Waking up early, heading straight to the barn to tend to her horses is the start to Leann Pitman’s “perfect day”. Her perfect day would also include having a full day of riding lessons scheduled where she can contribute to people’s growth not only in terms of their riding skills but also, and more importantly, in terms of their growth as a person. Not only has Leann Pitman, owner, operator, instructor, stable-cleaner, entrepreneur of Riding 4 Life just described her perfect day but she has also just described a typical day in her life and that of her business. So, when I asked if “today is another perfect day?” Leann paused and admitted: “well, no, not quite. I would prefer it to be sunny…more people come out to the lessons when it’s sunny than raining.”

No other entrepreneur that I have ever met better exemplifies “living their dream” through their own business than Leann Pitman. To listen to Leann describe her life, how she arrived at the decision to start Riding 4 Life and to learn of her program’s impact on people is a true inspiration. Leann grew up riding, training and showing horses. She talks about sneaking into a family friend’s barn to spend time with a brood mare that, unbeknownst to her, was unfriendly, to say the least, and dangerous by most others’ assessment. Of course, at the tender age of 12, this girl with stars in her eyes only saw the good in that horse and they quickly developed a relationship. Leann feels very fortunate to have developed a trusting bond with that horse and that her parents recognized her special equine relationship. Of course, once she started showing and riding this particular horse on the circuit, she and her parents learned from other amazed horse “experts” the story of its “unbreakable” nature. However, it was at that point that Leann learned that she had a special gift for building bonds of trust with horses. This is a gift Leann has always known she had.

Like most young people Leann graduated from high school and off to university she went to pursue the typical path of a degree and some job doing some thing – what those were, she never knew nor was ever comfortable with. “My dad wanted me to be the first in the family to ever have a degree,” explains Leann of her walking down a path she knew she wasn’t meant to tread. Every class, every assignment, every exam was a burden for Leann but not in the same way that academia challenges young adults. “The school work wasn’t that hard,” Leann relates, “it was just too hard doing something I knew I wasn’t meant to do with my life.” Finally, and some would say courageously, with just 6 classes to go towards completing her degree Leann left university to return to Port Alberni to figure out how to pursue her calling.

According to Leann: “I knew what I should be doing since I was 14 years old. It’s just that my parents, friends and teachers saw other skills and abilities in me that they pushed me in one path instead of recognizing my passion and dream in my heart and pushing me towards the path I’m on now.” Leann is not bitter about this, by any means. Leann understands that: “people who love you don’t want to see you get hurt so they are the ones who are least likely to let you take risks.”

“Horses will turn everything upside down. What is your strength is your weakness and what others see as a weakness can be your strength with horses,” Leann explains with profound understanding. Horses essentially turned her life upside down from the perspective of her friends and family when she decided to leave school. In order to figure out, exactly, what she wanted to do with her life and the role horses would play Leann took a job at the Boot Lagoon Fish Hatchery.

Leann also went back to school to complete the Human Services Worker program at North Island College. She says she wasn’t entirely sure why she took that course at the time except that she believed it would play an important part in her future. “That program gave me the foundation of knowledge and accreditation to do what I do now in my riding program for people with special needs…it also let me make great contacts that benefit my business now,” states Leann. While she pursued this program Leann also worked towards and received her Certified Horsemanship Association Instructor’s Certificate. The picture was becoming clear for this young lady with a passion for horses and a compassion for the human condition.

After completing her schooling and after being laid off at the hatchery Leann visited the West Coast Career Centre for guidance on “what to do next.” “After talking to the counselor there we realized that I didn’t want a job but that I wanted to create something for people; that I could create a business to help people and live out the dream of working with horses,” describes Leann of her experience with the Career Centre. Once she realized she could pursue her passion as a business she was referred to the CFDC Self-Employment Program. Leann praises the Self-Employment program in that it gave her the fundamentals of basic business planning and marketing. “Everyone at Community Futures is all so very supportive and have helped me to get to where I am now and where I hope to go,” says Leann.

Through this process of arduous life introspection over a number of years, finding advice through the right agencies and a serendipitous encounter with an investor who helped with the start-up funds Riding 4 Life was born. And what does Riding 4 Life do? “I teach people about horses, grins Leann wryly and with a twinkle in her eye before she goes on to explain that when people learn about horses they learn so much more about life and about themselves.

“People learn about my story and how they, too, can live a dream. People learn about trust. They learn about self-confidence and inner strength. They also learn that horses have a knack for revealing hidden strengths and weakness. Horses teach people so much more than I or anyone else could ever teach,” explains Leann about what her business really is about. “And do you know the best part about what I do, Dave?” asks Leann without waiting for me to answer as if the question is so purely rhetorical that it almost doesn’t need to be asked, “people don’t really know what I or the horses are actually teaching them while they are learning.” Leann’s focus is on teaching people the “a-z” of riding from safely choosing a horse appropriate to their riding skills through to saddling and trail navigation but all the while she is aware the lessons are a microcosm of those needed for a better, more satisfying life. Simply put: “horses are a great tool for revealing hidden strengths and weaknesses” in people, explains Leann.

Leann is most excited of the work she does with children of special needs: particularly those with Autism. Or, to put in more accurate terms, according to Leann: “the work I do with their caregivers. Much of the work I do with special needs kids is dealing with parents and aides to open up their eyes to the talents and skills the kids do have instead of mostly focusing on what they don’t.” Leann puts it even more succinctly: “I define people by what they can do. So what if little Johnny can’t talk? Neither does a horse but I found a way to communicate with horses and they with me, so why can’t we better communicate with little Johnny?”

Riding 4 Life is rapidly gaining a highly impressive and respected reputation among the riding and special needs therapy worlds. With this well-earned reputation come increasing business demands and concerns over her business’ needs for growth. When pressed to reveal some her day to day challenges Leann reluctantly accepts that “its tough to know where the business stops and where I begin.” “Because this is my passion and my responsibility I find I throw all of myself into it all of the time but I understand the need for balance. I know that if I grow tired or if I get sick or if I cannot go on any more because I’ve worn myself out then my dream will not live on. It is my responsibility to ensure my passion continues,” Leann openly understands.

So, lately, Leann has become more focused on finding that balance and also on coming to grips with the need to expand. Riding 4 Life’s present property size no longer meets its business needs. Leann also has a grand vision for her programs that includes a small community where, through learning to ride horses, people of all abilities can learn about themselves and come to find the true treasures of life as she sees them. Leann gives a hint about her growth concerns and next-steps in her business when she asks aloud “do I go after 10 or 15 acres or do I begin to look for 200 or 300 on which to one day build a ranch?”

Whatever Leann Pitman decides is the right answer for her and for her business I am sure it will feel right in her heart; that she will have no doubt that it will be the right decision; and that her decision will be proven to be the right one!

For more information about Riding 4 Life please visit: www.riding4life.com.

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