About Jackie

Jackie became a Parelli Professional in 1999 and has taught the Parelli Program worldwide over the past 21 years.  Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jackie is passionate about helping horse lovers gain the knowledge and skills to have fun, stay safe and excel in the equestrian world beyond their wildest dreams.  No matter what your discipline.... no matter what your goal... Jackie will help you to unleash the key to your horses heart and desire.

Jackie is now a Former 4 Star Senior Instructor, Horse Development Specialist and Finesse Specialist after she recently resigned from the Parelli Professionals team to persue a new direction with Linda Parelli and her exciting brand NEW inivative Program and online community call Happy Horse Happy Life.  Jackie is a certified Happy Horse Happy Life Instructor/Mentor.

Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Jackie runs 1-5 day courses for all levels and abilities as well as Private and group lessons and Progress weeks catering for individual or group needs on a more one on one basis.   Jackie travels frequently and is passionate and committed to supporting her students New Zealand wide.   Jackie has extensive experience having previously taught at all of the Parelli Centres around the world - US Centres (Pagosa Springs & Ocala)  UK Centre and Australian Centre in lead teaching roles.  As one of Linda Parelli's most experienced instructors in the field and with Jackie's talent for teaching and presenting these natural concepts, she has what it takes to help you progress and achieve your dreams with horses! 

About Jackie's journey...

After attending her first Parelli clinic in December 1996 she has never looked back.  With a background in showing, dressage, show jumping and eventing, Jackie's move into natural horsemanship seemed to happen by accident when she found herself going along to a clinic with the thought of learning how to handle young and difficult horses with more success.  Little did she know it was about to change her whole life.

"In the first half hour of that Level 1 clinic I realised just how much I didn't know about horses.  How could I have expected to get extraordinary results with horses if I didn't even understand how they feel, think, act and play?  I learnt that horsemanship could be obtained naturally through psychology, communication and understanding verses mechanics, fear and intimidation (punishment).  At the time I had a very difficult thoroughbred X-racehorse (Archie) with a lot of emotional displaced behaviours causing him to be extremely sensitive and unpredictable - nothing was easy!  By following Pat Parelli's system I gained much more insight into horses and that if difficult situations came up, I now had the strategies to diffuse them.  I had discovered the Parelli system would not only fix problem horses, but more importantly problem people!  It was my responsibility to learn to communicate in a way my horse could understand me!  It was the relationship that needed fixing!"

"The results started speaking for themselves and I began to actually enjoy being with my horse again.  It had taken away the frustration and I found myself setting more goals and having more fun!  I had realised that before I could expect my horse to dance with me, we needed to have a strong foundation - a partnership!"

Jackie qualified and was accepted into the Parelli Professionals Instructor program in 1999 after flying Archie to Australia to study directly with Pat Parelli.  She has continued to study overseas with Pat and Linda Parelli every year to stay progressive with her own horsemanship and attend Instructor training where Parelli instructors gain skills and advance teaching techniques, which is why Parelli Natural horsemanship (PNH) is now the most provocative and progressive equine behaviour and training program anywhere in the world today! 

In May 2002 Jackie travelled to Montana, USA to study with Pat Parelli and Ronnie Willis on the topic of starting young horses under saddle.  This was an incredible experience and she was awarded with certification as a Parelli Horse Development Specialist before being invited to stay on and go on tour with Pat and Linda as part of the tour team, assisting and demonstrating at Savvy days and horse fairs throughout the United States.  Then it was on to the PNH International Study Centre (I.S.C) in Colorado gaining valuable teaching experience whilst assisting with Pat and Linda Parelli and their top instructors on a daily basis.  Jackie returned to New Zealand after being awarded her 3 Star Instructor status later that year.  From 2003-2011, Jackie travelled to the UK each Northern Hemisphere summer to teach clinics at the UK Parelli centre and throughout the UK and Ireland as well as being involved in presenting and demonstrating at large horse shows for Parelli. 

In 2009 Jackie was the first Parelli Professional in the Southern Hemisphere to be awarded her Parelli Level 4 horsemanship which was a fantastic achievement  with Archie at age 23, the horse that brought her to Parelli!  In June 2010 Jackie was awarded her 4 Star Senior Instructor status for the extensive experience and achievements she has gained through her dedication, passion and loyalty to the Parelli program. 

Archie sadly passed away in April 2010 but will be remembered always for the inspirational demonstrations he and Jackie performed together.  Watch this short tribute Youtube clip below.

                                                              

In September 2011 after intensive study with Linda Parelli, Jackie was certified as one of only six Parelli Instructors in the world to teach  "The Game of Contact" and now the recently added programs of Finesse Training Sequence and The Precision Box.  Jackie is very passionate about this revolutionary approach to riding with contact and bridging the gap between Natural horsemanship and the Dressage world.  Since then, Jackie has taught Game of contact clinics at the Australian Parelli Centre and throughout Australia and New Zealand. 

Jackie's new Super star in the making...  'Rocky' (Astek Rockafella)

Jackie purchased 'Rocky' as a 2 year old in February 2009.  He is by Ramirez (Holsteiner) and out of a Thoroughbred mare called Zara.   Rocky is a high spirited left brained extrovert with right brained extrovert tendencies and to many would be too much of a handful with his high energy but for Jackie, he is her perfect partner!  "He was unspoiled, a fresh clean slate from the stud where he grew up in a herd.  Having the chance to put a great natural foundation on my future super horse was such an exciting experience for me having had such a challenging journey with Archie and all of the other horses (teachers) I have had the pleasure to learn from over the years who have had several issues due to the wrong kind of training or bad experiences and learned behaviours.  Rocky is a super learner - if you present things to him the right way!  He has such an active mind and loves to be challenged or he is easily bored.  Rocky is now a very solid Parelli Level 4 in all savvy's and has become a great demo horse along the way.  Now that he has a great foundation - it's all about getting our good better and our better best!  I am passionate about dressage and with Rocky's breeding I'd like to do some jumping with him also.  After a year and a half off while I was pregnant and caring for my baby boy,  July 2015 I took Rocky to his first dressage competition!  Placing Second in his first test and winning his second test with a score of 73.4% which was certainly a wonderful way to start off his dressage career!  

Here is a progress video of Rocky's Game of contact in June 2012.

Rocky's latest Dressage test Sept 2020 -  Elementary 3B 

Check out more of Rocky's progress videos on Jackie's YouTube Channel here.  Or regular clips on my Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/jackiechant.parelli/