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About Edie
Edie and the Madison Mounted Police summer 2011 Edie grew up riding and acquired her first pony after months of begging when she was ten years old. He taught her everything about “natural” riding. She got her first young horse, “Kiddo,” when she was twelve. He was a wonderful Anglo-Arabian gelding who took her through the next 30+ years, including the formation of a mounted police unit with the University of Wisconsin Police Department in 1988. Edie made the first physical arrest with the assistance of an equine "partner" in the City of Madison in 1989 when she and Kiddo chased down a suspect who had escaped from foot officers at a Badger Football Game. Edie continued to lead and administer the UW Mounted Police for over 18 years, riding three different mounts. She became the first certified mounted police instructor in Wisconsin in 1996 and went on to instruct mounted police and civilians in numerous clinics until her departure from law enforcement in 2006. Edie founded the Wisconsin Mounted Police in the 1990's in an effort to develop State-wide standardized training and cooperation between Wisconsin mounted units. She assisted in the formation of several other mounted units in Wisconsin and in other out-of-State cities by sharing her policies, procedures, and professional training standards and advice. She led the Wisconsin Mounted Police in demonstrations and clinics at the Midwest Horse Fair from 1994-2006. After 23 years of dedicated law enforcement service, Edie and her current mount "HotShot" left law enforcement for greener pastures.
Edie and HotShot at the Wisconsin State Capitol, Police Memorial Day 2003 In a continuous quest for improvement in her horsemanship, Edie has always been willing to try new things with her horses. In the early to mid 1980's, she studied and utilized the techniques of Linda Tellington-Jones's "TTouch" and Sally Swift's "Centered Riding." She was first introduced to what is commonly referred to as natural horsemanship in 1992 when she began to study John Lyons’s methods with her second police mount, "McAllister" and was honored when John rode four-year-old HotShot in a clinic demonstrating lateral movement at the 2003 Midwest Horse Fair. Edie has attended and ridden in numerous clinics over the years with Ray Hunt, Pat and Linda Parelli, Dr. Robert Miller, Buck Brannaman, Karen Rohlf, Richard Shrake, Peggy Cummings, Deb Bennett, Tommy and Karen Turvey, and other nationally-known trainers and riders. She is a current, official Level 4 Parelli Natural Horse-Man-Ship student and a charter Parelli Savvy Club member. She now practices only natural horsemanship with HotShot and her other two horses, "Libby" and "Arrow," combining this with her years of "street experience" to teach others the wonders of high-level, safe, and effective communication with their horses. Edie was thrilled to spend two weeks in 2006 at the Parelli International Study Center in Pagosa Springs, Colorado with HotShot (who she raised from birth using only natural methods) at the “Fluidity II – Finesse” clinic. They went back again in August of 2009 for an entire month for the Level 3-4 Master Courses! Edie's focus is on getting real results with her horses, who she considers to be her best friends and the barometers of her life success. A voracious reader and self-proclaimed "clinic-junkie," she continuously strives to learn more about her communication with horses. Having lived, eaten (yes, including coffee and donuts!), and almost SLEPT in the saddle for hours on mounted police duty over the years, from patrol days to Badger Football games to riot control on State Street during the annual Halloween bash, she has had many unique and challenging experiences with her equine partners.
Edie and McAllister taking a PR break on the UW Campus intra-mural field, mid-1990's Edie grew up trail riding bareback and Western, 4-H showing, camping, swimming, and cross-country jumping with her horses, and went on to study English riding, including foundational dressage principles, which she incorporates into her teaching today. She has bred, raised, and trained several foals to adulthood, including first rides and finishing (although she uses that term lightly - she doesn't feel that she OR her horses will ever be "finished"), and specializes in "baby training," having the philosophy that many horsemen waste these formative weeks, months, and years doing very little with their horses when they should, in fact, be exercising their growing minds! Her fascination with natural methods took over all other aspects of her riding and training from 1996 forward, when she began implementing natural training in her mounted police program and realized the incredible results it brought forth. Her goals for her clients are to help them AND their horses become more confident partners for each other. In addition to helping people and horses communicate better, Edie has many other teaching and training accomplishments under her belt. As a Wisconsin Department of Justice-certified Unified Tactics Instructor, she taught Police Defense and Arrest Tactics (DAAT), Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, Workplace Violence Prevention, Safety Awareness/Assertiveness Training, Sexual Assault Prevention, and more. She researched and developed the UWPD's first community policing program, including the development of program policy and officer selection criteria. After being promoted to Sergeant in 1991 and completing ten weeks of Police Management Training at the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command (SPSC), Edie became passionate about motivational leadership techniques, which she has discovered translate directly into leadership with her current clients and their horses. Most recently, she and her husband, John (an accomplished and experienced law enforcement professional in his own right and a Sergeant with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office) have conducted several training sessions of “Basic Horse Handling for Emergency Professionals” at the request of the Wisconsin State Horse Council Equine Foundation. This training is designed to assist law enforcement and other first responder personnel in how to handle horses in the event of a loose horse scenario, trailer accident, barn fire, or other related incident, and is unprecedented training in the State of Wisconsin. Of course, horse psychology and natural methods are utilized in this training, which is slated to continue and expand State-wide. A new development in late 2010 brought Edie back full-circle. She was retained as the official trainer for the Madison Mounted Police (www.madisonmounted.org). Her new (old) role finds her coordinating monthly training for the officers and their horses, as well as training potential police mounts to prepare them for the street. Most recently, three new Percheron draft horses were added to the unit. Edie started the youngest of the three under saddle over the winter months of 2011 and was very proud to hear on April 3 that "Luna" had completed her first duty-day downtown, passing with flying colors! Edie looks forward to assisting MPD with their horses in the future - a way for her to continue to serve and stay connected with her passion for mounted policing while retired.
About John John is an active Sergeant with the Dane County, Wisconsin Sheriff's Office. He is currently assigned as the M.A.T.E. (Marine And Trail Enforcement) Sergeant, although he has had over 25 years of experience in a variety of areas, including patrol and patrol supervision, bailiff, work-release detention, jail supervision, and SET (Special Enforcement Team) supervisor, in which he leads anti-riot teams in "hard gear" in hostile crowd situations such as the Halloween Freakfest on State Street. While John does not tout himself as a professional horseman (he likes to refer to himself as "Chief Poop-Scooper"), he has developed a good level of horsemanship simply by living with Edie and her horses for over 20 years. John is the mechanically-inclined "brains behind the barn" and supports Hope Hill Farm in many important ways.
John assists TLAER instructor Rebecca Gimenez in releasing "Torque" from his Anderson sling.
John and Edie on a side-trip to Churchill Downs, April 2009 In March/April of 2009, John and Edie attended training in Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY, where John was certified in TLAER (Edie audited the course). The trainers were nationally-acclaimed experts Tomas and Rebecca Gimenez (both PhD's and retired faculty from Clemson University). This training included hands-on and scenario-based instruction in everything from creating and applying appropriate slings to the psychology of a variety of large animals, all while emphasizing safety for the rescue personnel involved. Cranes and other heavy equipment were utilized along with live animals (horses and a llama) for vertical rescues as well as a night rescue, mud rescue, and water rescue. HazMat decontamination training was also included. John joined other law enforcement, fire, EMS, and veterinary personnel for this training. John and Edie hope to continue working with the Wisconsin State Horse Council and the Wisconsin State Horse Council - Equine Foundation to bring this needed skill to Wisconsin and form a team (and eventually, teams) to respond to large animal rescue situations in our state. There is currently no specially-trained team in place in Wisconsin to respond to such emergencies. More photos of TLAER training will be added to the "photos" page and the under-construction "TLAER" page ASAP!
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Edie
and Kiddo - September, 1989
