Receiving double gold certification (groundwork and riding) from world renowned trainer Chris Irwin is no easy task, but Trish Hyatt was the first to accomplished it in 2007. In 2009 she accomplished another first as she co-coached the first driving clinic Chris held at his new facilities and received her gold certification for driving. Now as the first and only Triple Gold trainer she is the top Chris Irwin certified trainer in the world and wants to help you become a better person by becoming the better horse that your horse needs you to be.

Trish has been involved with horses for over 30 years, riding, training, showing, breeding, teaching and giving clinics. She is experienced in both English and Western riding as well as driving singles and teams in light and heavy harness. Trish bred and trained foundation quarter horses for reining and this year concentrated on dressage and jumping with them. Winning the mid-island Cadora association Training Level dressage championship and completing the first step of Equine Canada Competition Coach certification by successfully passing her rider level 8 tests with marks of 90% and above and jumping her little quarter horse over a 3' course.

Trish is both a trainer of horses and a trainer of people. Some people can learn to do gold level work, but few can teach it. Trish is one of those few. She was the first in the program to apprentice a student to achieve certification and has had one every year.

Trish has been coaching people as long as she’s been training horses because you can't send a horse home without teaching its owner how it works. Trish’s specialty in regards to coaching is miscommunication problems. No matter what the discipline or what level, she can improve the way the horse and rider work together.

Trish’s clients come from all walks of life. Kids and adults without horses coming for lessons on the ground and on the horse, horse owners who ended up with the wrong horse for them and want to learn how to work with it, people that have raised a baby from birth and would like it started or would like it to stop being mean to them. She gets referrals from farriers and vets as well as from other trainers and coaches.

Trish loves starting youngsters and has both started and fixed horses for people of all disciplines including some top dressage and jumping people as well as everyday trail riders.

Everything Trish works with is approached from a reining perspective. This works really well for the reiners but equally well for all horses because it, like dressage, is about total direction of all parts of a horses mind and body. The mind being of key importance because if the horse is not willingly working with you, he's working against you.

Trish’s training methods have been influenced by several horsemen and she learned you always need to keep an open mind. The last couple of years Trish has been learning from both Al Dunning and Jane Savoie. Trish believes you should never stop learning. Ask questions. Not only how, but why. If your coach can’t answer them it may be time to find a new coach. Read every book you can find, watch every video and trainer you can even if you don’t approve of their methods. You can learn from everyone even if it’s what NOT to do. Learning from others makes you question things, makes you think, makes you understand more than just how to do something but why you’re doing it, what makes it work. When you know why, you increase your chances of solving an issue you’ve never seen before. That’s what makes a top trainer and if you're near a horse you are training, good or bad, it's training.

When Trish worked with Chris Irwin he made it profoundly apparent that it was our miscommunications with a horse that accounted for most of our problems. That we need to be accountable. That we can change things for the better for both of us. We just need to be willing to learn how. The change in the horses is immediately apparent as soon as change in the person is initiated.

The focus of Trish's program is awareness of body language, both on the ground and in the saddle, and what it’s really saying to the horse. It doesn’t matter to the horse what your discipline is but it really matters what ‘language’ you’re teaching it in. How quickly he understands has a lot to do with your understanding of equine grammar.

Trish’s program is about being assertive and respectful. Something that everyone should learn, whether dealing with animals or people. These techniques aren’t new. Some have, however, been lost along the way. Some changed to be unrecognizable by people who knew how but not necessarily when or why. Some done by the masters without knowing they were doing it so they were not taught. Trish is very analytical and wanted to know where, when, how and why to apply each of the aids. It isn’t like memorizing facts, when something makes sense you can remember it. There is a best spot to push, there is a perfect time to push, there is a best position for your body to not get in its own way and the reason for all these is based on what the horse’s body and legs are doing at any given moment. Those elusive words like timing, feel, balance, respect, they all begin to take on a meaning that we can understand and therefore can teach to others.

Trish has been doing a lot more clinics and is looking forward to working with both local and international clients who are aspiring to be better whether professionally or personally.