Many people ask me how I got into this work especially as I have a scientific background.

My answer is always the same,

“It was my horse that led me to this weird and wonderful world!”
And here’s how she did it.

It was 1992. Hubby wanted a farm bike. I wanted a horse. For several months there had been good tempered banter between us over which should be bought, bike or horse. A horse was
environmentally friendly: you could carry bags of feed on a bike. A horse didn’t disturb the sheep: a bike was faster…. and so it continued. That was until on one bright day towards the end of May 1992 when Hubby relented, and we were off to Hereford horse sales to buy a horse.

There were nearly two hundred lots there that day with maybe ten that would suit. Back and forth I went
between the rows of pens, examining all and excitedly dreaming of coming home with my very own horse!

Like many other people I believe 3 is a lucky or significant number. With the sale due to start in under 10
minutes I first caught sight of her, all the 3’s – Lot 33.

Lot 33 was a rising 3 Cleveland Bay x Thoroughbred filly, described as “Broken, green and ready to ride on in quiet company.” Perfect. I had ridden a CB x TB belonging to a friend for several years and absolutely fallen in love with the Cleveland Bay breed. Lot 33, Midnight Maiden. Here was my horse.

I have never been so nervous as I was when Midnight entered the sale ring. As she was led round, Hubby a farmer with years of experience buying at auctions, stood cool as a cucumber NOT BIDDING! Two people (one a dealer) were bidding and the price was rising, if Hubby didn’t bid soon I thought I would have a nervous breakdown. But ever the master, in order not to push the price even higher, he waited until the last minute to bid. Then BANG! The gavel was down, Lot 33 was mine.

And so Midnight Maiden aka Min came into my life. At that moment I never imagined what she would teach me or what wonders she would lead me to.

Just so we are clear, Cleveland Bay horses are one of the few breeds (if not the only breed) that has the word “intractable” i.e. stubborn in the description of the breed standard. Basically when they say “No!” they mean it. Thus I was soon to discover it was with Min, even with a gene dilution by TB blood!

The start of our life together could not have been more inauspicious. The day after we bought her I planned a ride in the evening with my friend accompanying me on Grantley her old Irish Cob, the ideal quiet hacking companion.

Min was on her toes as I tried to mount her, but nothing I couldn’t “handle”. We walked out onto the lane and were no more than 25 yards from the house going down the short hill, when Min started bucking. I flew through the air with the greatest of ease, hit the road, and sat up to see my left arm swinging a graceful 180 degree arc.

I had snapped my humerus in two mid-way between elbow and shoulder. Just why it is called the humerus I shall never understand because it hurt like hell!

Six weeks later with Min ridden on by a vastly more experienced trainer than I, who interestingly also
recounted having to sit for 30 minutes at a particular spot before Min deigned to move forward, I was back in the saddle.

We got on well enough, but there were several times especially in the first few months, when after having to dismount yet again and lead Min just to get her moving in the required direction, I questioned my sanity about buying a young horse. Why hadn’t I bought a ready-made 7 year old?

And so the first few years our rides together continued in much the same vein. As long as Min’s wishes vaguely coincided with mine, all was OK, not great, just OK. It was this feeling of disconnect and discontent between us that got me looking for a “better” way.

I bought western tack, somehow believing just putting a different saddle and bridle on would change  everything for the better. No surprise when I tell you that didn’t work.

Around 2000 my search led me to my first encounter with what was known as Natural Horsemanship in the shape of Parelli Horsemanship. I threw Min and I into this system and if it did nothing else it opened my eyes to there being a different way from the traditional way of riding. It also showed me just how pissed off with me Min really was.

A fortuitous meeting with an amazing lady called Val was The Universe’s way of leading me down the path to magic. Val helped and guided me on my Parelli path, and then in July 2002 offered to take me to a two day clinic with a horseman named Len Judd. I was over the moon with the prospect of taking Min on our first ever clinic. Little did I know what lay in store.

Val had recently sold her property in Pembrokeshire to another horse trainer Steve, whom whilst visiting
the States had met Len, seen him work and was impressed enough to invite Len and his wife Nina over to Wales to hold a clinic.

On a sunny Friday in July 2003 Val and I set off with our two horses on board her trailer, excited to see what the weekend held.

My first meeting with Nina threw me as she took one look at me and said

“I know you. Where have I seen you before?”  

Nina is a beautiful slim, dark haired, 6ft tall vision. I knew for certain I would have remembered meeting her before! Looking back this was the start of the weird and wonderful that I was about to be immersed in over that weekend.

Friday night was a demo. Val and I both expected to see a demonstration on how to move your horse’s body, how to connect with the reins etc. Instead we were introduced to the world of energy and how to horses this is their language of communication. Totally not what was expected and to be truthful, all a little unsettling.

Saturday morning dawned misty but with promise of a hot day. Both Val and I were literally shaking with
anticipation of the day to come. We had NO idea what to expect.

The weekend that followed was filled with talk of energy and connection. Len would watch the horses and tell us what their energy was “saying” to him. We did some riding done over the whole weekend,   but mainly we started to see what horses are – energetic beings totally in tune with our energy and emotions.

Sometime in the first few hours of the clinic it was as though a veil fell away from my eyes and for the first
time I could see clearly.

My brain was struggling to comprehend what was happening. In every moment my “scientific” version of the world was being challenged and I was being invited to accept this new knowledge.

There were tears  ………… lots of tears, tears of wonder and gratitude. I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I somehow I knew I was finding my truth.

During one of my many conversations with Len where I relentlessly cross-questioned him over just what the hell was happening to me, he stopped, looked at me and said,

“Open your mind but form no opinions.”

This was to become my mantra and I truly believe that because of Len saying this to me, I could accept the
inexplicable yet real things that happened during my journey.

Over the years these words have slowly evolved into how I now think, namely “My experience is my Truth.”

As Len and I were sat on the grassy bank discussing the weird and wonderful world of energy, he looked at me and said,

“And now the dreams will start.”

That sentence has stayed with me, and I would soon realise why.

The clinic finished, we said our goodbyes, Val and I drove home with a whole new perspective of horses, energy and connection.

I truly had no idea what had happened to me, all I did know was that it felt in some ways that I was seeing and feeling the world for the first time. It was all new and magical. Many of the worries I had had previous to the clinic fell away. In their place was just a feeling of wonder and a need to explore this whole new world.

On the Wednesday night after the clinic I had a particularly vivid dream involving Len and Nina and their children.
The dream was so intense that now some 17 years later I still remember it clearly.

To begin with I was walking in sand dunes with Nina and we were looking for lavender flowers. We walked the dunes and picked the flowers, but they had to be lavender.

Then the scene shifted and I found Len and Nina looking for their children in a busy street.

The scene shifted once more, and we were in a café sat round a table. There were Len and Nina and three boys and one girl, all evidently their children. As I sat with them the feeling came over me in the dream that they were from “the far east”, not Japanese but from that region.

When I woke up the dream was so vivid and clear and knowing Len and Nina were still in Pembrokeshire, I decided to ring Nina and talk to her about it.

My only knowledge of Len and Nina’s children after knowing them less than a week was from during the demo on the Friday night. Len had seen a lady in the audience with a young girl sat on her knee
and had made a joke with Nina about not having a daughter, only having boys. Later talking to Len and Nina over the weekend I learned they had two sons Lenny and Miah.

Len was obviously Aussie by origin and I had thought as they lived in California and with her beautiful looks, Nina may have Hispanic heritage.

I decided my first question to Nina would be about picking lavender, but I didn’t want to tell her about the
dream or to lead her to an obvious answer, so I asked,

 “Does lavender have any significance to you?”

“Why yes” Nina replied “It’s my favourite scent. In fact I bought some yesterday.”

My heart began pounding WTF was going on!

I then told her about the dream and described sitting in the café with four children including a girl and that they had a “far eastern” feel to their origins. Her reply floored me.

“Yes that’s right. I have a son and daughter from a previous marriage and two sons with Len. As to the far
eastern bit, yes my parents were from Indonesia!”

I truly didn’t know what to say or think. All I knew was Len had been quite right about the dreams……!

Thus I stepped into this new world. I was desperate for information and a few days later I found myself in
our local bookshop with no idea what I was actually looking for.

I happened to pick up a book entitled “Reiki for Life” by Penelope Quest. I had heard the word Reiki before but had no knowledge of it, however for some reason I was drawn to this book and
knew I had to look at it.

I took the book off the shelf and it “fell” open on page 57. This was the page that described what some people experience when they have what is termed an attunement, part of the process involved with learning how to give Reiki.

I read:-

“Some people go through a shift in their awareness immediately, describing the sensation as almost like being reborn, so that they experience everything around them more intensely: colours are brighter, their
sense of smell is enhanced and sounds are sharper. Others …….. describe a sense of floating or light-headedness.”

The description matched exactly what I had experienced at the horse clinic. So for that reason and that reason alone, namely total self-interest, I went looking for a Reiki Master in the hope that studying Reiki
may give more of the magical moments like the ones I had experienced at the clinic. Within a month I had booked training for level 1 Reiki.

The rest as they say, is history.

I studied Level 1 Reiki and fell in love with healing work. Over the next two years I completed the training for levels 2 and 3 and became a Reiki Master.

From then over the subsequent years I looked at and studied other energy modalities such as Qigong,  Quantum Touch and around 2008 I discovered Reconnective Healing.

This has become the cornerstone of the work I do now.

In 2015 in order to continue to be registered as a Reconnective healing Foundational Practitioner I had to attend an obligatory training seminar. I did this with an open heart, but as a result of attending the seminar something in me shifted. I realised the true me was the sum of not only all my training and work in the various modalities, but the sum of me as a person – mother, wife, daughter. The sum of all my other work – farmer, computer mentor, bookkeeper. The sum of all my interests and hobbies – horses, science,
books, walking etc. It was time to step into the real me and Point of Balance was born!

My journey into the world of energy, connection and healing has been life affirming and filled with wonder.
So many wondrous and inexplicable things have happened long the way and it has been the path to meeting a host of truly inspirational, beautiful people many of whom I am honoured and grateful to now call friends.

The one thing I do know is that I am in this amazing place, doing the work that is my passion all that is all thanks to Lot 33 Midnight Maiden.

There is a post-script to this story.

As I said at the beginning before Hubby kindly bought me Min, we had been having “discussions” over the relative merits of a horse vs a farm bike, with Min being bought in May 1992.

During the summer of 1992 in a free, weekly farming magazine called Farming News, there was a competition running for several weeks which asked questions on the different farming
sectors of livestock, arable and dairy. I duly entered on every sector.

As there was a high likelihood of a tie regarding points gained answering the questions, there was a tie break
question.

The question was “What do you think the price of land will be in the year 2000?”

Over the weeks they gave some information as to what land prices had been and what they were now and from this I calculated the figure I used for the tiebreak question.

I submitted all my answers and my tiebreak estimate and we waited.

The letter came.  We found we were invited to a judging day for the top ten respondents.

We duly attended the judging day.
I sat in front of a board of judges comprised of representatives from the sponsoring companies and was asked various questions about our farming enterprise. Right at the end I was asked how I had arrived at my tiebreak figure for the price of land.

I stood there pondering my options. Should I try and waffle out a hopefully intelligent answer or should I
tell the whole truth? Bugger it I thought, I’ll tell the truth.

So I told them the how by using the figures they had given us, I had worked out an average price rise per year, multiplied by 8 to get to a figure for the year 2000 and arrived at the figure £2459. 

I had contemplated this number, but had then decided that as 3 was my lucky number the figure I submitted needed to be divisible by 3. Thus for my tiebreak answer the figure I submitted was £2469.

On hearing this the judges all looked slightly uncomfortable and I thought I’d blown it! But no. Their discomfort came from the fact that their figure had been calculated using an equation that was about three  inches long with µ this, ≤ that and Δ all over the place, with the figure they arrived being £2465.

I had used simple averaging, a belief in the power of 3 and arrived at a figure a mere £4 above theirs.

As a result of this tiebreak figure, the judges informed me that we had come first out of all the entries and had won a farm bike!

So Hubby had bought me a horse – all the 3’s Lot 33 and I had won him a bike using my belief in the number 3.

The Power of 3 in all its glory.