Refined Riding (2025)

26/04/2025

“You’re not working on the horse, you’re working on yourself.” – Ray Hunt

“No matter what level of riding, we’re talking about all riders having the same problems and all those problems have the same simple solution: more focus on the basics.” – Hubertus Schmidt

“The fundamentals, the basics. You can never know them enough.” – Mark Rashid

I know many riders aren’t enthusiastic about working on themselves off the horse. But in my experience, it’s the basics in their own body that often hold riders back, at every level.

From big riding issues to the most subtle challenges…The root cause is often the same.

But did you know how easy it can be to weave this into your everyday movement?

This kind of practice can improve:

🔹 Your body awareness (a rider’s superpower)
🔹 Your movement quality, while you’re just going about your day
🔹 Your connection to yourself, bringing empowered self-care

And becomes a sunconscious habit that speeds up your riding progress.

That’s exactly what we do in my online movement classes. Simple, targeted sessions that fit into real life and create real change in the saddle.

Tell me have you ever considered your movement basics and how they could impact your riding? 👇

Photo credit: Sandy Rabinowitz/dressage today

08/04/2025

Here’s why 👇

Postural changes silently creep up on you. Everyday habits, like slouching at your desk or standing with your weight unevenly on one leg, reshape your posture.

But all your external postural changes affected your internal organs available space and movement. Your respiratory (breathing) system being one of them.

Do you struggle with stamina in and out of the saddle? Feel you would like to get fitter? Your posture could be making this goal much harder and affecting your health.

💨 Reducing your breathing capacity
🧍 Zapping your energy levels
🐎 Bringing tension and balance issues in the saddle

Want to know how some small, focused postural shift helped a rider with asthma?

⬇Comment ‘POSTURE’ below, and I’ll DM you the blog link!

05/04/2025

It’s been a while since I posted. After losing a close friend, I needed some time away to process and reset.

💪One thing that really stood out to me during this time is how important self care is. Often we ignore our body’s signals, as we are too busy, too stressed, behind with our to do list or our goals.

🤔But if you stop for a moment and take all of that away and think deep down what really matters in your life and who really matters?

Many riders struggle with burnout, and often riders tell me they would like to be fitter. But did you know that poor posture could be contributing to your fatigue and discomfort?

📄 I’ve also written a new blog about how postural changes (I’ve highlighted office work!) can affect your breathing and energy levels in the saddle. I’ll share more soon, but for now, I just wanted to say hi again.

12/09/2024

🏇 Postural changes can silently creep up on us.

Until one day you notice

😬 Certain movements are becoming difficult

😖 Aches and pains are creeping in

😬 Stiff joints

And this really shows up when we ride. Changes in posture pull, push and make your body fall in different directions. You can be literally fighting against your own body when you ride!

💻 But you have to work! Perhaps ignoring it, thinking you can’t do anything, or believe you don’t have the time or the motivation in your busy life.

👎 You might have tried one of the many marketed “cure” supports. Which makes things weaker in the long run.

✅ But it doesn’t have to take long to sprinkle the movement your body needs into your day! No need to allot one time slot in your day!

There is one day left now to get my exclusive double bundle of my two signature courses—The Aligned Rider (your framework to getting the riding position you want) and Screen Time to Saddle Time (Restore the office lifestyle affects on your body and riding)—at 33% off.

My courses are packed with easy-to-follow exercises and tips that fit seamlessly into your day—taking little or time! 🐎💪

Start transforming how you ride, move, and connect with your horse!

Write the word ONE below for details⬇️

10/09/2024

🤔 Your riding problems and corrections have you ever thought about the origins?

🏇 We spend a lot of time trying to correct ourselves and develop a balanced riding position and feel in the saddle.

But very little on the ground. Improving your movement habits off the horse could drastically speed up your riding progress—and help your horse, too!

Your daily movement (when you're moving around anyway!) could be improving your riding and helping your body!

💻 Certain professions lead to stereotypical postural changes. Which really shows up when we ride!

Many riders believe there’s nothing they can do about it—but you don’t have to live with those aches, pains, stiffness, and restrictions!

👋 Are you an equestrian who works online?

⏳ Just 3 days left to grab my double course bundle offer with 33% off! Don’t miss out on "The Aligned Rider" and "Screen Time to Saddle Time", designed to transform your riding, body, and connection with your horse. This is your chance to elevate your skills, reduce aches, and ride with more confidence. Time’s running out—secure your spot today!

Write the word NOW below for my offer information.⬇

07/09/2024

Hip tension, stiffness, and weakness, displays in many forms;

👉 Body control,

👉 Balance issues,

👉 Body awareness.

😫 That bit of stiffness, ache or weakness you felt in your everyday life. Is highlighted in the saddle, leading to your tendency towards certain riding corrections or difficulties.

Your body just doesn’t seem to do what you're asking of it?

🪑 Computer work and driving, involves lots of stillness in the same positions. And our posture changes into these repetitious positions.

There are 6 days left to get your spot in my exclusive double bundle of my signature courses *The Aligned Rider* and *Screen Time to Saddle Time with 33% off.

🌟 “The Aligned Rider” – Elevate your riding position and be more connected with your horse. Enhance balance, body awareness, and control.

🌟 “Screen Time to Saddle Time” – Address the negative impacts of long hours at your desk, on your body and riding.

Ride and move better, live and work happier!

Write the word OFFER below for the courses information⬇

04/09/2024

🏇 Struggling with riding position problems and difficulties? But are you’re battling against the symptoms, not the root cause?

⛓ Which is understandable, as they are often the most visual cue. And often the end of a pattern of change.

There is always a cause and effect running through the body. As it works in patterns, not parts!

🏇 Attempting to hold together a position to align with a visual goal?

Want to connect more through your body and with your horse with improved balance, and feel?

Are you an equestrian with computer-related posture issues also?

Exercises and tips from “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” are designed to effortlessly fit into your daily routine, making a lasting impact on your riding and overall well-being. This double bundle is here to help you make real, meaningful progress—don’t miss out on this limited-time (9 days) opportunity!

Write the word COURSES below for the course information⬇

01/09/2024

😍 Edinburgh is very dear to me as I was there when I realised I had got my life back! I walked up a mountain called “Arthurs Seat” on that day I had expected to walk part of the way.

But I kept going and feeling no pain. All the small changes I had made stacked up to a level even I hadn’t anticipated.

Previous to this, I’d had ten years of injury, two unsuccessful surgeries, limited to 30-minute walks daily, and constant pain.

🏇 I had lost the ability to do many things, riding being one of them. I was told by a number of professionals to accept my situation, that this was the best it would get.

I tried every form of therapy, stretching, mobilisation etc and travelled to the United States and Europe in search of answers

🚶‍♀️ Until I found the movement therapy, which I later trained in. That taught me the specific movement my body needed and how to weave this into my day. Which then became movement habits.

I learned to move more of my body and use it in an improved way throughout my day.

I restored my body through movements, I’m now pain free and the way I use my body daily maintains it! And on the day I took these photographs I had walked approximately 20miles (because I can now!)

Don’t give up on your body! Would you learn simple exercises and strategies that weave into your day that will give you that connected riding position you’ve been aiming for?

Or maybe you're an equestrian who works online and you want to stop the negative affects this work had on your body and riding?

I have a double course 33% off offer beginning this week for 10 days only! “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” online courses.

Write RIDE below to be added to the waiting list⬇

25/08/2024

“You’re not working on the horse, you’re working on yourself, “- Ray Hunt

“No matter what level of riding, we’re talking about all riders are having the same problems and all those problems have the same simple solution: more focus on the basics,” - Hubertus Schmidt.

“The fundamentals, the basics. You can never know them enough,” - Mark Rashid.

I know many riders aren’t enthusiastic about working off the horse on themselves.

It’s one thing you can do to not only help your own body and the horse’s. It will also speed up your riding progression instead of fighting against your own body and the horse’s!

And off horse work can be easily woven into your day and become a subconscious habit. Which takes little or no extra time.

🏇 Transform your riding and connect through your body and with your horse this summer! With my two course bundle “The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” opening soon for 10 days only with a 33% discount!

🌟 Comment ‘RIDE33’ to get on the waitlist and claim your discount!⬇

Photo credit: Sandy Rabinowitz/dressage today

18/08/2024

🤔 Ever wondered why you have a tendency towards certain riding habits and corrections? Why you struggle to get past certain ones?

Look at this drawing from the perspective of how the rider’s body is reorganising to carry and balance the weight of the stone in the wheelbarrow.

This drawing shows beautifully how that altered posture is a whole body event and how it’s highlighted in the saddle.

🏇 Twisting of the rib cage and pelvis

🏇 Leaning forward

🏇 Tension in the arm and neck

🏇 Drawing the shoulder up

🏇 And shortening of the left leg as it’s pulled up by the pelvis.

🏇 The lower leg and foot turn outward

You become what you frequently do, so if this rider was doing this for large parts of the day, their posture would change. And you can see the rider’s postural changes when riding.

But just as the rider has to rebalance their body to push the stone in the wheelbarrow. The horse has to rebalance their body and movement to accommodate the rider’s altered posture.

Which affects their movement options and how their posture builds.

And altered posture does many things aside from making you groan when you look in the mirror! The change in posture changes, changes the way forces go through your body. Meaning specific areas of your body (Joints, tendon, ligaments etc) receive a lot more stress leading to their premature decline.

Which is often tied to the ageing process, when often it’s the way the body has been used. And the good news is working to restore your body’s natural alignment. Taking the stress off overworked areas .

I love working with riders when they realise the connection between their movement and riding habits. If you would like to know more about your posture and easy strategies and exercises, that really help and take very little time out of your day.

Get ready for a summer treat! Coming soon: my special double course offer—"The Aligned Rider" & “Screen Time to Saddle Time”—at 33% off for just 10 days.

Be the first to receive the course opening date and information.

Write RIDE below to be added to the waiting list⬇

15/08/2024

⛓ It’s not perfection, its connection throughout your body that's important to me. And body awareness so we can feel what’s going on.

🧍‍♀️ Riders come in all shapes and sizes and I’ve many who felt slightly defeated because they don’t have long legged conformation of some riders.

I’ve also worked with many injured riders who had many postural problems.

🏇 Your daily habits shape your posture, and that, in turn, affects your riding. Bringing tendencies towards certain riding problems and difficulties.

Postural changes can lead to aches, pains, restriction and stiffness from the extra stress being placed in certain areas.

The rider’s posture directly affects the way their weight is transferred to the horse. And can limit your horse’s movement.

People understand the word posture as how they look. Traditionally, correcting posture involves moving and holding body parts in fixed positions which are not maintainable and can be detrimental over time.

It’s not functional, restoring your alignment in contrast your foundations. Where your parts can work together and correctly. And becomes your natural norm enhances your body and riding skills!

Photo credit: Sandy Rabinowitz/dressage today

🌟My summer double course offer, ’The Aligned Rider’ and ‘Screen Time to Saddle Time,’ is designed to help you restore your natural alignment, enhancing both your body and riding skills. Building a functional foundation that supports your riding, reduces aches, and improves your connection with your horse.

Write YES below to be added to the course waiting list⬇

12/08/2024

Can you guess the hidden link within all these rein contact habits?

🏇There’s a hidden element behind most rein contact problems that often go unnoticed. It’s not just about your hands or reins—it’s something deeper?

Ever wondered why your rein contact isn’t as steady as you’d like? There’s one key element that is often overlooked.

🤔 Here’s a quick clue - riding requires the inter-linkage of many skills.

Which one do you think could be a factor? Guess below⬇

And if you want help with all those riding skills I mentioned above, my summer course bundle offer (“The Aligned Rider” and “Screen Time to Saddle Time” online courses) is opening soon!! Grab these transformative courses with a 33% discount for 10 days only!

03/08/2024

Knees gripping, rolling around, pain, stiffness, and restriction?

Realise the rest of your body influences your knees!

⛓ A problem or weakness in another area can affect the way you load your knees. Creating more force to a specific area = extra wear and tear, restriction, stiffness and premature decline.

🪑 If you sit frequently, your knees spend a lot of time in a bent position. Changing their muscle resting length over time.

Look in the mirror. You may notice you have a permanent knee bend! Which has gradually and often silently built over time!

👉Take your hips straight back

👉Gently work on taking the knee back over time!

👉Don’t force it! You’re asking structures to work that haven’t for some time and allow others to relax.

The way you use and don’t use your body builds your individual posture.

The good news is the body adapted into this shape and, over time, can adapt back into alignment! Taking the stress off the area.

This is an example of a strategy in my summer course bundle offer (saving you 33%) above! And it really works, helping your body, your riding and your horse.

Write the word COURSES below for the information link ⬇

24/07/2024

Postural changes often silently creep up on you. And also bring with them certain riding problems, difficulties and habits. Postural problems also affect some aspects of your health. And read about the benefits alignment brought to one rider with asthma.

You may think your posture is set in stone? Read my new blog to find out why it isn’t and how you can help yours!

Write the word blog below for the link⬇

14/07/2024

🏇 Stop thinking of your riding position as a position! Something you have to hold. Something that has to look visually perfect.

To improve your riding, to progress feel is a huge component. Forget visual perfection and build the connections through your body.

Riders often lack the confidence to listen to their body. The feedback you do and don’t receive. If you get into this habit, you will gradually increase your body awareness.

I’ve shown are a few key skills and examples of the building blocks of the body.

⚖️ Every skill relies on the quality of the others. Just as every part of the body works together.

Your balance will affect your feel

Your body awareness will affect your body control

Your balance will affect your control

And you could easily build all these skills within your daily movement! Through my training as a movement specialist, I use my body in a way that increases and maintains these skills. I just use it in an improved way through my day!

Your highly individual posture, which you TAKE to the saddle, has a large role to play in your riding habits.

And it can be such that one or more of these blocks has adapted its position. And then the rest of the body has to rearrange itself. Being pulled or pushed or falling in different directions.

Which puts you in the position of battling against your own body!

Sound familiar? Balance problems, can’t connect to an area, coordination isn’t as you would like? Can’t get your body to do what you want?

Tell me below⬇

09/07/2024

🤔 Ever wondered why certain riding corrections are a struggle? Why you have a tendency towards certain ones?

You may look at this drawing from the perspective of how the rider is balancing the stone in the wheelbarrow and how that balance translates when riding. But I want you to look at the rider’s posture with the wheelbarrow. If this person is doing this frequently through the day (and this can come in many forms, think about computer posture etc) this becomes their posture.

This drawing shows beautifully how that altered posture shows up in the saddle.

🏇 We can see its effects on the rider and their riding.

Rib cage and pelvis rotation

Slight forward tilt

Tension in the arm and neck

Drawing the shoulder up

And shortening of the left leg as it’s pulled up by the pelvis.

The lower leg and foot rotate outward

Which all influences the horse’s movement!

🏇 Things you might not notice in your everyday life are highlighted when you ride, shaping your riding habits and influencing your horse’s movement options.

You might be unintentionally making certain movements difficult and causing others to worsen.Your horse’s lifestyle, daily movement and habits are all shaping their posture too!

Have you ever wondered why you have certain riding habits? Tell me below⬇

Drawing by Sandy Rabinowitz, dressage today.

05/07/2024

Ever wondered why you have certain riding habits and difficulties? Walked past a shop window or caught a glimpse in the school mirrors and wondered why you have a adopted a certain posture.

Part of you can’t bear to look. Why do I do that? Even if you don’t have injury, your movements and lack of certain ones are building your body and current posture.

A posture which can place wear and tear on specific areas and make certain things difficult to do both in and out of the saddle.

👊Even in my worst times, I never gave up on my body. I knew there was something out there that would give me my life back.

I had lost the ability to do many things, and lived a restricted life. I was told to accept my situation frequently, that this was as good as I would get.

🚶‍♀️ I restored my body through my daily movements, which became habits. I began using my body and used more of my body in an improved way (which takes the same amount of time as using it in a way that doesn’t benefit my body)

Which also massively increased my body awareness. And I learnt so much about my body. Which helped me and my riding moving forward! (literally)

Have you noticed things with your posture in or out of the saddle?

Tell me below⬇

03/07/2024

🏇 This applies to horse and rider! You know, when you were a child, and you pulled a face. And your mother would say if you do that for too long, your face will stick like that!

Well, thankfully, that never happened. But it does happen to your muscles when a movement and or frame is repeatedly used.

The muscle resting length will change to be ready for the movement and it isn’t getting much stimulation out of that, so other areas weaken.

🐎 Muscle use will dictate its resting length. So if the horse is constantly ridden with the neck shortened, the musculature will adapt to that, as sadly, that’s where it’s getting repeatedly used.

⚠️ But remember, this is affecting the horse’s entire body! As these changes are not just happening at the neck. The whole body has to rearrange.

Aches, pains and injury in riders. Unexplained lamenesses and gait abnormalities can be from patterns of change that come from repeatedly using certain areas, and the postural changes this brings.

Want tips, strategies and exercises you can easily implement within your individual circumstances to aid your horse’s soundness and wellbeing?

Write the word SOUND below for the course information⬇️

Tuesday	09:30 - 20:00
Wednesday	09:30 - 20:00
Thursday	09:30 - 20:00
Friday	09:30 - 20:00
Saturday	09:30 - 17:00

Refined Riding

26/04/2025

08/04/2025

05/04/2025

12/09/2024

10/09/2024

07/09/2024

04/09/2024

01/09/2024

25/08/2024

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24/07/2024

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