Horse psychic

Cooper Wilson, "The Yorkshire Horseman", on overcoming his fear of derision to use his clairsentience, tapping into horses' souls and improving their lives

I’m just a working man that has a gift and wants to help horses.

I learned to ride at about five, and I was nine or 10 when I knew I could do things differently – though at that age I thought everyone could. Lots of people don’t see a horse as a soul that can think for itself and make its own choices. I’m very spiritual. You have a spirit guide, even if you don’t want to know about it, we all have them, we’re all given one at birth.

Dad was a hunt servant working in the hunt kennels in the 1960s and they used to bring fallen stock to him.

He wouldn’t put them down unless they were suffering and I’d look after them. When I was older I watched the vets doing post-mortems and learned about anatomy and from that I got wrapped up in horses.

I had a stroke at 36, which left me with a heart condition for a short while.