Lindsey - first Training Day

Training Day in The Rain

Kiran

Pauline - learning the technics of Sitting Deep

Pauline

Suzanne, Sara and Anja

Liz and Sharon

Flis

Pauline

Pauline

Caroline & Sue / First Training Day

Feedback from the riders:

"Hi Wiola

I have forwarded the link to Sue!

Thank you so much for sending the completed link so soon - do you ever rest?!

I tried to add a comment for you, but I didn't get the hang of how to do it so I have copied it below for you to add if you would like to:-

Sue and I had a wonderful day, thanks to Wiola! We both enjoyed every minute, even the most challenging minutes that involved our legs and stomach muscles! We found our riding just got better and better throughout the day as we remembered (and were gently reminded) of what we needed to improve. We are looking forward to session 2! Thanks again Wiola for all your hard work and genuine enthusiasm. Caroline"

My pleasure! :) Thank you for your lovely comment and see you soon!

Liz - second Training Day, several months into riding education

Kiran soaking up more knowledge

Escaping into dry & warm indoors after getting kitted out into jods and proper riding boots!

Kiran...has a dream

Kiran has a dream. She wants to be the first Indian woman show-jumper. I haven't personally done any research on this subject but she claims Indian women are nowhere to be found in the equestrian world. Riding is seen as an inappropriate hobby or just unnecessary activity. 

So Kiran has a dream. Whether she will pursue it further than taking part in an unaffiliated show I don't know. I hope she will. Either way, after several months of polishing the very basics including a few months on the lunge, I am now introducing Kiran to 'baby jumps'. From now on she will be learning to ride to become a jumper and I will keep you posted on her progress. She rides with me once a week at one of the London's riding schools and has two Training Days each month. I divided her Training Programme into Sessions which in turn are divided into individual Lessons.

VIDEOS Coming SOON!

Claire and Fran - Reading University Riding Club Riders preparing for Mini Badminton event

To say it's a lot of fun teaching Reading Uni Riding Club is an understatement ;) They are a hilarious group of fantastic people who really do want to learn to ride well and are one of the most rewarding of clients. 

Claire and Fran booked Intensive Training Day both to prepare for the Riding Club Mini Badminton One Day Event and to work on their riding technique in general. 

Riding Plan of the Day in a nutshell:

Flatwork: Our focus was on improving balance and control over the horse's way of going, precise aids and accurate riding of the Prelim 18 British Dressage test (one the girls will ride at their event next week) - 2 hours

Show-Jumping: Both riders admitted to have problems with accurate steering towards the jumps and flowing linking of the fences when jumped as a course. We worked on using the outside aids for turning to improve balance and straightness as well as on developing a show-jumping canter - 1 hour

XC: This was certainly a test of how positive the riders were and whether they could trust the horses they never rode across country! Although they started off a little reluctant (including Claire departing the horse and taking the bridle with her!) once they got going there was no stopping them! - 1 hour

WATCH IT ALL ON VIDEO 

Liz

This is Liz's first Training Day where she starts learning about ins and outs of horsey world. Liz started riding after her friend got impatient with her looking-for-a- place-to ride marathon and finally booked her in for a lesson in a little London riding school. As a result she has been taking 30 minutes once a week lessons with me for the past couple months and seems rather hooked. Apart from working hard when necessary to make sure Liz improves nicely we are also having plenty of fun investigating the laws of gravitation ;)

Amber and Laura

Amber and Laura started having lessons with me a couple of months ago at a lovely little riding centre in Surrey. They both grew fascinated by intricacies of riding and decided to travel to Berkshire to attend their first Training Day, first of hopefully many to come! 

In the last weeks we worked on body awareness, balance and started to develop the seat. Today was Amber and Laura's first proper lesson off the lunge.  

Day Plan:

12.00 Start and Intro to the Day

12.15-1.15 Learning about aids coordination off the lunge & Riding Theory. During this session riders rode one at a time while the other played the role of an instructor (with my help of course). The mission was to try to spot the mistakes and find ways to help become more effective in the saddle. I find that riders learn much quicker when they can observe each other actively i.e. they take part in the both the teaching and learning process.

Result: increase in confidence and we found out how bossy Amber can be!  

1.15-2.15 Lunch 

2.15-3.00 Introduction to grooming a stabled horse. 

Quick Coffee Break

3.15-4.00 Learning to tack up and prepare horses to be ridden

4.15-5.30 Further work on balanced position, control and coordination of the aids followed by woodland ride and care of horses after they've been ridden.

Day summary.

Watch it all on the Video:

Gregory - yet another first go at XC, the hard work on the lunge and relaxing hack

Sara, Katya and Maddie - First go at the XC

and let's not forget Freddie!

Pauline - Cross Country Training Day

Pauline's Day Plan:

12.00-1.00 Field session. 

Working on balancing the horse over undulated terrain in walk, trot and canter on straight lines, diagonal lines across the undulation, circles of various sizes. Extending and collecting the canter up and down the slopes. Control and straightness.

As Pauline has a tendency to tip forwards and not ride the horse from leg to hand consistently we tried the following picture-feel to help her:

Imagine your horse is a balloon filled with air and you sit in the middle of it. Your mission is to keep the air towards the front of the balloon by gently closing your legs around it and sitting vertical, centred on your seat bones. If you tip forwards and stop closing the legs 'from back to front' the air will escape backwards. If you apply too much leg pressure you will burst the balloon. 

Just by sitting centred and riding the horse from the back to front Pauline made a marked difference to the rhythm and balance of the trot. 

1.00 - 2.00 Lunch time

2.00 - 3.30 XC session

3.30-4.00 Care of the horse after XC

4.00-4.15 Short break to catch a breath

4.14-5.15 Hack out & care of the horse after hacking

Watch all this on video: