Academy Road Test Continues and Introducing My New Horsey Project

Photo: Kelly and Tilly on the lesson today.
As this month is very much about road testing the Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy project before its launch, I am trying to use any opportunity and time possible.
I had two girls coming for lessons with me to Cane End Stud and it seemed just perfect an occasion to test drive the Academy's goodness :)
Kari The Chiropractor drove down from London and watched me teaching Kelly on her 15.2hh mare. They do a bit of everything but mostly show-jumping. Having had a confidence crisis they are now building everything back up again and little mare jumped brilliantly today.
The funny thing about confidence is that the moment you lose it, your skills go. Kelly is a competent rider and having passed BHS Stage 1 she is working her way up the BHS ladder; she is starting her instructor's course at Wellington Riding in September. Although I love teaching all sorts of riders, my main passion lies in coaching people immersed in the sport as much as possible. It makes such a difference to give a lesson to someone who really wants to improve and make both their riding and their horse better.



Once I finished with Kelly I had a chat with Kari telling her what the riders needs to improve on. Knowing what needs changing for particular skill level to increase is very important.
The chiropractic care is quite a complex subject so Kari always have a good chat with the rider in private after which she "prescribes" series of exercises/movements for the rider to practice to work on the problems that came up in the ridden lesson.

We are still trying to work out how to do it so the cost isn't prohibitive for riders. There is a lot that can be done even without wonderful fitness facilities and with minimal amount of tools. When it's beautifully dry and sunny everything can be done outside :)








Here is Kelly demonstrating some of the exercises she has to do at home before her next lesson in few weeks time:



Then off to teach Natalie on her new pony. Natalie has her BHS Stage 1 and is also off to Wellington in September. She will be taking her pony with her, it's a 14.2hh mare that must have been a trotter in her previous life as her movement in trot is the biggest you have EVER seen. She is gangly and green and have a lot to learn. The plan was to work on basics i.e. rhythm and suppleness and she ended up working really nicely into the contact. Teaching Natalie today actually made me realise something. There are different types of 'confidence' when riding. I've always said/thought I'm not very good with riders lacking in confidence but I labelled "confidence" too narrowly.
There is this type of confidence that needs to be worked on and that has nothing to do with fear/nerves/worry about a horse's behaviour. I'm talking about the confidence in one's actions...the ability to say to oneself : 'I've made a mistake and that's fine. I'm now going to make it better' - as a perfectionist who hates performance failure I can totally relate to that and work on. Not sure if I'm really expressing myself well here, maybe when I know how to describe what I mean I will attempt the subject again. Either way, it was a little revelation for me and something I want to work on getting better in my own teaching.

Photo below: Natalie and Poppy after their lesson

I am now preparing written homework for both girls and they will receive exercise diagrams from Kari tomorrow. I hope they keep up with excellent work they did today.

Considering Kari has only been working with riders for a short while I am on the mission to get her as much into the subject of relevance as possible. Seeing I am based at the yard of Craig Nicolai (New Zealand eventer entered in this year's Badminton Mitsubishi Horse Trials) I thought Kari can be thrown into deep end so I arranged for them to meet and for Craig to have a session with Kari too.

I would also like to introduce you to Hairy-Field-Monster aka Frank - my new project to play with. His posh name is Small Talk, he is by Dexter IV and out of Grade A SJ mare. But right now he is just hairy...

As owners have no time to keep him in work he has been a field ornament for about a year and was last sat on in the summer last year. He is 8 years old but about 3/4 education wise. Mission one: get on ;) I would love to event him but I will see how we go with the mission 1 first. He is a lovely character, cheeky but respectful of your space. He is also very alert and very aware of his surroundings...;) I will keep you updated. he needs his mane pulled that's for sure. Once he is looking more presentable I will post more pics.

Kingsley boy looked much freer in his movement today and just generally quite happy in himself. He really likes life and people this horse. I gave him a good groom creating a bit of a carpet on the floor - the joys of moulting ponies!

Speak soon!

April Plans & Academy's Next Step

Word of hindsight wisdom - if you're freelance, have a sicky fund ;) Not that I've got one but I would certainly like to have it.
As hard as it is not to be earning I decided to give my illness one more day as I continue having very little voice, jumpy temperature, cough and just generally feeling ill. I worked in similar states before but it always ended up dragging with me for weeks, disapearing for a moment only to return with double strength. Not worth it. I am fully aware I am not making it easy for myself working 7 days a week but right now I don't think I can do it any other way.

Right, onto the current whereabouts...

As I am now at the yard, lovely Cane End Stud, that kindly let's me use their facilities I can offer lessons for horse owners without them having to pay unrealistic amounts. I have two girls coming from London with their horses next week which I am looking forward to.
Speaking of teaching. Someone I taught once at one of my BHS exams contacted me to arrange for me coming for the day to her livery yard. Although I've done some 'training days' (don't want to call it 'clinics' as that's something top riders do!) for Riding Clubs before, this is the first properly paid teaching trip. I am very much looking forward to it and hope I can offer what the riders want/need.

ACADEMY

I have just bought a domain and hosting account for the Academy and it's all getting more and more real!
www.aspire-equestrian.com
(there isn't much there as yet) but do check back soon!

I now have to order some promo materials as well as place the adverts. Lady from Horse & Hound is due to ring me mid-April to help me with putting adverts online in the right places on H&H website. Then there are a few horsey magazines to consider on top of some non-horsey places to encourage people new to the sport.
If anyone out there knows of good places to advertise comprehensive Training Programmes for riders at all levels, adults and junior riders (12-18yrs old) from those first time in the saddle to affiliated competitors please email me at ridinginstructor at gmail com or leave a comment on here.

We will be looking to find riders with aspirations to get the best they can, improve their skills with help from a network of supporting coaching services. The Academy is partially venues based (riders without own horses can learn to ride/train at several participating Riding Centres in London, Berkshire, Kent & Surrey) partially mobile (any horse owner can have their training session at their yard providing the outside trainers/instructors are allowed). There will also be a possibility to attend training sessions on own horse at participating venues.
Descriptions of the Programmes will be released on the website on the 1st of May. To give you more of an idea here is the latest of each Programme in a nutshell:

Aspire Equestrian overview:

START - training focus here is 99% on the rider and the programme is designed as a start up for anyone who wants to begin their adventure with the sport. This is the only 'fixed' Programme and consists of 22 Lunge Lessons and is solely committed to seat education, development of balance & coordination.
Riders will also learn the basis of handling of the horses, stable management, equitation theory; we will also address rider's fitness and performance even at this early stage both for improvement but also for fun and enjoyment.
As well as providing a great start to the sport this programme can also be taken by:
-anyone wanting to re-educate their seat
-come back to riding after a long break/injury/accident
-BHS students needing to address their position in the saddle

FOUNDATION - roughly 75% rider focused, 25% horse focused. Level 1 & 2. This is a programme where most 'riding school' type riders would fit in. It's for novice/intermediate level riders learning correctness of the aids and principles of basic schooling of the horse (at Level 2).

DEVELOPMENT - roughly 65% rider training focused, 35% horse training focused.
=riders straight from Foundation Programme
=riders developing partnership with new/young horse
=riders learning to train their horse
=riders wanting to train towards 'start up' competitions (low levels unaffiliated)

PERFORMANCE - 50%/50% rider/horse training focus
=for competition riders wanting training plans to improve performance
=affiliated and higher levels unaffiliated
Some exciting plans are being made for this Programme :)

BHS Training - preparation for BHS exams for all aspiring coaches out there.

And the last news to share is that I have a possible riding project available and I'm figuring out ways to fit in riding him into my busy working schedule. Thankfully, there is a nice young rider who is happy to share the training workload with me. I will introduce the horse properly once we are up and running with it.

Nineteen days and counting - catch up with the busy week

To my amazement my good old self keeps going quite fine on my new regime. It's my nineteen day of work on the trot with no day off and I am not horizontal as yet ;)
There is a special thank you involved here to the person who took the trouble to dig out, package and sell genuine dead sea salt...my muscles are very much eternally grateful. You know when they say regarding training science that you've got to destroy muscle tissue to build a new, stronger one...Well, my muscle fibres are feeling like the living proof of that, tearing process in full swing ;) I'm not complaining by the way, I wanted to get fitter so all is good.

I'm involved in teaching University of Reading Riding Club and on Wednesday we had the Inter Uni Riding Clubs Competition. University of Reading (which has it's Riding Club base at Hall-Place Equestrian Centre) competes in Friendly League which is just a bit of competitive fun. Four teams: Reading, Exeter, Southampton and Guildford tried their skills in dressage and show-jumping in a series of shows throughout the term.
Reading Riding Club came second, Exeter taking first. Our riders did win a couple of matches in the series though.
As part of the event we had to show the horses to the riders first, then each Team took turns to draw the horses they would be riding. All good fun.

Below: getting ready to show off some of the horses for the Dressage part. This is Brandy, a super pony, about 14.1hh but moves like a horse ;) He was on fire during the presentation and made me laugh a lot. Plenty of power in his little legs.

And below is Brie, about 15hh showing off his aptitude for jumping. He has a bit of a funny side and can stop at fillers so I gave him a rather unnecessarily strong ride - he didn't put a foot wrong!

His face is saying: "Erhm, common women, it's 0.60cm not 1.30m, no need to fold like that ;) "

And here are some photos of Reading Team riders: Lucy, Jen, Amy and Jenny.

LUCY AND BRANDY

JEN AND KESTREL

AMY AND BLUE

JENNY AND BRIE

These super horses belong to Hall-Place Equestrian Centre (BHS Where To Train Centre) which is going to be one of the venues involved in my coaching project: Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy.
I think I should re-name it and call it The Night Time Project as that's when I write all the training programmes and website content! I really hope it will be a success and despite the tiredness I am still mega excited about the launch in May.
The list of people who declared the will to be involved is growing and I can tell you now that whoever decides to learn to ride and/or improve their skills via the Academy by buying a Training Programme will be in very capable hands. I have invited variety of instructors and trainers to join the team either as venue based or freelance. Knowing my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher and rider I am making sure other people involved can offer different teaching styles, more advanced skills/knowledge/experience. Hopefully in this way the Academy can cater for variety of riders at all levels.
My aim is to provide the aspiring riders with a wide spread support in various areas of training - something I wanted to find for myself when I was 16 and dreamt big riding dreams. We shall see how it works :)

Kingsley seems to be coping with his lack of tun out quite well. He rests a lot during a day having little naps in between generous helpings of hay. He is still tender in the poll area but as much as on Monday. I did all the "carrot" stretches with him, 5 neck to the withers, 5 neck to the hip, 5 down in between the front legs, same on the other side. I bet one day he will just wrap himself around to touch the hip on the other side ;) He is Mr Flexibility!
Nerve blocks are arranged for next week when Kingsley will meet yet another vet - 5th I think!

On a good note I am having more horses to ride so hopefully might start thinking more seriously about taking next exam...

It's not all work and riding. Somewhere in my 8 day week I am trying to fit a non-horsey time with my dear man. Courtesy of spring weather visiting on Tuesday we had our breakfast by the lake, nice walk in The Gardens and a little wonder around new exhibition in Serpentine Gallery.

Running another Training Day tomorrow, hope it stays drier than today ;)

I'm going to Work Over The Back Myself Soon!

All is going really well at the moment, I am developing fabulous back muscles and core muscles from constant shivering in the cold! A little bit more of the chill and I will be able to work over the back myself.
Lots of layers and my super heated jacket are keeping me sane, that and looking at exotic photographs ;)

Aspire Equestrian project is moving forwards step by step each day. I had a chat with another centre today which is located in Berkshire and will be one of the main venues; all is looking very exciting. There is still a lot to do and sometimes I would just want to go to sleep and have it all done and ready. On the other hand it's rewarding to go through it and tick each step off. When it gets tough I just look at each day as it goes and try not to think about the amount of issues still left to be sorted out.

Meeting all the various riding centres and yards made me more aware of the variety of obstacles we might have to deal with. Academy is very much focused on quality and it might go against the grain at places that are specifically "commercially" minded. I had to give up on a very interesting yard after a meeting with the manager as although our main goals were similar, agreeing to the yard's policies would mean compromising on many core philosophies the Academy carries.

Thankfully, there are some lovely venues taking part and I just can't wait to show the finished product to you all :)

Kingsley had new set of front shoes put on yesterday. I will sit on him on Friday to see how he feels, then a big day on Monday the 15th with vet and physio reassessing his future...

Getting Ready For Kent

The Academy saga continues. Two months until the launch and it's starting to get busier. Spent morning today mentally making hundreds of notes for tomorrow's meeting. I am also having the other instructor involved in the Academy meeting a chiropractor lady who will work on rider's performance side of things so hope they can find common ground as it's always easier to work with people who get on with each other.

I am waiting for Vista Print to have free offer on a product I am interested in using for promotional materials and once it's on I will order the first lot.
Keep your fingers crossed for some exciting outcome in Kent. Morning there, then back to London to teach till late evening.

More Venues To Teach At

The lovely yard where Kingsley moved to is happy for me to teach there so I need to arrange for some ways of making the most of this opportunity.
Here it is: CANE END STUD; if you would like lessons with me there on your own horse please contact me via here or email ridinginstructor at gmail dot com.

Sleep?

I should really go to bed now but we have 3 new episodes of Lost ready to watch so.....

The Time has come...

...for my probably most exciting and definitely the biggest project to start taking shape.
Please join us on here: ASPIRE EQUESTRIAN RIDING ACADEMY to hear about all the updates on the project as well as to be informed when the Academy's website goes live.
Keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck - it will be a difficult journey to get the Academy up and running properly and I will keep you all in the know about our highs and lows via this blog.

I am sitting next to my patio doors and, as I type, the snow is falling down with massive, fluffy flakes I am basically imprisoned in own house as almost nobody is riding and those who want can't get to the yards anyway!
Kingsley is put on full livery and having enforced box time too as there is no turn out and we can't get to the yard to walk him indoors.

Working From Home

I had an office day today spent on putting all my Academy scribbles into a PowerPoint presentation that I can drag with me and show to the people involved. It's been over 6 months since the whole idea was born and it has gone through a lot of changes. This is all thanks to some fabulous friends who don't mind taking time to let me know their views.
It will probably change a lot still before it goes live but I think we are slowly arriving at a workable scheme that is both exciting and realistic.
What really needs to be addressed is the financial side of the project. I am never that great at organising the money, if it was my choice I would do it all just for fun. But as the world haven't found Fun currency as yet I need to sort it all out.

I went for a lovely meal with Jenny, Mariana and Little Daniel with an aim to brainstorm the Academy's ideas and polish up the parts of it that are going to do the job. Little Daniel decided that glasses of wine are there for his toy lion and toy train to submerge in so it was a rather entertaining dinner.

Writing the content for the Academy's website is a mammoth of a job. It will be online in 3 languages - English, Czech and Polish (or 4/5 - if I can bully my German/Dutch friend and rider to translate the content;) and will be advertised in all these countries.
Keep your fingers crossed for possibly the biggest and most exciting project I have ever undertaken!

On another note, I have just agreed another shadowing day with Anna R-D this month so I am very much looking forward to that.

Day Off

My teaching was cancelled today, one of the things that are rather unsettling when you freelance, especially that the cancellations very often come day before and not much else can be arranged for in such a short space of time.

I thought it would be a good idea to do some resting but I am not convinced one day of rest is so beneficial. I actually feel my bones and joints more! Must be ceasing up. After half a day leisurely in bed I played a very very good housewife and spent good few hours spring -winter cleaning the kitchen and catching up with washing. Things I never have time for.

I am now trying to draw a site map of the website for riding academy I am working on so Rick can have an idea what needs to be built and how extensive it will need to be. I am aiming at a decent amount of content which will include not only the information on the actual services I and the others in the academy team will provide, but also various interesting articles on horse and rider training. To give you an example, one of my riders is a professional fitness trainer managing his own studio and I am roping him in into writing a series of articles on how to work on different muscles to aid riding progress.

I know it's going to look great. And it must do as I have some more plans connected to it.

Next Station Stop: Upupandsmile

Having been in and out of trains and buses and running in between yards and towns today I am very much enjoying the evening at home - just finished watching yet another Attenborough's documentary and I am sitting here munching my well deserved apple and cinnamon cake. Nature programmes, cakes and tea are firm part of my definition of cosy.

In fact, that's what I really like about winter. The evenings when you can wrap up in warm scent of sweet spices, the hot cups of tea. Back in Poland, my friends and I used to meet up after riding and watched some training videos trying to warm up after being out in -20C for hours. I miss those times. I certainly don't miss the cold and I am loving the English October this year.

Following a little lie in I went to do Kingsley in the morning. We had a show at the yard and as I didn't have anywhere quiet to ride him I decided against doing so. It's probably better for him not to engage into any gallops under saddle and as quiet as he is I doubt he would not react to the commotion of the show. Darling boy destroyed yet another haynet, he seems to have a knack!

Kingsley done I set off to the yard of someone I used to work with and who offered for me to come and ride her event horses. Now, that was an opportunity not to be missed especially that I am planning to take my Stage IV in summer next year so really need more hours in the saddle.

I really enjoyed riding all four but totally fell in love with a little chestnut, I could take him home there and then! I am convinced that horses are just so built that they either suit the way you are built and the way you ride or they not. I guess you could compare it that great pair of boots, which although new, just feels right. Or a pair of perfectly fitting gloves. You put them on and they feel like second skin from the word go.

With horses, those that fit you, ride as if you've been riding them for years even though you have just sat on them for the first time. I am hoping to make some time to be able to ride them all again in a couple of weeks.

As fabulous as it was I am so unused to schooling for so long anymore that I am now rather exhausted! It's been ages since I'd been riding several horses a day and I can tell you my muscles are aching. In the same time though it feels great to have a sit on some competition horses and although I am sure I didn't really do them justice they coped with me well :)

On the life front, thanks to my Dear Man and a very generous friend I have sorted a few money problems. I love my job but god, it does need to pay more :(

Small miracle - my dad found a way for my granddad to have a life saving operation and he is now back home recovering well.

On the work front - I can now tell you that my little project, which will be called Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy, should be going life before the end of this year. Initially I was waiting for more opportunities to get it going but overlooked the one I had under my very nose. The Intensive Training Days I've been running since January and which were to be an integral part of Aspire Equestrian's programme, will now be the main part until I put all the other elements together. As I mentioned before, as much as I enjoy teaching beginner riders I need to add some quality to it all as otherwise I become demotivated and uninspired in my work.

Things won't happen overnight but I am doing a lot of prep work in the evenings (or nights more like) and slowly slowly the puzzles of random ideas starting to slot together.

Very long working day tomorrow as doing Pony Day AM, then teaching as usual PM till late.

Little horse passed the 5 stage vetting - meet the new project :)

These photos were taken when I first went to try him just after I rode him. As you can see he needs to build the muscles in the right places and put condition on. He's turned 5 yrs old, 15.2hh ish gelding, unknown breeding with some anglo-arab blood, has the sweetest nature but most of all fantastic work ethic which is what I like in the horse. And he loves to jump - as added bonus ;))

He is going to stay at the seller's yard until I am back from holiday and then the fun can begin :)

He is very green on the flat so the idea is to bring him on and either sell or he will be the first horse for the Equestrian Academy (more news on the latter very soon!). That is providing Pauline doesn't fall in love with him totally and wants to keep him for herself once he's schooled up :)

Right, off I go to finish packing my suitcase and catch a train. If I have the time I will blog from Poland, otherwise I shall "see" you in 5 days. I will try to take as many pics and videos as possible :)

For those who don't know, here's a link to my destination: http://www.worldcupstrzegom.pl/

Subject to Vetting Take 2!

Fast pace day today. Not a great start as my train was delayed so I missed the next connecting one which made me half an hour late for work.

After some early morning lessons I then spent the rest of the day running one of my Intensive Training Day for Pauline. She is now at a stage when she is learning how to ride a horse to the contact and put it on the bit as well as pushing her riding fitness levels. The session on light seat and jumping seemed to worn my poor rider out ;) More of those needed!

Over the years I noticed that many riders, when they are first taught poll flexion and jaw flexion, go through a stage of riding with straight arms and very low hands in a desperate attempt to keep the horse 'round'. We had a bit of the same problem today but we are working on it. It's the case of what the legs and seat didn't manage to produce the hand tries to correct so the main focus today was on understanding the need for creating energy rather than speed and sending it to the bit rather than creating standalone jaw flexion.

Working day over Pauline and I went to view a horse that is a potential project for us to have a bit of fun with as well as being a potential horse for the Equestrian Academy project.

Little horse went really well, he is by no means perfect but is nice enough, have a lovely attitude to work being also responsive and very sweet natured. We are going to have him vetted and providing that goes well he will be bought.

Me on the other side of camera - video from my lesson today

It's normally me who is filming everything so I rarely have any footage of my own lessons. Swapped places today hence below you can watch a snippet from my lesson on lovely Hamlet. On the video we are working on him accepting my half-halts and staying over the back through transitions. As you can see it's still a long way to go.

Considering how long he was off work Hammie is feeling great and has really strengthened since I last saw him. We warmed up long and low which he loves and really loosens up and relaxes.

The challenge now is to get him to work up and soften in half-halts. I've got loads of things to work on too so most of those moments when he goes really tense and hollow are the pilot timing errors!

M. is a good instructor, makes me think and work which I like and I really enjoyed my lesson. We met earlier today to discuss the Academy Project over lunch and looks like she will be joining the team :) Something we talked about today gave me a light bulb moment and I came up with a perhaps genius idea on how to move a few things forward.

But now, I am going to submerge in a lovely bubble bath and relax completely :)

P.S. Many Thanks to Jenny for a super day :) xxx

Life is like a trumpet...

Pic.above: The result of today's make over I gave to one of the horses. Bushy mane pulling, tail trimming, whiskers off (yard's way of turning out), ears trimming, lots of washing liquid, face wash, Johnson's baby oil-ed muzzle & nostrils (he loved that!), feet scrubbed and washed, hooves oiled (black on fore hooves, natural on hinds') and a thorough groom. After all this I thought he deserved a photo :)

I did have help with this but we ended up having hose fight and our turn out could be summarised: soggy and well foamed!

.................................................

Life is like a trumpet - if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it.
William Christopher Handy

.................................................

Lovely, sunny day with some really nice clients. It was rather quiet what with people going away on holidays but that let us catch up with a lot of yard work and making the horses look all fantastic.

It's the part of horse ownership I really miss - playing around with massive sponges and trimmers and grooming kits. I don't miss 5am starts, mucking out and late winter nights doing evening chores though ;)

Right, I have to polish off the Academy info for the meeting on Monday! Thinking, thinking, thinking.

I am also going to have a lesson on Hamlet, can't wait! It will be me sweating and working hard for a change which my riders might be pleased to hear ;)

But first, full day teaching tomorrow.

Ok, so decision has been made...and a snippet pre-view of my Project...

Following today's meeting, my Big Little Project has gotten all clear so decision has been made. I am going to invest my time, my current knowledge and passion into this Project. This means lots and lots of teaching and not enough riding. It's my forever dilemma: to teach or to ride? To earn a living or live in the saddle on bread and water?

I had to be brutally honest with myself and if it means I don't have what it takes then so be it. I am not prepared to damage my health by living rough and riding horses nobody wants to ride because they are too dangerous. Part of me admires people who do it and their determination to get to the top of the game but having spent months in hospital in my youth I quite cherish life on my own feet. I have no financial back up to buy and most of all to compete & produce nice young horses (thing I would love to do). Neither do I have my family with me here should I want to try competing on a shoestring. Neither do I have an outstanding talent to be spotted by Mystical Lottery Funding. I am a foreigner so nobody here would ever feel any national pride to do with my hidden Olympic talents ;) Hence, sponsorship highly unlikely!

Let's start from the beginning though so as not to make things too confusing (which can sometimes be my forte;).

Initially I wanted to wait with the decision until after the exam but life as always in my case seems to happen when I make other plans ;) This time in a positive context.

I mentioned not so long ago (post here) about various thoughts on future plans. Due to an unfortunate event that is costing me a small fortune and digs into my savings we can't pursue the initial plans of moving out of London. It took me a few weeks to deal with this without feeling angry but hey, what happens happens and we have to find the good sides in everything.

The thinking behind the move was to make it possible for me to increase own training and go back into competing more seriously.

This being no longer an option I put together many little ideas I've been pondering on for quite some time which resulted in creating a brief/pitch of an equestrian academy project. It's a unique training arrangement project for pleasure riders.

The below is a fragment of the brief I wrote for the owner of the yard where I will have my London/Surrey base. One of the reasons it took the shape it did is that I think there is such fantastic net of support here for people who already own horses and ponies but a pleasure rider, a potential owner to be, a potential top class rider-some-day-in-future, is very much left alone without enough support. Having worked at various places, from big yards to tiny stables, I am starting to see the gaps and reasons for lack of retention of clients so I am hoping to address that while continuing my learning...

[What is the (name to be added) EQUESTRIAN ACADEMY? The Academy is an idea of a freelance riding instructor passionate about the sport, the well being of school horses and riders’ development who wanted to create a very unique training experience for a pleasure rider.

* You may find that an average riding school service of an hour ride-and-go doesn’t suit you and you would want to learn more about horse care and the training of both the horse and a rider as athletes.

* You may be looking for an interesting, fascinating sport to be involved in.

* You may have your own horse but would love to experience a structured, focused coaching.

* OR you may have started thinking about a horse of your own, but are concerned about where to start, the extent of the commitment and whether you are experienced enough to take on such a responsibility.

The Academy gives you a chance to join in a one of a kind experience of FUN, SKILL, FITNESS AND HEALTHY LIFESTYLE while participating in a FABULOUS SPORT.

Joining the academy and how does it work?

The Academy is designed to develop the rider as an athlete via varied, professional and exciting Programme. We welcome riders and riders-to-be of ALL levels from 12 yrs old to 62 and upwards, whether you always wanted to ride but never found a good time to have a go, whether you’ve been riding for years, are a once a week rider or are a horse owner already, please do read on.

Joining the Academy is like having a very special Personal Trainer who not only keeps you fit but also makes sure you have plenty of fun along the way and learn the ins and out of a very unique, fascinating sport where you work in harmony with another living creature.

You will have access to an exciting Training Programme (incorporating both sports specific and generic elements) and Training Schedule written especially for you as well as being able to treat the Academy Horse as if it was your own.

The monthly fee for The Academy is (TBC) per calendar month if joining the 6 monthly Programme and includes the following...]

Full details to follow, all I can promise is that it's nothing a pleasure rider will find anywhere else in the country...

Once the exam is over and done with I will have, among million of other things, a grand task of writing a business plan for the Project, putting it all in legitimate writing in a form of a contract, setting up another meeting with yard owner to sign off the contract, finding suitable horses to buy to join the team we already have, build a marketing plan for the Project and make it known...

It's all very exciting as well as scary in the same time! I am hoping I can cope with the extent of it and that I am not going for something I can't bite. I *know* I can do this well but in the same time it will be jumping into deep waters! What if it doesn't work? It does. It will. What if it doesn't? You get the picture...

What will be will be. Either way, you will know about it.

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”

Charles F. Kettering

Something Special for London riders and riders-to-be

Somewhere in between my teaching, riding, learning, revising and trying to find time to sleep I've been working my brains on something really special for London riders and riders-to-be. I didn't want to talk too much about it (and still won't yet!) as I wanted first to at least get the go-ahead from the yards I want to base the project at. They are happy to discuss further so keep your fingers crossed :) 

Once every all clear is given and we get going I will post every little detail. For now, please lots of positive vibes will be great!