come teach me, but finally I did and the ball really started to roll. With the help of Lauren Bond, and then Shawna Karrasch, Hannah Weston and Rachel Bedingfield, Alexandra Kurland, and then more and more trainers of positive reinforcement with ideas and concepts to share, I have discovered a whole new way of communicating with horses, and it has nothing to do with whispering.

In 2019, Great Strides sold and I moved on to Top Line Equestrian in Frederick MD with Mary Kaminski, who I share the lesson horses with. Together we do self care for our little group, and are building our practices by learning, playing, and exploring all the wonder that the horses and clients bring.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!