About Me

Ride With Your Mind Accredited Coach (Biomechanics)

UKCC Level 2 Coaching Certificate

BHSAI (Registered)

Crossfields Institute Level 5 Diploma in Equine Facilitated Human Development (VRQ) certificate (Cert. EFHD).

 

I have been involved with horses all of my life, and having started out as a pony mad girl, my ambition was to compete at Horse of the Year Show.

Ive done that twice now, and whilst I still enjoy competition, I’m now more focussed on the teaching and training side of the equestrian world.  I love learning, and I believe that where horses are concerned, there is so much to learn and understand, that one lifetime probably isn’t going to be  enough.  My particular interest is in how horses and humans learn.

Despite being capable and intelligent, I struggled at school, and it wasn’t until I had my first Ride With Your Mind riding lesson in 2001, that I realised that I was a kinaesthetic learner. I now know that I learn best if I am moving around, and to acquire a new skill, I have to feel it, and do it.  This revelation also helped me understand why as a younger adult, I failed to make any progress in my riding, as all the instruction was given to me as declarative statements. That is, I was told how I should look and how the horse should look, and even shouted at when I couldn’t convert the words into actions! What I wasn’t getting was any procedural information, ie the bite size chunks of a skill that would combine to learn the whole skill. These bite size chunks also had to be fed to me in a way that both my brain and my body could make sense of.

I now am much more empowered as a learner, and as a rider I have improved way beyond my dreams. I just wish there was more hours in the day!

From my first Ride With Your Mind lesson, I became fascinated with the approach, and since then its been by goal to assist other riders to make a fast-forwards in their learning, and be able to acquire talent and skills through their own learning styles.

My clients range from children building their confidence and having fun, through to riders who like to get the best from their hacking, and those who are focussed on competitive goals.

I offer riding lessons and coaching for both flatwork and jumping to clients across Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex. I run clinics and workshops anywhere in the UK.

I train regularly with renowned author and international coach Mary Wanless at Overdale Equestrian Centre.  This includes co-teaching on her intensive courses to enhance my own coaching skills, and participating myself as a student on intensive courses. Also, I attend yearly Teacher Training for flatwork and jumping and other specialist courses that Mary offers.

I believe that training on the ground is as important, if not more, than ridden training, and my coaching encompasses the essential tools of in-hand training and how they dovetail into the successful application of ridden training.

Interested in a lesson? Drop me an email or give me a quick call to chat about what you are looking to achieve with your riding. I’d love to hear from you.

My Horses

Razzle Roisin

Rosie is now retired from ridden work and is currently on loan to Rebecca Lock of the Sherlock Stud.  She is my pony of a lifetime and from very ordinary beginnings we went all the way from novice showing to Horse of the Year show in the CHAPS ridden championships

Mister Dooleyman

Dooley is my homebred five year old son of Rosie, and is by Commanche Ace.  He is bred as a traditional cob, and has enough versatility to show at top level, and be an all round family member! He has already had outstanding results in hand and under saddle in coloured classes, and I am now slowly and carefully producing him for dressage. In his first few outings he has scored over 66% at affiliated prelim.

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Ladalco Star

Sadly I had to sell Starsky in spring 2012, however he is now very happy with Zoe Gwenup at Colraine Equestrian Centre in Cornwall.  Although he’s not my horse anymore, its important for him to be mentioned as I owe a great deal of my learning to him, and I wouldn’t be where I am now, without his help.

My Favourite Horsey Five!

5 items I just wouldn’t be without!

1. My 25 metre long reins, for working horses on the ground in a larger circle.
2. My iPad, for giving clients instant photographic and video feedback during their lessons.
3. My Port Lewis impression pad – for instant feedback on the fit of a saddle, providing useful information to a saddler.
4. Pikeur Lugana breeches! Expensive, but very hard wearing and comfortable, well worth the investment.
5. My 27 yr old Horsebox, it’s never let me down, and has everything I need. It might not be an Oakley, but I love the saying “its not what you turn up in, it’s what comes down the ramp that matters”

Interested in a lesson? Drop me an email or give me a quick call to chat about what you are looking to achieve with your riding. I’d love to hear from you.