About
NEWSFLASH- get your seat analyzed on my new riding simulator. Check them out at www.Racewood.com—
Effective riding is intentional and systematic. In order to achieve the result you desire (beautifully arched neck, springy gait, compliance, etc), it is important to have a plan to guide your ride each day. These lessons provides a mechanism to help you know how to develop that plan before you get on the horse so that you have an organized, purposeful, deliberate and satisfying ride. Otherwise, your horse is likely to meander around the arena, haphazardly altering his rhythm, spinal alignment and direction without you even noticing that dysfunctional deviations are occurring. Indeed, horses can make quite a long list of subtle decisions, of which riders are commonly unaware: how the head is carried, which foot moves first, whether there is appropriate tension on each rein, how quick or slow/long or short each stride is, whether the shoulders are in line with the hips, whether the hind legs are legitimately pushing, and so forth. Certainly, horses are not thinking about what will improve the quality of their performance. That is why YOU need to decide in advance what you are going to focus on during any given ride. Riding is a systematic work-in-progress that requires monitoring both yourself and the horse every step of the way. Knowing where to begin, how to recognize and diagnose issues in both yourself and your horse and discovering how to employ the interconnected network of aids (seat, reins, legs, weight) needed to bring forth that fulfilling ride can be learned.
I love helping people understand what makes their horse tick. It's fun to give people the tools they need to ride their horse effectively and achieve the results they seek. Helping people replicate intentional success is rewarding.
Highlights
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Chelsea R.
Paige M.
Laura H.
Kelsey L.
Sarah K.
Michelle Peck W.
Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
You must have access to a horse and I come to you
1. Ask student goals
2. Evaluate horse and rider ability & knowledge
3. Tell how and why to do things: focus on comprehension
4. Develop horse and rider awareness of each other
5. Help rider make logical plan for practice that emphasizes self-monitoring, self-reflection
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have been riding for 50+ years and I have a voracious appetite for learning. I sought out a wide variety of disciplines (halter, jumping, saddleseat, reining, dressage, racing, gaited, etc), and numerous breeds (Arabians, Warmbloods, Saddlebreds, Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, etc), and immersed myself in each realm for at least a decade. Consequently, I was fortunate to have learned from many significant individuals in each field and I have compiled the most useful guidance from each. Moreover, I have ridden hundreds of horses, which has allowed me to discern which techniques are universally effective with a wide variety of equine temperaments. I have also taught a plethora of riding lessons to people with vastly varying ability levels, belief systems, goals and personality types and have achieved comparable success for all. Lastly, I am an educator, a (retired) science teacher, education consultant and high school principal by trade. I spent a career devising ways of making baffling science concepts relatable, meaningful and useful, teaching teachers how to create and present lesson plans, teaching people how to teach people how to write, coaching the integration of critical thinking into lesson plans and helping people learn to formulate higher order questions. I have a lifetime of training and experience in how to teach, how to learn and how to think, thus I bring that perspective to this endeavor.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
$50 per lesson
lessons do not have a set length of time. Usually they are around 45 minutes, but it depends on how things are going. We don't stop because the timer ran out.
depending on how far I have to go, their might be a need for a fuel surcharge.
How did you get started teaching?
I have been teaching for 30 years. I really enjoy helping people achieve success.