RWYM
LINKS
Dressage Training TV – This is a membership site where we present a cohesive learning, training and schooling system for riders of all levels.
jeremyrudgesaddlery.co.uk The wonderful Jeremy Rudge and his partner and saddlefitter Amy, have made me a wonderful saddle for Domino, our new school horse who is a great guy. We are collaborating on the kind of saddle shape that supports good biomechanics…. they are well worth consulting on your saddle difficulties.
penniehooper.com – Pennie is a fantastic equine sports massage therapist who visits Overdale on my courses to treat participants horses. I am always extremely happy to get her diagnosis, especially on horses who seem compromised or troubled, and she is very good at giving you remedial stretches and exercises to do with your horse at home. She comes highly recommended!
equestrianconfidence.com – This is the website of Jo Cooper, and she is the person you need to speak to regarding issues about confidence and performance. Her clients include people who are scared to ride following a fall etc, as well as riders competing in the various disciplines at high level who know they are being negatively affected by competition nerves.There’s lots of information on her website, and remarkably she can work on the phone – perfect for all time zones! I can personally testify to the effectiveness of her work with a variety of riders.
heatherblitz.info – This is the website of Heather Blitz, winner of team Gold and individual Silver at the Pan Am games with her own horse Paragon in Mexico 2011. Heather has been my pupil for over 15 years, and embodies my teachings of rider biomechanics better than anyone alive. She has also developed her own understanding of training that brilliantly uses Equine Learning Theory – in other words, she has reinvented the wheel that has been described by Dr. Andrew McLean following his PhD that set out to define how horses learn. Congratulations to Heather, and all my good wishes for 2012 and the journey to London. It is so exciting to be part of this, and I am really looking forward to our next clinic in Wellington in March!
aebc.com.au – This is the website of Andrew McLean and the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre. Andrew is a Zoologist, and former member of the Australian Three Day Event team. After he had the blinding insight that how he trained horses bore no resemblance to all he had learned about animal behaviour and learning through Zoology, he set about doing a PhD to research how horses learn, and the implications of Equine Learning Theory for riding and training them. The results delineate a system that good trainers have instinctively used at least part of, without really knowing what they were doing and why. There are increasing links between my organisation and his, and I look forward to develping this collaboration.
anatomytrains.com. – This is the website of Tom Myers, the wonderful bodyworker, developer and teacher of bodywork, and functional anatomist, whose research shows us how muscles and connective tissue work in linked chains. These form ‘lines of pull’ within the body. As an example, consider the relative tension between the superficial front line (SFL) and superficial back line (SBL), that go from head to (hind) foot along the belly and back of both horse and rider. This determines if they are round backed or hollow backed. Elite riders are able to balance the tension within those lines, in both themselves and the horse, where less organised riders are unable to find the extra stability and strength within their own lines to stop them from being distorted by imbalances in the horse’s lines. You do not have to be ‘into’ anatomy to enjoy this website.