ATHABASCA - Any healthy, successful relationship is based on trust, understanding one another’s needs, and nurturing the bond that is formed between two individuals.
In that respect, Josh Nichol is an expert and keeping those things top of mind has led him into a successful career, offering his own style of relational horsemanship, which he has become quite well-known in riding arenas and ranches around the world.
The 40-year-old, lifelong resident of the Meanook area, just south of Athabasca, has been honing his skills and style since he was a child, and now some of those who have learned from him are setting out on their own to conduct clinics and training from Texas to Sweden.
“I started helping people with horses very young,” Nichol said in an interview last week before he set off to Kamloops to offer another clinic.
“I spent my teens always riding with someone, I spent every waking minute riding with somebody or riding at a ranch somewhere and I was super keen to learn … Everywhere I would go, I would ride as many horses as I could, and then I started meeting people and it wasn’t long before people wanted me to help them with what they were doing.”
Nichol graduated from Edwin Parr Composite School in Athabasca and went on to post-secondary studies in biology, but by his second year of university he was conducting horsemanship clinics throughout his summers and by the time he graduated he was running a successful business and teaching others some of the many things he learned working with horses.
Nichol’s expertise has become so sought after, he has now been offering online sessions for a few years just so clients can gain as much knowledge as possible outside his clinics which only run for several days at a time before he’s off to a new location.
“It’s just not enough time to really help people make a change. For people to really make a change they need to be able to access the resources more efficiently,” said Nichol. “The website has created a global opportunity for others to see my work and connect with it.”
Nichol says he is often asked what his discipline is — roping, reining etc.
“My focus is basically trying to develop calmness in a horse. How do you help a horse get what they need? (Training a horse) is usually very obedience-focussed, where the horse isn’t often considered, so I spend a lot of time trying to help people understand what a horse needs so they can feel taken care of,” he said.
In the second phase of his training, his background in biology helps him teach clients how a horse’s body actually works.
Nichol likes to work on the leadership aspect of horsemanship, as well.
“When you walk up to a horse and start asking him to do things, the horse doesn’t know you, or have anything against you, but they’re going to reflect your tendencies. If you’re a bit faster, or you get angry quickly, or you’re reserved, the horse is going to respond a certain way. So the horse is actually showing what it’s getting from you,” he said.
“I work a lot on the personal development side too, to help people recognize what the horse is seeing. A lot of times in the world people will blame everything on everybody else, but the horse doesn’t have anything against you. The horse doesn’t have an agenda. It really lets people have a chance of seeing themselves and seeing what the world gets from them.”
There’s a lot more information on Nichol's website about his relational approach and the services he offers at joshnichol.com.
