Academic Art of Riding - Bettina Biolik

17/02/2025

If we want to be kind to our horses, we have to start being kind to ourselves.
A lot of equestrians I meet put themselves under a lot of pressure. I know, because I was one of them, not too long ago.
I’m an ambitious person and I love making progress. When I met the academic art of riding, for the first time I had the feeling that even I, a just moderately talented horse person, could actually achieve something. And the results came fast. It felt very good. I put in the work, my horse and I developed.
At some point, my ambition met my horse’s physical limits. Intellectually, I accepted that. Nobody pushed me to do more, and yet, this slight disappointment grew. It is fairly normal to have a plateau in the training, I was told, it will pass. Well, it didn’t pass for a long time.
I didn’t know that I felt that pressure until I started to develop another horse and we started to work on more “fancy” exercises. Suddenly, the pressure was off. And that’s when I became really conscious of it. And felt deeply sorry.
It’s not that I was hitting my horse or doing anything harmful. But I was unfair in other ways. Such as stopping to develop him or trying different approaches, which must have been confusing. Just not being as happy about what he could give me. Not so much looking forward to our time together as I used to.
When we work with horses, we will meet sides of our character we managed to keep hidden or that we wished didn’t exist. Horsemanship has a way of bringing that to light. And that’s ok, and we have to forgive ourselves. If we cannot accept ourselves with our flaws, I believe we also cannot truly accept our horses.
So, don’t be so hard on yourself. Horsemanship is a great journey of character development. For all of us. We all have flaws, and we will all meet them at some point. If not, we just haven’t done it long enough or sincerely enough, and we haven’t felt that deep wish to truly understand horses.
“Look into the eyes of your horse, but don’t be frightened by the truth.” (Bent Branderup)

14/02/2025

🎉🤗 Whooohoo!! Very proud of my dear student and friend Elaine Coxon - The Balanced Horse and her horse Rosado to PASS HER GROUNDWORK AND LONGING TEST for the Knighthood of the Academic Art of Riding! 🎉
Rosado came to Elaine quite traumatised from his previous job as a bullfighting horse. The scars on his body bear witness to this. The scars in his soul took a lot longer to heal. He’s such a lucky horse to have met Elaine, who supports him through body work, academic work, and also agility (and they are really good at it!). She helped him regain his confidence and his strength.
I feel honoured to support these two and look forward to working on the riding now!
For those who are curious, this is what this test entails. The test is judged by Bent Branderup himself. This is copy/ paste from the Knighthood home page:
⚜️ 1.1 GROUNDWORK/ LUNGEING TEST ⚜️
To be allowed to take a groundwork-/ lungeing test you must be recommended by a member of the Knighthood. Someone who has taken the groundwork-/ lungeing test is not a member of the knighthood but is an applicant to the Squire test. The horse participating in the groundwork/lungeing test must be at least 5 years old.
Basic examination, presenting the horse with the cavesson on the lunge line with a wooden hand whip, according to the principles of the Academic Art of Riding.
The test is about showing:
* A good communication with your horse.
* That your horse understands the aids and is willing to respond.
* That you can use the aids to help the horse find a good suppleness, shape, balance, tempo, rhythm and schwung within the exercises.
* That you recognise these qualities in an exercise.
All exercises should be shown with sufficient distance from the wall, so that the judge can see that the horse is shaped by the trainer’s aids exclusively.
⚜️ GROUNDWORK
1. Halt on the centre line, greeting the judge.
2. In standing shoulder-in to the left, quarter-in with a little halt.
3. In standing shoulder-in to the right, quarter-in with a little halt.
4. Forward in walk on the center line, at the end to the right.
5. Diagonal: forward down, bending to the right, at X change the bending.
6. Short side: collection in left bending.
7. Next diagonal: forward down, bending to the left, at X change the bending.
8. Short side: collection in right bending.
9. Next long side: quarter-in forward, collection, forward, at the end straighten up the horse.
10. Next long side: shoulder-in forward, collection, forward, at the end straighten up the horse.
11. Next long side: few steps shoulder-in, then travers to the center line, collection, half pirouette, forward, travers back, collection, renvers through the corner. On the center line, take a halt in which a clear first and second halt are visible. Rebend the horse, take a halt in which a clear first and second halt are visible. Continue in new bending.
12. Next long side: quarter-in forward, collection, forward, at the end straighten up the horse.
13. Next long side: shoulder-in forward, collection, forward, at the end straighten up the horse.
14. Next long side: few steps shoulder-in, forward, travers to the center line, collection, half pirouette, forward, travers back, collection, renvers through the corner. On the center line, take a halt in which a clear first and second halt are visible. Rebend the horse, take a halt in which a clear first and second halt are visible. Continue in new bending.
⚜️ LUNGEING
1. After the change of bending: change into lungeing position and go into the walk on the right circle.
2. Transition from walk to halt at X.
3. In halt: change from lungeing to long reining position, take a quarter in halt, ask a shoulder in forward from the whip aid.
4. Transition from halt to walk.
5. Show the following transitions in this order: walk – trot, trot – walk, trot – halt, halt – trot, trot – canter, canter – trot, trot – walk. In the transitions to halt, the whip aid on the tail must be shown.
6. In walk and trot, show the balance between shoulder-in and quarter-in.
7. Show each gait in balance between forward and collection.
8. Change the lead through the circle and repeat everything on the left circle.
9. End with greeting the judge.

12/02/2025

My next trip to Australia is coming up soon! First clinic: Perth ❤ Come and join us! Here is what one of the participants, Melissa Guest, is saying about the clinics. This will be her third clinic with me:
"Highly recommend Bettina's clinics.
This will be Buck's and my third and each time I learn more and come away a better human for my horse. It's about awareness of movement, position and body, both horse and human. I knew nothing about the classical and academic approach, still only scratched the surface, but Bettina is a clear and kind teacher and makes it understandable to a novice in this area."

For more information, contact AMT Equestrian Services

💥Bettina's Clinic in March only has a few rider positions available!

This is an amazing opportunity to learn the Academic Art of Riding! Join us for a Two Day clinic with licensed Bent Branderup, Academic Art of Riding Trainer Bettina Biolik from Poland.

You will find all the details & booking info via the 🔗https://loom.ly/GGpLzk8

🔷Spectators are welcome, However, a limited number of seats are available. All spectator tickets must be pre-booked, there are NO tickets available on the day as numbers are capped.

06/02/2025

If you feel isolated and lonely with the way you train, if you feel desperate because of the way horses are treated at your boarding facility - believe me when I say I get that. Because I have been there.
When I bought my horse Nazir, I started to look for a better way to ride dressage. Dressage had always been my passion, but I was so sick of the pushing and pulling, of riding instructors yelling “more leg!” at me and the sad expression in my horse’s eyes. I was sick of feeling exhausted and drained after lessons.
I knew the system I trained in all my life couldn’t lead me where I wanted to go. I had to make a change. I started reading books about classical dressage. I found Bent Branderup and the Academic Art of Riding, started to intern for Bent and for Marius Schneider.
I really wanted to inspire others to make a change, but I also knew I wasn’t good enough yet. In the academic art, we believe in learning the basics from the ground up. Meaning quite literally learning groundwork and longe work, then applying those principles to ridden work.
I had been a rider all my life and never did any sort of groundwork except some leading training inspired by Linda Tellington. So I became a total beginner again, and there was so much to learn. I did one internship, then another, another, another…I knew that if I wanted to help bring change to this world, I needed some skills, not just talk.
So I learned together with my horses. Some beautiful changes started to happen. Meanwhile at my boarding facility, there was lots of gossip about me. What I did was quite different to what everyone else did. The stable owner warned new boarders about me: “This is Bettina, she does some really weird stuff with her horses.”
When I started to get more skills, and my horses started to improve posture and musculature, people started asking me how I did that. When I explained, they brushed it aside, because it was not the way “we do things”. In the meantime, the stable owner warned new boarders: “This is Bettina, the way she trains is not good for horses.”
I never confronted her about it and pretended I didn’t know. I just kept developing. What I had found felt so good, it didn’t need any outside validation. My horses underwent so many positive changes and I started to feel more and more competent. I developed my tool kit and started teaching.
Perhaps, one of my most prominent character trades is having thick skin. My family also calls it being extremely stubborn (just like dad). And I think, given the environment I was exposed to at that barn - the gossip and the bad vibes, nothing short of stubbornness would have enabled me to make those changes.
Years later, when I had started teaching internationally, I came back to that barn. Things were still the same. Riders were still riding round after round in a rising trot, trying to find “contact” and pushing with the legs. I was greeted politely, I greeted back. When I drove back home, I was so eternally grateful for having created my own space, both in the real world and online, where I can be myself and help others grow.
So, if you feel isolated and lonely with the way you train, if you feel desperate because of the way horses are treated at your boarding facility - believe me when I say I get that. But I have also learned that we are many. And we start to drive change.
I just wanted to tell you: Hang in there! Create your own bubble, learn, trust your gut feeling and trust your horses. And if you need support, don’t hesitate to reach out - I’m here for you 🌹

05/02/2025

What a wonderful day with the horses today ☀️🙏💙
💛 Filmed for my Classroom (some tips about practicing shoulder-in in groundwork)
💛 Went for a walk with Weto
💛 Made some nice progress working in hand from the outside with Minor (filmed that for the Classroom, too)
💛 And had a short ride on Minor.

We are blessed with sunny weather, which is a bit unusual at this time of year. Temps going to drop below zero next days, so I tried to enjoy every single minute today ☀️🐴

Have a good day friends, and I hope you and your ponies are well 🥰

03/02/2025

🎉🎉🎉 2 years Art of Riding Classroom 🎉🎉🎉
I'm so happy that I conquered my fears two years ago and released this heart project of mine ❤️

✨I kept my word and published new content each month. After two years, there are over 350 videos in the classroom and students from all over the world have joined.

✨Plus Membership: I just love the combination of live online lessons, analysing recorded video together, watching classroom videos, and maybe meeting in real life for clinics.

✨Theory Membership: You can learn in your own time and have support from me as needed. Whether it is through asking questions in the Facebook group, watching the videos, booking lessons, or even have to me over for a live clinic.

✨Many students are lacking a clear structure and instructions they can understand.

✨Many horses are overwhelmed by too much information and too many expectations.

✨I help you figure out what to do, how to do it, and how to connect to your horse.

✨Dressage is my passion, and I love passing on what I have learned to you!

If you like what you are seeing on this page - you will love the classroom ❤ Link to the classroom in bio 🌹

02/02/2025

Sharing a short clip from our lesson with Christofer Dahlgren this week. I love when the horses really understand the training. Here, Minor is like "ups lost the hindquarter, let me fix that!"

Disclaimer: We are working with really difficult stuff here. Piaffe, Levade, School halt. You can see that in Minor. We are deep in the development zone, that's why I take lessons ;) But I also get calm standing immediately when I let go of the rein.

30/01/2025

Something I love about Minor is how he can be totally chill one moment and full of energy the next.
Top picture shows us waiting for our lesson with Christofer today. Bottom two during our lesson.
On a side note, it's kind of crazy how warm it is right now! At the end of January...in Poland...

28/01/2025

Practicing transitions in and out of school halt has really helped develop Minor’s school halt 🥰
Minor today during filming for my Classroom (series about the work in standstill).

27/01/2025

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade 🍋
I have a nasty inflammation in my right shoulder, and while it's already heaps better, I still can't move my arm normally. So I did some liberty with all the horses today 🥰
While lots of transitions and more "action" are great when I work with Weto, I take care to alternate phases of activity with phases of calmness with Minor. I think he will make a great liberty pony, don't you think?

26/01/2025

Transitions forward - collection - forward

Transitions are a very important training element. How you get into and out of an exercise matters!

Let's look at this short example, collection in trot. If during the transition into collection, the horse is already, or still, crooked and stiff, we will have the same problems in the collection. The horse will be on the shoulder and struggle to lift the trunk.

We are often too quick to work in collection, and it seems many prefer "collection at all costs" to a nicely balanced forward. We see lots of backwards working front legs and haunches without proper bending of the joints. Stepping on the place with stiff legs and without lift is not collection. It's also not very useful for anything.

Right now, I'm training for more collection with Minor (you could also call it piaffe...), but I'm very picky about the "how". I want Minor to keep lift and to not loose the lift when I transition into collection and back into forward. For Minor, it's easier to transition into collection than to transition out of it, and I really liked this short moment in time, because he tried very much

23/01/2025

I feel so honored that I can support these two 🥰🥰🥰

22/01/2025

My new course is slowly taking shape...FROM ZERO TO HERO - LEADING TRAINING FOR THE ART OF RIDING...very soon ready to release! So excited 🤩 Watch the video to learn what's going to be in the course:

17/01/2025

Australia was my big surprise in the last two years. To be honest, Australia is really far away from where I live and I had never given it a lot of thought. Then I shared a post in the Academic Art of Riding group in Australia announcing my 2023 clinics. I didn’t really think that I would actually travel to Australia, I just shared this post in all of the academic groups I’m a member in.
And half a year later, I had my visa and actually boarded a plane to Perth!
In 2023 and 2024, I taught 27 clinics in Australia and I met so many of you live. I didn’t really know much about Australia and I was just amazed by your openness to learn, by your smart questions, by your generosity.
Somehow, Andrew Turnbull, Marina Morton, Lisa Roper Susan Castel, Lee-Anne Shepherd, Anke Hawke, Terri Campbell and Lynn Scott jumped in on the occasion to host clinics for me although we didn’t really know each other. And yet, with each and every one of you, I felt like I already knew you for years. Maybe because we all care so much for horses and people. We share the same passions, ideas and worries. You have my deepest gratitude for arranging these amazing clinic for me! Because of you, we are all able to meet, learn, and connect.
Dear Anke Hawke, my tour coordinator and planner, juggles the dates and everyone’s requirements, and doing a damn good job at it. Anke, you’re my hero!
With each clinic I teach, I learn so much. Each clinic tour is truly special to me, and these are not just words. I feel that each tour reshapes me a little. I come back a different human. The intensity of teaching 2 clinics a week, the travelling, the breathtaking nature, the kindness of the people. It all blends to an incredible experience.
So I’m beyond exited to announce our next tour:

💎 WA PERTH March 19/20 2025, arranged by AMT Equestrian Services, [email protected]
💎 VIC MELBOURNE March 22/23 2025, arranged by Marina Morton Dressage and Horsemanship, [email protected]
💎 SA ADELAIDE March 26/27 2025, arranged by Susan Castel Equine Consultant/Coach, [email protected]
💎 ACT CANBERRA March 29/30 2025, arranged by Anamir Equine, [email protected]
💎 NSW MINIMBAH April 2/3 2025, arranged by Anke Hawke Balanced Dressage, [email protected]
💎 NSW MINIMBAH April 5/6 2025, arranged by Anke Hawke Balanced Dressage, [email protected]
💎 QLD SUNSHINE COAST April 9/10 2025, arranged by Lynn Scott, [email protected]
I hope to see you there! Make the time to come, even just for a few hours, to connect to people who care as deeply about horses as you do. There is a beautiful community of enthusiastic horse people in Australia, and I feel honoured to be a part of it for two months a year.
I feel that Australia is no longer a place far away when it comes to the academic art of riding, but a place “on the map” with a lot of good people and a lot of heart.
See you very soon!
XOXO, Bettina

12/01/2025

The average view time of videos on social media is 4,57 seconds… So this video is a bit of a rebel act ;)
It’s winter in Poland and the ground is frozen. It snows, melts, snows. Not the best conditions for training! I’m so glad I can train the academic groundwork with my horses. Slow, safe, and yet very effective!
Warming up the joints gently, stretching, lifting, straightening, building strength…
The academic groundwork is so versatile: from basic to advanced, for young and older horses. We school our eye and feel, and build our connection.
In a world that’s more and more crazy, dare to slow down and to enjoy the moment together.
Interested? I just released new videos in the groundwork module of my classroom - full length training sessions with my horses. The groundwork module also contains videos on how to get started with groundwork, how to teach the aids, and videos about each side movement: Shoulder-in, quarter-in, half-pass, pirouette, renvers pirouette. There is also lots of info about the school halt and how to start collection in groundwork.
Curious? The first month is 25% off! Stay as long as you like and join a community of lovely horse people.
Link to the classroom in the bio and in comments!

09/01/2025

Many of us are experiencing the fallout of the welfare issues in the horse industry. We get negative comments, maybe messages. I know that many are upset about that right now and demand a better discussion culture among equestrians. I definitely wouldn’t mind NOT having to monitor my accounts so closely.
Yes, of course we should treat each other with respect. However, I find it much more problematic that horses are still treated like sports equipment. They have to function and what is going on inside often seems to be irrelevant. The tortured facial expressions are hard to bear. This is about animal welfare.
I think it's good that riders can be held accountable through the wide reach of the internet. Because the knowledge has been available for a long time. There are enough studies and freely accessible information, books. Anyone who pulls a horse's head down onto its chest and causes blue tongues these days knows exactly what he/she is doing. The FEI and national associations hide behind the slogan “more research is needed”. No, it isn’t. The equestrian sport is under criticism and I think rightfully so.
I say this as a trainer who gives courses internationally and makes a living from horses and riding. So many of my clients have been told by previous trainers that they just have to assert themselves and that the horse just needs “a few wet saddle blankets”. Horses are ridden despite lameness and a lot of stress and suffering is caused by harmful living conditions, feeding and training.

Yes, I also experience negative comments under my posts. While I can simply delete them, the horses that are tortured in the name of sport cannot simply delete their riders. We have to help them, because they have no voice themselves. As long as these abuses are present, I think we have to live with the other side of the coin. If the sport does not reform itself, sooner or later politics will do it (as is already happening in some countries). And then we will get laws that we are all not happy with.
Personally, I have decided to bear the negativity with grace. Because I think the alternative is that nothing will change. And I don’t find that acceptable.

06/01/2025

“We have ruled out pain” is a sentence I often hear. Here are some great points to consider when something is off with your horse:

Getting to the root of a pain problem -

As our understanding of pain related behaviour improves, there are many situations where horses might present with a "nothingy something" of an issue but there is no clear indicator of where that problem might be arising from.

The interesting (challenging) thing with this is that, if there is no overt lameness or "if I poke here it really hurts", then oftentimes there is no clear start line for your diagnostic journey.

This can be very frustrating because you can find yourself running around in circles not knowing where to start, with conflicting advice from the professionals around you - some of whom might tell you unhelpful things like "just ride through it" or "it's just bad behaviour"

And this is where I have found traditional diagnostics really need to up their game because from a welfare perspective we need to be intervening with pain before a horse is hopping lame or ditching their rider.

And this in turn will encourage people to pay attention to the smaller behaviours rather than waiting for lameness or waiting to be ditched!

What I have learned is that sometimes you have to pick a place to start and work from there.

This means you may be searching for a little while and you might be ruling out more areas through diagnostics than ruling in areas, but that in and of itself is useful information.

Here is what my career has taught me so far:

- If you think there is a problem, there probably is. Find yourself a team of professionals that will support you.

Sometimes a professional might tell you there isn't a problem because they don't have the skillset to see it or find it, another opinion can often be a good thing - though do keep in mind that too many chefs spoil the broth.

There is many a time where I will say "there is a problem - I can't tell you what, though my observation/palpation skills tell me xyz and I will support you in finding out what it is".

- Sometimes there is so much peripheral noise that you need to strip out a lot of variables and then reassess. This includes improving your horse's management to meet their ethological needs and reducing the workload to see where a problem stops being a problem. These all take time.

I have also found that horses can present as painful because their human is expecting way, way, way too much from them given their physical and emotional health. Getting comfortable doing less and going slower is a solid way of rounding off with a happier, healthier horse that you can actually do more with in the long run.

- I'm a "let's deal with the elephant in the room" kind of gal:

If your horse has poor foot balance, deal with that and then go from there. This could include radiographs to monitor changes in hoof angle and this might mean seeking advice from other hoof care providers to support you and your current hoof care provider in improving things.

Likewise, if your horse's back looks like a saggy hammock, or they have weird lumps/spinal protrusions, deal with that. You could get radiographs to tell you the orientation of the spinous processes. Then rebuild your horse's spinal angle and see where that gets you.

- The problem will continue to be a problem until you have actually resolved it! If your horse has diagnosed hoof balance issues, which you are working on resolving, but the balance is still poor, then it will still be an issue!! This means you have to adjust your expectations of your horse accordingly!

- If you are requesting relatively non-invasive diagnostics, e.g. radiographing/ultrasounding your horse's limbs or back, and you are prepared to pay actual hard earned money for this service even though it might show you absolutely nothing of any value (although to me, ruling out an area is of enormous value), please don't let a professional convince you not to UNLESS they have a reasonable counter plan for another diagnostic (NB a bone scan, to the tune of thousands of £££ is not a suitable counterplan in my opinion)

"I suggested to my vet that we xray my horse's back but they palpated it and said that his reactions were normal so there is no reason to xray"

"Okay well what did they suggest instead?"

"They didn't"

"Great, so you have a horse that presents with pain under saddle and yet we are still no further forward with determining the cause"

- Equally, diagnostics and expertise do come with a price tag, this means that in order to find out what is going on with your horse, you do need to spend money. I know this gets tricky when your horse is presenting with a nothingy something and you have a limited budget to deal with it because you really want to spend that money wisely, but turning up to your vet and saying "I have 55p and three buttons to spend, please tell me what's wrong with my horse", is really unfair on your vet and also your horse.

"I had his hocks medicated but it didn't change anything"

"Did you do any diagnostics?"

"No, we just medicated"

"So what you're saying is you did something painful, that isn't without its risks, despite having not done any due diligence, which means you've spent money you don't have on something that wasn't the problem?"

- It is not as simple as medicating and riding into the sunset.

Why did your horse get the diagnosis they got?

What have you done to improve their management/lifestyle/way of going so you can reduce the instances of this happening again? For biomechanic induced issues, you need to solve the problem by altering their biomechanics; medicating is a way of reducing the pain/inflammation to buy you a window of time to do this in.

-

The relationship between pain and behaviour are very complicated. I really wish it was as simple as "nerve block here" to get results. There is so much more I could add and the nuances are vast.

There will of course be outliers to this - people who tried all of the above and are still without answers, or those who walked to hell and back to get them - and for those people I understand that this post might be very triggering, I am sorry about that. I hope you can see here that this is a good starting place for many people and I welcome your experience in the comments if you feel it has the power to help someone.

The final thing I will say is this -

Your horse does not need to perform in any way, shape or form in order to be deserving of your love, care and dedication to them. And if you feel they do, then perhaps you should consider getting a bicycle instead ❤️