The cat and the Mark Rashid book that happen among teaching hours

I swear this cat hunts me. Not for meat, mind you, but for play. He waits for the right moment like when I stand still for a minute or there's a change over of horses so I am not occupied. Then he runs over for his share of attention :)

I also picked up this book today while waiting for a lift back to the station. I wish I had to wait a little longer because the book was "Horses Never Lie" by Mark Rashid, one I wanted to get my hands on for a while now.
It reads fast and I managed a couple of chapters before setting off and hope it's still at the yard next time so I can fit in more pages ;)

From all strands of "natural horsemanship" Mark Rashid's lessons of the horse's nature and thoughts of training agree most with me. There are, of course, bits and pieces that one can take out of any system and find it beneficial for different horses in different situations. However, for me personally, Rashid's view of relationship between horse and people is most intriguing and worth following...

What if your eyes could see through the skin and spot any sign of lameness?

It is said to be "40 times more sensitive than the human hand"* and "an exciting and cutting edge tool in diagnosis"**. Veterinary Thermal Imaging or Thermography is indeed a clever, completely non-invasive and very low stress way of getting inside a horse's body...

Back in December, Veterinary Thermal Imaging Ltd took part in a Christmas Gift Guide I ran on my other blog. They offered a very good discount for my readers at the time and one of my clients took advantage of the offer to enable her to investigate issues she has had with her horse. When VTI's consultant, Helen Morrell, arrived to take images of J., I made sure I could be there with my camera.

I have known J. since July last year and his issues baffled me since I started helping the owner with his rehab programme. Ever since Kingsley's saga, I am hooked on biomechanics and try to educate my eye for abnormalities in movement as well as real good movement, at any occasion.

At least 50% of horses I meet on my teaching path have some body issues - some are reasonably easy to resolve with good schooling, some definitely need veterinary or physio help. J'/s owner and I compiled a series of videos of him on the lunge, in-hand, ridden, walked up and down the hill etc. It really helps to re-watch the footage later with fresh mind. Slight over-rotation of pelvis to one side or the other, vertical balance on the lunge, mechanics of each joint as the horse walks up the hill - all these register well, I find, when there isn't blasting wind and cold or rain lashing about.

Drying J. before VTI's arrival. He was rather wet after a night and morning of downpours (he lives out and doesn't really like to use his field shelter) so we got on his case with towels from 10.30am ;) 

The reason I was really excited at seeing these images was that they let me connect what I felt from the horse when riding him and what I saw watching him with what really might be happening deep inside his tissues.

Here is a whole process of Thermography on a video with J. as a main character :)




Late again on here as got side tracked reading about thermography - I wish we knew about this option when we were searching for Kingsley's issues. He could have been saved being stabbed and prodded with various nerve blocks and injections and pointless investigations of body parts that were not problematic at all. Have you ever used this diagnostic tool?

 * http://veterinary-thermal-imaging.com/veterinary-thermography-and-animal-thermal-imaging/history-of-thermography

** http://veterinary-thermal-imaging.com/veterinary-thermography-and-animal-thermal-imaging/history-of-thermography

Experimenting with flavours and health

Most repetitive points of life that have to be done every day bore me beyond oblivion. Just to give you an idea of an extent of that boredom, I sometimes prefer to just drink two cartons of thick smoothie that would fill me up for most of the day just so I don't have to go shopping for food one more freaking time.

My current favourite breakfast: porridge oats with Fruit & Nut mix, Chia seed and honey - all in  warm milk. Also - my not-so-favourite green veg that I tried for the first time two days ago. Tastes okay but texture is dreadful :-/

It's not so much the act of going to the shop as such but also having to make decisions about what to eat, how to make it and then making it. Every. Blooming. Day. 

But. There is a big but! I do love fresh, flavoursome food. I do believe we are what we eat and what we put into ourselves can either make us feel well or very much not.

In order to break that shopping boredom I gave myself a challenge of trying some new foods this year. It's not going well ;) The ingredients I would like to add more of to my eating habits are various greens which I am not a big fan of. There is just something about the texture that puts me off. 

Could be the case of getting used to it? 

I'm not really interested in any diets but rather in ways of making food - shopping and food - making more of an adventure rather than a chore. If any of you writes a food blog with easy, healthy recipes out of fresh produce (as little processed food as possible) please let me know :) 

It's been a long day today running my Intensive Training Day for two fabulous ladies, lots of fun and plenty of hard work as usual. My internet connection behaved well and I have all the videos uploaded and ready for sending to the riders tomorrow which makes my organisational OCD very happy indeed. 

Very interesting day tomorrow with a reasonably early finish so I hope not be on my laptop until  midnight ;) 

Night night!

Many ways of seeing the same

A silhouette of a drunk man shows clearly at the end of my path. It's a quiet, early morning sporadically broken by excitable voices of children on their way to school. The distance between myself and the drunk man decreases with every power step I take. I am watching him as I try to predict which way the percentages in his blood take him next so I can move onto the opposite side.

Just as we are some 20m away from one another, he looks to his left, his weight shifts slightly to that side, his right leg, as if by magic also drawn to the left, crosses over towards the aim of his gaze. To my dismay, his next step and the next one are an exact copy of that first one.

In a beat as regular as ticking of the clock and with the jointless fluidity only drunk person can master, the man half passes himself directly onto the road  (no cars approaching), moves several steps straight parallel to me and then proceeds to look right and half passes back onto the pavement to end up behind me.

Neat.

Mental note to self: read more un-horsey books and try not to see people's walking patterns as dressage movements.

Now, how adorable is this chap! I have never known a horse that loved attention and hugs as much as Teddy.

Instruction Manual of Ted: 1. Walk up to stable door 2. Hug . Yes, I am wearing an exercise sheet that normally is used on horse's back. It made for a great waterproof cape during on/off showers today ;) 

I've been thinking today how easily the same instructions mean so many different things to different riders. When I am in the arena, I can address anything unclear very quickly, encourage the rider to ask questions and find their own ways of understanding the movement or build awareness.

The reason it has been on my mind is due to the popularity of one of my recent posts on my coaching blog ( the one titled: The Forward Thinking Hand...) . The post describes an exercise-experiment which I have done with numerous riders over the last few years but I have never written it down. The reason being - it's very hard to describe sensations and riding feel. As many people have now shared the article on Facebook, I got to read some comments their friends left under the shared post.

At first I did question my judgement. You see, I do like finding parallel "feels" for riders who might not ride several horses a day, few times a week... The catch with my ideas is, they require a detective like approach. They ask for trial and error, for coming up with own solutions.

One comment especially made me think a lot. Someone said they didn't think exercise worked for them because as they tried it, they felt tension in the arms. The funny thing in this exercise is, that's exactly what it creates at first. In fact, it mimics the issue many riders have on a horse - they ride with very tense arms...Then you need to figure out another way of moving, shifting weight, directing energy via different technique in order to arrive at almost no arm tension at all.

I thought, perhaps I shouldn't have written it all down. Then again, it seems to be helping many riders and I have received very positive feedback on it also so my next thought was, perhaps I need to learn to word the explanations better in the future. Find a way to ensure a potentially good idea doesn't kill itself.

And then the third thought...perhaps like me seeing drunken men half-passing around the street, we simply process different concepts differently and that is okay :) I've concluded that as long as it helps some riders who clicked on the article, the mission of the blog is accomplished.

Taking a moment

Blogging everyday means whoever reads the posts will experience my rather eclectic interests ;)

This 365 days of posting project will definitely allow me to document many moments that pass by quickly and as I am not keen on Facebook or Instagram much for photo sharing, the blog diary is just a perfect fit. Even though I have been writing paper diaries since childhood and blogging since 2007 I don't think I have ever done a daily record so far.

Equine de-mudding was heavily on the agenda today not surprisingly since the weather isn't particularly helping with clean legs and dry bodies. The conditions were great for teaching though - zero wind, just a little chill in the air, quiet and fresh :)

As a non-driver I do a lot of walking. Sometimes it's a right pain in the ass but most of the time I love the simple pleasure of relying on my two legs to take me places. One thing I do more of when I walk is notice my surroundings and appreciate details on daily basis that would otherwise almost definitely escape me.
I like stopping and taking it all in on my way home - like these guys! They live their mysterious lives on a small pond which I pass often and if they are lucky they get a slice or two of my bread. I am not sure what type of ducks are the incredibly colourful ones - do you know?

If you like them too, here is a little video:




Lovely ducks aside, walking is an amazing way to stay fit. Having done many different sports with low joint impact as a complimentary routine to riding, I find walking ingenious. It's also perfect for thinking of new exercises for riders and horses and planning of their training. Some people have ideas under the shower - walking is my own creative flow generator!

Early morning walk to station awaits me tomorrow, hope you have a great day :)

Reclaiming Sundays

When you work with horses and especially if you teach, weekends are your prime time, busiest time. For many years I never had Sundays off work and although I never usually minded that, I would like to reclaim at least some Sundays this year.

As many of you know I don't drive so getting places on Sundays is a challenge since trains hit slow lane and there are big gaps between them. Shops close at silly hours and there is just this general laziness in the air that wants one join in and relax!

I don't think I will ever have Sundays fully free but I will work towards them being shorter work wise and work free at times..like today.

Brilliant book I am reading now, a Santa gift from my Other Half. I will tell you more about my experience with it once I've finished :) 

Now, I do have that incurable dream of having own little centre one day so when I saw this new book, I just had to buy it. At £3.72 if bought as an e-book for Kindle it's beautifully affordable. I don't own a Kindle as such but use Amazon's Kindle for PC which is not as fantastically portable but saves the expense.

What books are you reading now? :)

The joy of a drench!

In London in the rain today. You can't really avoid wetness and mud on British Isles. The rain is a signature part of a climate here ;) I got a mighty drench today but thankfully I have learned by now to have many layers on when teaching outside and a second change of clothes handy with me.
I do have a rather strange love hate relationship with bad weather - it doesn't make life easy but in many ways saturates its colours (no pun intended!).
Just think about that lovely hot bath or a shower, dry clothes and warm meal afterwards - simple things that feel extraordinary when missed and that make you feel very much alive.

My way of dealing with bad weather is denial of any trouble! Smile and ride on :)

Now, in vein of there is no bad weather just bad clothes, I do need to get some new overtrousers or long chaps. Don't really have the budget for this great set (love them, so comfortable and great for riding young/sharp horses as material isn't noisy) so I am pondering on checking out some outdoor shops for ski wear sale.
If you got any good waterproof gear recently let me know - doesn't have to be equestrian specific!

What's your view on being out there in the rain?

A very productive kind of day

Early start today which is never easy for me but always worth it. There is something good for the soul in an early morning :)

It all has even more special feel in the winter when light behaves shyly and disappears quickly. I do like those morning bird songs and a little dew on a day that can't decide whether it's supposed to be frosty or mild and has that peaceful "others not yet out and about" aura.

Once a week I teach at a nearby stud but as lessons often stretch out time wise and I end up waiting around for horses to be ready, I packed my laptop and worked on my book, blog and various admin stuff in between the lessons.

You know when you have that productive day feeling at the end of it all? That :)

Horses worked great, I got six blog posts drafted for my educational blog and one fully done and posted. It's my resolution to blog more on Aspire blog providing both original content that pushes me to analyse and reflect more on my teaching as well as share interesting, educational, inspirational, motivational content from various places around the web.
The post I did today I had wanted to write for a while but needed time to play with photos to illustrate my points well. I think it turned out ok but would love to know what you think:

Link to the post: https://aspireequestrian.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-forward-thinking-hand-quick-visual-suggestion-to-try-if-you-just-cant-get-it/

Another early morning start tomorrow so off to bed now to catch some bedtime reading before catching some sleep :) Until tomorrow!

365/2015 - Let the project commence :)

New Year's Day 2015 with Joker

Possibly unnecessarily but I'd been waiting for the 1st of January with my 365 days on the blog project. This has nothing to do with all the reinventing oneself hype. I am more of a "let's write a good chapter" type of a thinker when it comes to New Year. No "won't do that", "won't eat this" mentality but more of a "let's add some more good ingredients to the mix".

I have neglected this blog for a couple of years while writing my book but I think I can make time for this blogspot space in 2015 :) I am setting myself this project because I feel I could have been even more proactive and brave last year. We all keep diaries for different reasons, mine are very much focused on accountability and reflection. Writing makes me stop, re-think, re-charge and kick on ;)

It will all probably be very random, just some thoughts, pictures, moments but hey, that's why blogging is awesome - no strict rules and full creative expression ;)

It's been a great relaxing day so far. The top picture is from the morning, brisk and cold and windy - just as a good wake up morning can be.

We had some tasty, long, late breakfast/lunch when I got back home, followed by some catching up on the world news and reading of my really fascinating book I got for Christmas. I will write more about it when I finish it.

Yes, I have decided to go ahead with New Year's resolutions this year and yes, they will be coming in a written form too. Not because I want to create a new me but to add some challenging, enjoyable, fulfilling and exciting projects to the coming months.

I hope I can keep up with post-a-day! Let's see :)

Christmas Time, Rest Time

Walking in Cheshire today :) 

I wonder if the ease with which we cope living the life of nomads comes from having a distant anchor of family houses, tradition, routines, love and care. For sure I feel more and more appreciative of that as I grow older.
As years go by I definitely feel a stronger yearning for own place but that feeling is still quite faint and temperamental, sometimes raising to the surface, all - consuming and dominating sometimes so quiet I barely notice.

Christmas 2014 has just gone and it's been a lovely one :) This time last year we were with my family back in Poland, this year we are in the UK with my other half's family.

More than ever I feel grateful for every positive moment in my life. For simple things like having a great meal, seeing new places, walking in the fog, playing fun games, watching a movie on a sofa, falling asleep under a warm duvet, breathing in a sweet scent of a candle, watching the lights flicker on Christmas tree.

This morning, after a lovely walk, we sat down in the garden with a coffee, birds singing in the bushes, sun playing glittering races across the melting snow. When the crazy, challenging and scary 2015 starts, I will go back to this moment to re-charge :)

Many plans and goals for next year ahead of me and I will share them with you as we go along. For now though, it's my last resting day today. Catching train back home tomorrow and full on teaching day awaits me on Tuesday.

I hope you are all well and have had a great festive time. If you didn't, don't worry. Catch the little things that are easy to miss.
Only a few more days left of this year, I am enjoying the suspense :)

Organising stuff - the challenges

9.30am - frosty yard near Bristol where I did my clinic this past weekend. Lovely place!

Organisational skills are not my forte. I sometimes get people asking me how I get all these things done: the travelling places without a car, the teaching, the Academy, the blogging/writing etc and the answer is - not blooming easily! ;) In fact, organising it all is what truly feels like work in the "I really don't want to but I have to" sense of the word.
I would like Santa to bring me a good project manager this Christmas who would just get everything nicely organised.

To get things done in some form of fluid order I have to almost draw a map for myself of how I get from A to B and what needs doing in between. I envy all great organisers out there who just "see" a good way of connecting dots! Apart from my love of all things stationary and creative I don't have many positive emotions for organising...

One thing that helps me is my yearly diary - it's a simple book size diary with real pages i.e. not an app on my phone or this blog. Somehow writing things to do with a pen on paper makes them more doable than typing them into an electronic version.
I also have one day a week - Wednesdays for the last few months - which is my designated planning, organising and admin day and if I ever miss it, my whole week becomes a one hectic affair. My days generally are more connected to who I teach or where rather than being named as per days of the week. This can be a little confusing when my clients change days on which they ride for whatever reason or when I have to make changes. It's a challenge!

I decided that since organisational party is my weakness I need to put more effort into it so from this week I will have to find two mornings a week that will be spend on getting stuff planned and organised. Even just writing this down makes me feel like I want to avoid it straight away ;)

Testing share horses at London yard; Sunday
7th December

The London yard is now pretty much fully booked for Academy places unless someone pulls out last minute for whatever reason. I am really looking forward to running my programme there.

What I am looking forward to a little less is more organising ;) The most difficult aspect of my work for me is the constant insecurity and unknown: will the riders continue long term? Will the horses continue to be suitable? Will the facility be good for everyone involved? Will the trains run? If a rider quits the programme for whatever reason will I find a replacement quickly?

It's not just the financial insecurity, although of course that is a huge worry, but the fact there are many elements out of my immediate control that do make me lose some sleep.

This is why I am upping the organisational time so I can put some "risk management" in place. I didn't do it back in 2012 and have been dealing with results until now so it's about time to learn on one's mistakes.
Technically it's January when the world becomes obsessed with resolutions and yearly plans but I am making myself start now. Let's see what comes out if it!

How do you deal with making sure you get things done?

Last two months in honest review - life as it happens

Last two months I'd been mostly searching...for answers and for the right opportunity to come along for my London clients. I finally gave up on one of the ideas and that is the one which was based on finding more riding schools to work with. I am not saying no to it fully but for now I feel that if I haven't made something happen in 2 years then it's probably best to become more creative. Without going into too much detail riding schools are either already fully booked and sorted with own activities or have excuses for not opening up to new ways of providing riding education.

The bonus of working with a good facility is of course the access to that facility, to the infrastructure, to comfort for the riders. However, I had a good think about it and I came to conclusions that after all, primary vision for non - owners branch of Aspire Academy is to provide top quality riding tuition for riders without own horses NOT plush time in cosy coffee rooms (even though I do like those :). 

That's when I changed my approach and whilst continuing to search for a centre on smaller scale, I put 90% of effort into finding another solution...I'd been testing a "share a horse for lessons" scenario for a while now and decided it could be the way to go. Owners of the types of horses I am after often welcome a financial contribution to the upkeep of their horse whilst the type of rider I am after to teach is eager to build relationship with the horse they train on. It is not easy for a learner-rider to find a share horse simply because the owners are worried that the horse might end up mistreated or ridden badly due to simple lack of knowledge of the inexperienced sharer. The situation is different if the learner rider actually takes well structured, long-term planned lessons that not only teach the rider but might also school and improve the horse...

I'd emailed and messaged (good old Facebook) pretty much everyone that I thought might help me move forward with this development but for many weeks I had no luck. Either horses were not suitable or the place was just that little bit too "out in the sticks" or there were other reasons that would make the logistics impossible like the horse being only available on Mondays 7am...you get the idea. 

In the meantime, various funky things were happening, like this bite on my eyelid a few weeks ago!

Waking up with an eye swollen shut is not a very amusing welcome to the day

Not sure what my immune system was thinking but it decided to blow up half of my face as well as the eyelid, working on laptop with one eye was a challenge and was also surprisingly tiring. I also had to teach in sunglasses so I didn't scare anyone and that was a little inconvenient too since it was a week of fog and rain ;) It lasted about 5 days but felt like 5 weeks. Kudos to all one eyed horses jumping and eventing out there, just moving around people and horses in walk was hard enough! 

Finally, I found a yard with several owners looking for sharers. The yard that is very easy to get to and so the big trial begins this month. Of course it wasn't without a drama that almost made me lose the remaining hair that still hangs on to my head but all seems ok, for now at least! 

If as many riding schools' owners say it is not possible to accommodate certain structures into the schools' set ups then perhaps it's time to change the set ups...Sharing a horse for lessons might not be for everybody but if it is for the kind of person that Aspire programmes exist for in the first place, then maybe that's the path to take. 

I have so many plans for next year. I don't know if it's the age, the stress, the various things that needs sorting out but taking forever to do so or what but for the last couple of years I lost quite a lot of my usual courageous ability to make plans. Fear of failure maybe, not sure. I am glad I managed to shake it off to some extent. 

Some big changes coming up next year too. One day I am feeling invincible to take them on, the next one I'd rather be hiding under the duvet ;) On those pathetically fearful mornings I tell myself that the clock is ticking, the time is passing, the worst that can happen is that someone will say no. 

If you are doing something different or entrepreneurial in your life do let me know what you are up to and how you deal with your challenges! 

Under the rainbow

I do love a long autumn walk with a cup of coffee and some rainbow cheer :) We managed a rain-sun-rain one in the afternoon yesterday, watching some rowers on the river fighting with the wind and just enjoying the change the air...

Three weeks of dashing between countries and counties

On way from Lodz, Poland to London, UK...the commute with a view :) I am not a big fan of flying but could stare at cloudscapes for hours...the ones on this flight reminded me of  heaps of semi-melted marshmallows floating on top of a giant mug of milky hot chocolate! 

The last three weeks were a whirlwind of travel, organisation, emotions and restlessness. You know how we are told by "experts" to have a good rest when we feel tired to re-charge and avoid fatigue? Well that is all good for when we do feel tired. I often feel betrayed by my own lack of self-preservation which allows me to work for insane number of hours per day and carry on each step on some inexplicable source of energy. Then, as if all of a sudden realising that it was a mistake, I come crashing with the sofa, laptop and a cup of tea as the only places and activities that seem remotely possible.

The clinic in Poland went really well. Seeing the riders develop their relationship with the horses and that in turn letting them achieve better results in training is what I enjoyed the most during the weekend. I do believe that to teach an animal anything at all, we must get into its brain, it must understand, comprehend the task in a way that allows it to follow instruction with as little physical and mental resistance possible.

Photo from clinic at Stajnia Sabat, near Warsaw, Poland. I used this picture in the last Aspire's newsletter, love that quote!

If you struggle repeatedly with a training issue with your horse, double and triple check he understands the question. So many times we focus on resolving problems with exercises and equipment instead of finding a different way of approaching the subject in the first place. Even though I've been working with horses for over 20 years and I can see signs of their intelligence every day, I am not so sure about efficacy of training methods that suppose human-like intelligence in an equine. In fact, I consider it quite offensive to the horse ;)
Let's say, young wolves learn about hierarchy by many herd behaviours including eating certain parts of an animal they hunted and killed. They don't sit in a classroom and learn about history of canis lupus genes.

Same horses. Their learning process is different to ours and it is the trainer's/rider's duty to either learn it from someone or discover it from behavioural signs the horse gives. The moment we train horses' physical attributes without treating them like people, or dogs, or children, but like the species they are, we get content animals happy to work with us. It's fascinating to observe how athletic abilities improve with mental coherence.

My lovely cousin, Karolina, who works so hard on regaining trust and build a good relationship with Krater whom she has on loan and who has various unpleasant training experiences behind him . They've made a huge progress together in the last year :) 

More pictures from Poland HERE. My clinics in Poland are a great way for me to visit my family which is both wonderful and a little sad. I enjoy every moment and savour it and go ahead quite happily but there is always this element of sadness in goodbyes which underlines the price one sometimes has to pay for pursuing path less travelled.

My beautiful little niece enjoying some pressies :) She's such a character already despite only being around for 3 years ;) 

Meet Tymon, my fab little nephew, 10 months old and I've only seen him handful of times...

The time pass so quickly when I am there. Between coffees and window shopping with my mum, joking around with my brother, driving about and chatting with my dad, dinners and evenings with my aunt, cousins and grandparents before I knew it I was back in the clouds.

My book for the flight - a gift from my Aunt - fantastic read, click this sentence  to see the English version. 

A couple of days at home with Rick with few lessons with regular clients fitted in and then back on the road again - this time to North Yorkshire. There is an interesting mix of clients that sign up for my clinics there from professionals working in the industry, through to teenagers eventing at lower levels, inquisitive adult riders to happy hackers and (a first this time) children.

Several regular riders who I have seen previously signed up this time too and that's probably what I enjoy the most - seeing riders change and progress over time, helping them find some more answers to various training questions, come up with exercises that awaken body awareness and make schooling more effective, chatting through issues. I had Ceri (Pure Essence Photography) taking pictures at this clinic and you can see the full set on Aspire blog HERE.

Very clever 3 year old TB off the track. Starting in-hand work here, learning to walk on a circle. He's got an amazing attitude and willingness to work. 

Now I am back and having a few quieter days to get back into the swing of things and give my body a little rest. I need to upload all the videos I took from both clinics which takes a while on a not so fast internet connection! So far I managed almost all Poland videos so now I have a set from Yorkshire to do.

The autumn has truly arrived in London home counties. It's chilly albeit still sunny at times with equal amounts of rain and rainbow :) I am not too bothered about the change of seasons, quite looking forward to it. So many things to reflect on, think about, make plans - perfect filler for dark, winter evenings.
This year is very much a transition year from all the training back to teaching and re-building the Aspire programmes and although I am very much in-the-present kind of person, I also have started to tentatively look at next year. There will be a lot of make-or-break situations in 2015 and I am anxiously awaiting the challenges.
But for now, I do like sitting here with my laptop, writing, reading and just feeling grateful for all the fabulous opportunities I have experienced so far :)

Setting up a riding school from scratch - project impossible?

Let me say first, right now, I am in no position to set up a riding school, whether from scratch, from made ingredients or even from half baked ;) However, I have recently realised that this has been on my mind for over 20 years...
For a start, it's a crazy thought with numerous establishments closing left, right and centre, costs of keeping horses sky rocketing and prices of land and properties might as well be named "in another life sister".
My rational brain tells me - "Look around, places that make it work have a good deal of backers behind them and/or other businesses supporting them and/or follow the traditional system of quantity over quality". And I should listen to that rational brain and stay very clear from a thought of setting up a riding school.
Yet, I can't help but wonder...what if I did have a go....What if I did attempt to set up a little riding academy that isn't just a coaching programme but an actual place.
I can picture "No" balloons floating around me every time I let that question sound louder ;)

Did you know that there are maybe three books written about running stables as a riding school and none of them actually considers much else than a quantity oriented business model?
How about some guidelines for creating a viable grassroots rider academy, not from how-to-teach point of view but how-to-survive point of view?
Perhaps there aren't any simply because the demand for quality riding tuition at grassroots levels just ins't as great?

Right now, in general terms, you go to a riding school to learn how not to fall off a horse, have a bit of fun, meet like-minded people (also learn how to kick, whack and pull). Then you realise that to actually learn to ride well you need to loan or buy a horse. The amount of negative feedback on riding school instruction among horse owners is staggering. I feel this is not always fair representation and sadly some lovely places fall into the trap of a statistical waterfall but there is a lot of truth in that generalisation.

My question to myself is, how likely is it to successfully run my Aspire Academy as an actual brick & mortar business without filling it up with a Pegasus and his herd of unicorns...

Anyway, I thought I would let you know what's on my mind ;) I've been doing a little research in the above direction and funnily enough I've been inspired to do so by our new little Hampshire base. It is simply so wonderful to teach out of an independent yard, to let clients build relationship with the horses.

My young rider getting ready for her training at the Little Base (as I call it in my mind)

So yes, I feel like this theme will continue as I explore the avenues...If any of you dear readers out there run a riding school and would like to share experiences and advice, feel free to make comment section below your own :) If you simply are a business owner or have entrepreneurial instincts and would like to add your tips, please join in.

I am thinking less in line of copying existing riding school model and more in direction of coming up with an alternative set up where private and small groups (up to 4 riders) are possible. Where riders learn to ride with an emphasis on thorough basic training and where schooling puts horse's wellness in the centre of any methods used.

From news and updates, I am off to Poland next week to run a clinic there as well as see my family which I am very much looking forward to. I will be back on here very soon :)