Disheartened by unpleasant riding experiences at an early age, Jills interest in horses was not reignited until when her mid-twenties.  This developed as a mixture of leisure riding, dressage and show jumping. However, her deeper understanding of and interest in equines did not emerge until she was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Festina Lente Enterprises in 2001.  With her academic and professional background in Disability Management – in particular in non-aversive approaches to challenging behaviours, Jill became increasingly interested the stereotypical behaviours of stabled horses and sought to try to understand their function.  From this she developed a strong interest in introducing and trialling different methods and practices in order to reduce such behaviours.  As part of this journey, she was introduced to the work of Andrew McClean when he presented his work at workshop held in Festina Lente. 

As part of the various accredited educational programmes delivered by Festina Lente, Jill delivers specific modules on equine cognition.  Jill also facilitates workshops on equine cognition and works with participants on ways to improve our understanding of and interaction with equines.  As part of her doctoral thesis in 2018 which explored the impact of Equine Assisted (EAL) and Youth at Risk, Jill talked to the need to understand equines from an ethological perspective and the need for EAL facilitators to understand equine behaviour in context of evidenced based approaches.

Taking into consideration the gradual decline of green spaces due to rapid increase of urbanisation, Jills overall vision is to demonstrate how – by understanding equines from an evidenced based perspective – it is possible to work with and manage equines safely and ethically and simultaneously how equines can provide much pleasure for people in a variety of disciplines.