Biography of Shelley A. Kaczmarczyk
North American Riding for the handicapped Association

“The measure of the ‘naturalness’ of a program is it's willingness to adopt whatever methods are most natural to this horse, not what we, in our limited understanding of the equine mind, deem to be what a horse should learn from and enjoy” (Kaczmarczyk, S. (1997). Lecture: Equine Behavior for the Large Animal Veterinarian, Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine).

It is often joked, and with a good deal of truth, that Shelley’s second language was English. Her first was Horse. Shelley Kaczmarczyk is one of the quiet horse whisperers from the slow to change Midwest, before Natural Horsemanship and Horse Whispering became household terms. Yet she is also one of an endangered breed of horse professionals who believes less in the tenets and techniques of a single riding style or training philosophy, and more in the creation of partnership and harmony through learning the natural language of the horse, and with it, how our Equine Partners use their senses to understand the world.

After studying at Purdue University, Shelley continued her gathering of knowledge at Meredith Manor International Equestrian Center in Waverly, West Virginia.  The rough and workmanlike appearance of "The Manor" belies it's status as one of the top ranked equestrian schools in the world. It was there that Shelley immersed herself in art of Horse Logical Communication, and with the help of Dr. Ron Meredith, finally transformed her intuitive knack for horse communication into a methodical system that she has passed on to any of the millions of horse lovers who would listen.
 
Always driven by a passion to teach teachers and train trainers, Shelley continued her work as an Equine Behavior Lecturer at Purdue University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, as Professor of the Advanced Instructing track at Meredith Manor, as Founder of several teaching and training schools across the country, as Program Director and Head Instructor at Sebastian Riding Associates in Collegeville, PA (teaching both participants with physical, mental and emotional disabilities and their Instructors), as Founder of Epona Unlimited in West Chester, PA, a horsemanship, mounted, and partnership based program for Humans and Horses of all talents and abilities.

Shelley holds American Riding Instructor Association Level III Dressage Instructor and Level II Hunt Seat and Western Instructor Certifications, is a Pennsylvania Council on Therapeutic Horsemanship trained Therapeutic Riding Instructor, a licensed practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and design Human Engineering, and trainer and partner of 18 years with the 2004 Devon Therapeutic Horse of the Year.

Shelley’s work has been highlighted in numerous publications, and she is always working to keep pace with the most cutting edge philosophies and discoveries in the overlapping fields of human and equine psychology, therapy, and sport. Soon Shelley will be adding both NARHA Advanced Therapeutic Instructor Certification and ARIA Advanced Reining Certification to her bag of tools, and is valiantly working on her first of many books and longer length articles on the magic of Horse/Human bond.