Ji got on her first horse at the age of 4 and began to make the transition from rider to trainer at the age of 15, when she began working for a stable that retrained Thoroughbreds that retired from the racetrack. She evented many of these horses and helped find new homes for them. This was the beginning of her learning how to recognize and approach behavioral problems. She also began to understand that it was essential to see the horse’s point of view, both for effectiveness in training and safety.
Ji went on to student-teach advanced horsemanship in college and taught private riding lessons to help pay for her education. She was a member of the Equestrian Team, riding successfully in Open classes.
Ji took time off from working with horses and returned to school to study biology, which culminated in a Master of Natural Science degree from Arizona State University in Microbiology and Biochemistry. Her education in biological systems allowed her to further develop her understanding of behavioral theory and how behavior relates to an animal’s biology.
Ji discovered the joy of teaching and her gift for taking complex concepts and making them accessible to even the most unconfident student as a college-level biology, microbiology, and biotech courses instructor. Concurrently, Ji became a scientific research administrator at The Biodesign Institute and a biotech consultant. During that time, she began working with her own horses again. Many of those horses she bought or adopted had “problems” or “issues” that made them undesirable to others. Believing that equine massage would help horses with both physical and behavioral problems, with the focus on the horse not on the handler/rider, Ji became certified as an equine massage therapist.
Ji went on to learn about trick training and equine agility from Allen Pogue at Imagine a Horse (http://www.imagineahorse.com/). Her experience with Allen revolutionized her thinking about horses and how they approach humans and the human world. His generous willingness to share his knowledge and system allowed her to incorporate his techniques and insight into her own system.
Ji’s friends and neighbors began to see the results with her own behaviorally challenged horses and began to ask for her help. Those calls for assistance snowballed into a clientele and a formalization of her techniques into a detailed, clear, scientifically based training program that focuses on achieving the needs of the handler/rider through understanding and meeting the needs of the horse. Ji started Pure Balance Equine to start taking her message of holistic horse training to a larger audience. Pure Balance provides clients and their horses clinics in a range of topics that address the horse and rider of different backgrounds and skill levels. Learn more by visiting the Clinics page. Ji also provides personal training for individuals and their horses. Visit the Private Training page for additional details.
Her own need to know and understand the horse beyond mere technique has provided her with a depth of understanding rarely found in the equestrian world, and she has a passion for helping others achieve the same understanding. It is important to Ji that individuals she helps not only understand how to achieve with their horses, but why techniques work, ultimately letting students translate their education into independent thinking and training.