Christy Shuall Dressage Coaching

20/09/2025

19/09/2025

As equestrians we are all guilty at times of thinking more of our horse’s health and fitness than ours! But it’s really important to be fit and healthy, loose and limber to ride! Not just for us, but for our horses too. A straight and supple rider will create a straight and supple horse, which helps longevity to a horse’s joints.
Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a bit of a yoga freak 🙈. I usually sneak into my horse trailer for a bit of a warm up at competitions as I’m a tad embarrassed to do it for all to see - but really I shouldn’t be! We should all be doing this! So if anyone sees my horse trailer shaking at shows you know what I’m doing 😂😂😂😂😂

Mari and Ali explain why a dynamic warm-up should be a part of your workout regimen!

19/09/2025

Senior Home Nations 2025 done ✅ - have to say we had an absolute blast with old and new Welsh friends! Prosecco and somewhat limited canapés ensured a very lively first night 😂😂😂, and we had a mega storm on Sunday so the show wasn’t without incident!
Zorro excelled himself coming 8th overall in a super hot and very large elementary class, with the narrowest of margins between riders. I could focus on the negatives (why didn’t I just ride more on Saturday, simple changes could have been straighter etc etc), but actually the ride he gave me on Sunday in a fairly waterlogged arena was fantastic! He definitely had his game face on which thankfully is much prettier than mine 😂
Thank you to all the help and all that make these shows possible. Emma Thompson Warren for being top groom and friend ! Granary for haylage and just as another little mention and shout out - lots of people asked where I got my Welsh stock and stock pin from - this was from Galtry Equijewel! She makes them in all national colours and styles!

29/06/2025

One of those photos where your horse looks great and you look crap 😂. No jacket as the indoor at pencoed for warm up was warm 🥵. And as usual I’m pulling my pursed lips of concentration face. But Zorro looks flippin awesome. His canter is getting more and more uphill, and the medium especially is getting a fair bit of power in it.
Two firsts today in elementary 4 and 5, 68% and 69% ❤️

19/04/2025

Nationals 2025! 70.09% !!! 🙌🎉🎉🎉🎉🐴🐴🐴🎶🎶🎶🎶❤️❤️❤️love my pony! 9th place in a very very hot class ! Full report tomorrow when I’ve unpacked but thank you to Emma Warren for grooming, Gower Granary for the supply of yummy Haylage and Rhiannwen Rosser for Zorro’s super clip!

03/04/2025

Just a quick heads up that if anyone wants a lesson during the Easter Holidays shout now as my diary is somewhat chaotic already with 3 days away at Nationals and a ridiculous amount of training days that I’ve decided to go too 🫣. I am my own worst enemy it seems 🤔😬. Priority given to my regulars and then on a first come first served basis ###x

06/03/2025

Lovely little write up in Horse and Hound. Thank god I didn’t say anything too stupid as they phoned me whilst I was out for dinner in Val Thoren after 2 aperol spritz’ and having been up since 2am - it’s a miracle I actually strung a sentence together 😂😂😂😂

30/01/2025

I have some availability weekday and weekday evenings 😀. Pm me if this suits you.

16/10/2024

Hurray! Final qualifying score gained for Music Winter Regionals on Sunday at Little Mill 🎉🎉🎉. I can’t say it felt like our best test to date with lots of little mistakes, which I am guilty of focusing on far too much! But actually it didn’t look anywhere near like it felt 😂😜, so we finished on 69.17% (needed 68% to qualify). I need to focus on the good more in future whilst riding a test, whereas honestly I’m going round thinking, ‘damn that’s half a mark gone, oh god and another’ 🫣- it would be good to be able to take my judges hat off whilst I ride I think !!!!

09/09/2024

What a wet weekend ! I honestly wasn’t sure if we would go Sunday to Little Mill BD due to the floods Friday night by us! They were epic, and so feel for those that had their homes flooded 💔But the rain slowed enough so the roads were driveable again, but I can’t say it stopped 😂🫣. Just about dried out now, but it was worth getting soaked as we got our remaining qualifying points for winter regionals 😀. And Zorro got his first 9 for his final centre line 🙌. Full credit to him to stay straight in the rain ! ☔️ chuffed to bits with him ❤️

27/08/2024

21/08/2024

Today’s training exercise. Zorro is having a fairly easy time of it over August, mainly just hacking, but we had a little play today in the ménage just to mainly work on me and my straightness. It’s something I struggle with following various injuries. So set myself a task of simple changes with no stirrups and limited my hand use by holding a whip across the two hands to form a bridge so as to keep my hands from doing it all! It’s an exercise I like to do with lots of my clients as it really does focus the brain on what else needs to work instead of your hands! And of course the no stirrups adds an extra challenge (although note that I avoided trotting with this exercise 🤣🫣). The simple changes aren’t perfect, but this was more about me today and the change of bend coming from my legs and seat than getting Zorro perfect 😄