William’s Father was Dick Micklem, a horse dealer and young horse
specialist who used similar methods to Monty Roberts, learnt from
Argentine polo players. Therefore William was brought up surrounded
by horses and ponies William at the family home near Truro in Cornwall
in the West of England.

He and his sister, Marianne, and three brothers, John, Charlie, and
David, spent a youth full of Pony Club activities and hunting with the
Fourburrow Hunt, but ponies and horses were always sold on. Therefore
it was not surprising that William took six different ponies and horses
to the inter branch area horse trials, making the national championships
three times and being short listed for both the British Junior horse
trials and show jumping teams.William also passed his
Pony Club 'A' certificate with honours duing this time.
However living in Cornwall always made access
to higher level coaching and competition difficult.

All the Micklem brothers have continued to be involved with horses,
with John now dealing and coaching in Ireland after specialising in show
jumping; Charlie coaching in Wiltshire, England, after a successful
career as a very talented National Hunt jockey and Horse Trials rider;
and David coaching and course designing and building in Cornwall, England.

After passing his British Horse Society Instructors Certificate (BHSI)
in 1973 William went to work as chief instructor for Robert Hall in both
Fulmer, England, and Pepperell, USA, which is when he began a lifetime
equestrian association with Karen O’Connor, before coming to Ireland
to work for Bord na gCapall (The Irish Horse Board) in 1976.
It was in Ireland at this stage that he began using his unique tool for
improving performance, Habitual Hats.
He also started training the Irish Junior and Young Rider
Horse Trials Teams and designed Ireland’s renowned
Golden Saddle Scheme for top young competition riders from Dressage,
Show Jumping and Horse Trials. He passed his Fellowship of the British
Horse Society in 1981.

The difficulties of achieving a long term approach to coaching the Irish
Juniors was fundamental to his decision to leave Ireland in 1987
and take up the position as Training Director at the Gleneagles Mark
Phillips Equestrian Centre, in Scotland.
Subsequently in 1993 he returned to Co Wicklow in Ireland,
where he married Sarah and they started both a family, with three children,
Leo, Sam and Holly, and their elite horse breeding programme.
He also began to write more intensively, culminating with the
publication by Dorling Kindersley of The Complete Horse Riding Manual,
and as a Equestrian Federation of Ireland Tutor helped
develop the internationally accepted coach education structure.
He remains based at his Annacrivey Stud in Co Wicklow, Ireland.