NAWD Professional
Patrick King
Patrick was very fortunate to grow up riding and competing with many breeds of horses in various disciplines.
He’s just as comfortable flying over a jump, driving a team of drafts, or roping and sorting cattle as he is starting colts and riding canter pirouettes in the dressage arena. Early on, though, a horse came into his life that wouldn’t put up with inadequacy on the part of the human. A challenge from this horse threatened Patrick’s life and sparked a new journey that didn’t involve ribbons.
His was set on a quest to find true horsemanship… Since then, Patrick has been fortunate enough to make friends and spend time with some of the industry’s top horsemen, and has also spent countless hours studying the work of the old masters. Being offered the rare opportunity to spend extended time living and learning with master horseman Ray Hunt and his wife Carolyn catapulted Patrick’s horsemanship. It became a simple way of life to have a ‘real job’ for each horse, even from the first ride. Horsemanship turned from a ‘practiced science’ into a ‘living art’ under Ray’s watchful eyes and priceless guidance.
Like you, Patrick seeks to be an eternal student of the horse and the horsemen that have come before him – and he feels it is his duty to share the knowledge that he has gained along his journey. Throughout the year, he travels around helping people and their horses through his clinics, camps, workshops, and expo demonstrations. His students are of all levels and disciplines, from Grand Prix Dressage riders to more casual riders that aren’t interested in competing but are still very serious about their horsemanship. What Patrick teaches is not so much an exercise or drill, as so many other clinicians and trainers teach, but a feel. It’s a feel that becomes a connection and a synchronicity of two minds and two bodies, the horse and the human.
Many friends and mentors have shaped Patrick’s philosophies and approach to the horse… Ray Hunt, Mark Russell, Charles De Kunffy, Julio Mendoza, and others.
From classical dressage masters to old time vaqueros, Patrick’s teachers and mentors have afforded him layers of insight and experience that enable him to bridge the gap between foundation training and advanced horsemanship.