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By Betsy Parker
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Flint Hill-based horsewoman and author Wendy Murdoch thinks of herself as a guidance counselor. Her gentle, progressive way with students - both human and equine - demystifies the often arcane tutelage of riding instructors into a simple, logical lesson format.
The simplicity, however, evolved from a complex lifetime spent with horses.
Murdoch, 46, grew up in Connecticut, riding ponies and, later, horses on the show and event circuits before shipping off to the University of New Hampshire for a Bachelors’ degree in animal science and the University of Kentucky for a masters.
It was at UK that Murdoch got her first taste of the need for revising her views on horse handling.
“A young warmblood I was riding flipped on hie and punched my femur right through the (hip) socket,” Murdoch recalled. “That was 20 years ago. I spent three weeks in the hospital thinking about it. I knew there had to be a better way of working with horses other than just trusting on your own strength and power to stick with a tough one (like that.)”
Murdoch first approached natural horsemanship pioneer Linda 'Ifellington Jones to learn her “T-Tteam” method of touch and massage to communicate with horses. Soon after, Murdoch added
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