BIO: KERRY M. THOMAS

I always like to say, I was born at night, but not last night.

I entered the world on October 20th, 1968, the youngest of three boys. I grew up in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Chester County, in the small town I still call my home, Cochranville. My father owned Thomas Custom Builders, a still-thriving construction company, where I worked for over 18 years.

Growing up in a hard working, sports-loving middle-class family, I was a construction worker who loved the arts, wrote poetry and became a published author, yet all along, from early childhood, a true affinity with animals and animal behavior continued to grow. My study and love of natural animal behavior was the part of me that always seemed to lurk in the shadows while the rest of life demanded so much.

I had the unique opportunity to create environmentally proper facilities for the horse and learned firsthand their needs and requirements, and also what was missing. My behavior and communication research into equine ethology was growing into more than a serious hobby.

On May 20, 2002 my life changed forever when my father succumbed to cancer, and we were all left facing life without our anchor. I decided to put my true life's passion at the center of my world.

Having come to know firsthand the cathartic abilities of the sensitive horse, I found myself looking far beyond the four hooves and into an animal who offered so much more within. My keen interest was in an animal that made human development itself possible. I wanted to know how the horse fit into the world in such a way that allowed us to get so much from our relationship with him.

The working relationship between horse and human was indeed impressive, but for me, it seemed there was something amiss, as if we did not take our responsibility to know him as seriously as we should. I have always believed that it isn't up to others to understand us; it is up to us to understand others. For me it was the same with the horse. My research for something deeper turned into theories on how the horse sees the world. By July 2006, I was able to put him number one in my world and devote my career to him.

The last major project I worked on was the building of a non-profit organization that would bring children with disabilities and animals together, called The Barn at Spring Brook Farm, a not-for-profit organization creating animal-assisted activities for children with disabilities.

Horses, donkeys, rabbits, goats and sheep, barn, grounds, program development and animal health and training were all part of my management duties. I not only socialized horses and the other animals, some of which came to us as damaged goods, but I also implemented interactive programs that blended the children and the animals.

Working closely with an equine veterinarian who became one of my best friends, I spent endless hours studying equine behavior and health, developing and testing ideas and theories. The combination of animals and children is nothing short of magical, and each taught me new things about how they saw one another, and how they communicated their feelings toward each other. The human/horse interspecies communication was coming from a much higher level than could be fully appreciated from the saddle.

I would like to offer any assistance I can in the development of such programs as I feel strongly about the importance of furthering this communication. I also feel that law enforcement should be utilizing the magic of the horse much more than they do.

In the late winter and early spring of 2008 I began to research the idea of creating Thomas Herding Technique, with the goal of bringing equine ethological study to each individual horse on its own turf. I strongly feel that many behavior and stress issues lie within the three major equine dynamics of sensory, voice, and environment. By blending several components together my two-part ultimate goal can be reached: a better fit into the domesticated artificial environment for a healthier, happier horse; and an understanding of herding dynamics and equine individualism in their environment so humans become better hosts of an animal that was not born to know fences or stalls. The Thomas Herding Technique, a phrase coined by a friend and observer, slowly took shape.

My idea is to be mobile; willing to travel anywhere, for THT's environmental aspects depend solely on the assessment of the horse in his routine environment. A foundation is only as strong as a person's willingness to build upon it. I hope to continue to learn, to understand, and to grow in order to bring the very best I can offer to each case and situation.

A future project of THT is to create the Thomas Equine Preserve, a research and education facility that allows for rare equine breeds to expand in as natural a setting as can be provided, a place for geneticists to do their work, and also a place for the public to come visit an equine zoo of sorts with interactive outreach programs. Thomas Equine Preserve would also be a way to develop programs that bring together the cathartic nature of horses with the elderly, the disabled, and the mentally impaired or emotionally challenged in need of some repair.

Horses offer so much more on a spiritual level and through an interspecies communication we have the chance to be both spiritual leader and student. In the spiritual sense I am alluding to their emotional depth, for indeed horses are reactionary, emotional creatures, and the Thomas Herding Technique works to supplement that part of the horse more than any other part.

The difference between fate and destiny is simple: fate is a future without an understanding of the past, destiny is the future, with that understanding.

Thank you,
Kerry Mark Thomas