I was listening to someone recently who talked about how after the outrage of the Olympics, there’s tens of thousands of disillusioned riders looking for a happier, more compassionate way to ride for their horses sake and for themselves. What made me cry about that? See… it’s one thing to know that a joyful pathway exists and delay it for whatever reason – it’s another to be struggling away not even knowing that horse’s aren’t supposed to be nervy, that falling off is bullshit and that it’s EASIER to be a beautiful rider on a happy, healthy, co-operative horse who is carrying you with strength and ease.
So I wept for everyone who’s struggling unnecessarily and I wept for those who – for whatever reason – are missing out on the kind of joyfulness that is possible in everything they do with their horse and specially I wept for those who wanted to ride and are missing out on the sheer joy that riding can be for people AND horses.
I don’t stay down in the dumps longer than to figure out what to know or do about it. When I re-read the syllabus of the program that I was sending to him, along with my wish that a compassionate way to ride be a normal way of being in the horse world – I stopped feeling sad. The more I read … and hey I wrote this stuff so I’ve read it before… the more I smiled and laughed.
I’d asked Karen to describe what she’d just experienced with her horse in one of our program lessons, to describe it for someone who had never experienced anything like it – you know, that old “you don’t know what you’re missing out on” thing – cos I’m sure people who don’t know me and this work think I’m exaggerating. And Karen described the flood of joy she and her horse experienced in one of our program riding lessons, as an orga$m of happiness. It’s pretty hard to weep when you’re reading that.
The idea of … snort… orga$ms of happiness being the new normal in the horse world… Well I’ve got a vivid imagination and my sense of humor is a bit bent.
Seriously though – what would the horse world look like if compassionate and joyful riding on happy and actively co-operative horses who wanted to be around humans, wanted to be ridden – what if that was the new normal? If you’re inspired too after reading about the lessons – the practical “HOW we do it” of all this talk – then I’d love you to share this article.
And if you DO share it, I’ll think of something special for us do to together – have a read first.
Have a read first, then if you’re inspired at the possibilities of all these gorgeous aspects of compassionate horsemanship being normal in the horse world, then whack me an email and let me know and I’ll think of something special for us to do together. More snorts and belly laughter! Let’s see if we can create some of Karen’s orga$ms of happiness with our horses, rather than the traditional way of using that word.
Still laughing…
And yes… also goosebumps at the possibilities…
There IS a Fast Track to Brilliant Riding.
You don’t have to PRACTICE being a really good rider, you don’t have to WORK at it or TRY hard – you just need to BE a really good rider on a horse who enjoys BEing with you.
And that’s what you get on Fast Track – innovative lessons that bring you the experience of BEing brilliant. Our program comes in two parts, starting with the Foundation Principles:
1. BEing and FEEling safe is an essential part of Fast Track.
BEing and FEELing safe like my tiny granddaughter and her pony in the photo above, is at the heart of our enjoyment and at the heart of being brilliant with horses. I’d taught her how to BE and FEEL safe with horses from when she was first crawling under the fences to get in with the herd and it naturally flowed into everything that she did.
The simple power of our Comfort Zone Model is woven into everything we do with our horse. Spoiler alert – it’s not what you normally think of when you hear someone talking about a comfort zone. We teach you how to use your FEEL for your horse to feel good about EVERYthing that you do with them – relaxed and confident at each step. That combination puts BEing a really good rider who’s BEing really good with horses with a horse who’s BEing a happy co-operative partner – onto fast forwards and brings it into NOW.
2. Even beginners get flashes of the Feel that makes the great horse men and women great.
Merlin had been a snappy snarly pony that physically and dangerously attacked people and Val was a beginner with her first horse. What a disaster that would have been without her Feel for him to guide her to what you see in the photo. You’ll see Val featured in some of the Fast Track lesson videos.
When I talk about ordinary people developing the supposedly unteachable Feel of a world class horse person, I can feel people going “Yeah right!”, thinking that won’t apply to them – but that is EXACTLY what happens here, even with beginners. At first it happens in flashes, then more and more often, until next thing you know, you’re working with your horse in a way that will knock your own socks off.
There’s 8 lessons in the Foundation Principles that systematically set you up for a conscious experience of Feel for your horse AND you get the bonus of working live with me too, to make sure you get it.
Those of you who get overwhelmed by your feelings are going to turn that overwhelm into the gift of fabulous horsemanship that it really is, when you understand how to use it.
My own experience has been the opposite. I wasn’t sensitive at all – disconnecting from my feelings was my default when the crap hit the fan. Trouble was, I disconnected from joy as well as fear. I find it humorous that I’ve discovered a way to teach a deep connection so well now!
3. Creative motivation.
Learning to motivate our horse without force is fundamental to a wonderful relationship and foundational to a horse and human learning together without fear. We start this creative thinking in the Foundation Principles.
4. Leadership without force.
Gosh this is a whole PhD all by itself. We simplify it. When we can get safety first and then gentle leadership at times of high instincts – without force – then we simply don’t have to get hard on a horse to get what we want – in fact getting hard on a horse will almost always cause you to struggle. We develop leadership one gentle step at a time of our horse’s high instincts, then it’s a piece of cake to have that gentle leadership everywhere else.
Here’s another aspect of what makes Fast Track FAST. There’s no need to repeat and repeat and repeat lessons until our horse understands it (like people normally have to) because where there’s no force there’s no resistance – you’ll learn how to get a lovely learning and understanding together.
5. Healing and good horsemanship go hand in hand with Fast Track.
When our simple techniques for relieving stress and releasing tension get woven together with your Feel, these simple principles bring the kind of healing for horses that still knocks my socks off after more than twenty years of watching it happen right in front of my eyes. Spinal bones sliding into place, coats suddenly shining, stiffnesses released, movement becoming free and easy – all kinds of healing of all kinds of things can take place.
The healing changes the way our horse learns too. You’ll be creating a relaxed way of learning, which speeds things up dramatically. You get to where there’s no old crap blocking up their understanding and progress.
6. Understanding our horse’s personality traits and the impact on their behavior, shifts our thinking and changes the way we deal with problems and that speeds things up too.
If I’d known this stuff back then, Bobby would never have been bucking higher than my head. (But if that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be here with this beautiful work either.) Like most of the horse personalities, Bobby’s personality type is commonly very misunderstood. He was a horse who turned himself inside out to be a Caretaker of his human and yet back then, the constant misunderstandings made him look like a VERY difficult horse.
Being willing to look for what’s going on BEHIND our horse’s behavior is fundamental to making things easy and fundamental to Fast Track. Understanding all the different ways that the different horse personalities express their fear and confusion brings a simplicity to solving some behavioral problems. When you combine that with Feel for your horse – it’s another thing that makes it possible to change things FAST.
Horses that people think they need to carry a whip or spurs to get them moving forward properly – these Caretaker horses like Bobby are a crusading of passion of mine.
Then you’ll learn to apply those foundation principles in all kinds of practical everyday situations:
There’s over 100 lessons in this part of Fast Track – all of them gentle, effective and fast, bypassing years and years of riding lessons and clinics, by getting rid of the PRACTICING and taking you instead into BE’ing a really good rider who’s really good with horses.
I meet a lot of people who think they can’t have Feel as good as the great horse men and women and here’s why they CAN.
We often describe what’s happening in our minds as “the radio’s so loud that you can’t hear the telephone ringing” – i.e. our mind is so busy that we can’t hear / feel our horse. It’s very common in these high pressured times we live in.
I’ve put three lessons on quietening your mind right at the front of the program. If these aren’t enough to break through into the relaxation that creates that first beautiful connection with your horse, I have 20 more lessons to choose from that I can give you. You WILL get your Feel for your horse that enables you to BE good with horses. I am committed to it.
The beginnings of your centaur riding seat is right at the front of the program too.
When Sandra in the photo said “without practicing or even thinking about it, the riding position has become automatic” it was these “off your horse” lessons that she was talking about. OFF your horse is the secret ingredient that eliminates years and years of trying and practicing to be a better rider. It’s our sports psychology meets advanced physical therapy meets alternative healing OFF your horse that makes Fast Track so FAST and your beautiful riding seat EFFORTLESS – not needing to work at it, just BEing a brilliant rider.
There’s 11 innovative lessons OFF your horse, to get you started on your centaur riding seat, starting with why you want it, showing you what to do and then leading you through doing it for yourself. The secret is, we clean up what’s BEHIND your riding seat not being as brilliant as it can be while you are OFF the horse and can focus on yourself. That’s what makes it effortless.
This section includes our famous lesson “releasing the fright imprint and tensions from old falls and accidents” that transforms the lives of people who’ve had bad falls. Falls and accidents create tension in peoples’ bodies that gets in the way of beautifully secure and confident riding. Some of you won’t have even noticed how big that tension is until it’s gone. Once this section is completed, that nervousness around falling just doesn’t exist any more. Read that again… just… doesn’t… exist… anymore…
Some of the really bad PTSD’s can sometimes need more individual help. We give you a way to get rid of that too.
This centaur riding seat section also includes our famous lesson “Heaven and earth meet in the saddle through me.” It gives ME goosebumps writing about it!
Leanne in the picture had just released PTSD from two serious falls 20 years earlier and was filled with joy at the strength in her riding position and her ability to move her body happily. That statement in the picture is at the heart of why people have to work so hard to be good riders. Some people would never discover how good a rider they could be because they’re bogged in struggling – trying to improve their riding while they’re on their horse. The struggle happens BECAUSE they’re on their horse.
When they’re on their horse they’re practicing their existing tension – so they’re just practicing crap. Does that make sense? That’s HUGE isn’t it? Taking people off their horse to eliminate that tension and struggle and rewire the neural pathways in the brain is just one way that Fast Track brings you to BEing a brilliant rider.
Our horse is the other half of brilliant riding.
If you want to be REALLY good with horses, then eliminating every fear, nerves or anxiety from your horse’s routine is such a short cut that you will wonder why anyone ever tried any other way.
We have an intriguing lesson where you get to feel for yourself why this is such a big deal. You’ll be smiling at me when you get there!
Then we start meticulously layering confidence for you and your your horse, using your FEEL for your horse, getting better and better at it being a normal part of your life.
All these Fast Track lessons are about making your FEEL the central part of everything that you do with your horse and using that to build more and more confidence, a deeper and deeper bond with your horse. It starts from before you even get them out of the paddock or barn – with steps for safety and feel-good in catching and bringing them out of the pasture.
Lots of you are going to think… what the heck? I don’t have any trouble catching my horse and bring them out of the pasture.
BUT…
THIS goal is different. It’s about more than just being able to do a task. It’s about eliminating every source of stress and tension from yourself and your horse and FEELING GOOD in EVERYthing that you do together. AND that feel good will speed up problem solving and learning dramatically.
“You can’t teach Feel” they say. “You have to be born with it.”
There’s one lesson in particular after a whole heap of lessons steadily increasing your Feel for your horse that had dressage afficionado, Corey from New Zealand going NUTS. That’s her in the photo with her stallion GoldStar, photo by the very talented Marie Richards of New Zealand. Here’s what she wrote about it.
“YOU CAN’T TEACH ‘FEEL’ “ she said. “How many times have I heard that in clinics/lessons, or read that from some of the most renowned, well published great horsemen over the decades.
Well they’re utterly and completely WRONG. THEY can’t teach it. But Jenny can.
I’ve been a participant in Jenny’s online course, Through The Grace Of The Horse (now called Fast Track to Brilliant Riding), and now that we’re approaching the end of this miracle-packed series, the lessons are revealing even bigger and more dramatic breakthroughs than ever before. Looking back, this gradual build-up to more and more mind boggling “AH HAAAAAA’s” has really been Jenny’s purposeful, methodical way of bringing us to a point where suddenly this lesson arrived to my computer.
After a few days of having to read, think, re-read, re-think, read, quiet mind it, read, visualize it and re-read it again, an avalanche of understanding swept over me and practically knocked me off my chair when I finally realized that, because of everything she’d taught us up to this point, and making SURE that we “got it”, she was able to give us this lesson, which is nothing less than explaining and TEACHING us that ever elusive, high on an unreachable pedestal unless “you were born with it”, FEEL.
I am NOT exaggerating. I am NOT describing a uniquely personal revelation: just ask the 23 other members in our online course. This is NOT a paid political announcement.
If you want to LEARN “feel” and LEARN how to open your heart to reveal all the skills you have inside you to eventually be on a par with all the great horsemen and so-called horse whisperers, there is no other way that I am aware of to do that, to LEARN that, than by taking one of Jenny’s meticulously, brilliantly constructed online courses.
Tell every horse person you know. Do it for the grace of the horse.” Corey from New Zealand
Liberty – nothing but you and them.
If playing with your horse at liberty has intrigued you, then we’ve got six lovely lessons that will deepen your bond together so powerfully that your horse will be copying your physical actions while they WANT to be with you. That’s VERY different from the kind of liberty that’s based in a round yard where they can’t get away.
There’s some hilarious light hearted stuff happens in these lessons as people and horses learn to connect even more deeply together. It’s a fabulous foundation to BEing so beautifully together at the beginning of liberty.
Treats and incentives.
How you handle food and treats is fundamental to leadership. This lesson prompts you to think about how you use treats, some options and how to form your own opinions about them.
The most extraordinary healing can take place in this program
One of my old teachers used to say that “you can’t bake a cake twice” – meaning that you can’t fix a horse who’s already been stuffed up – you don’t get “do-overs”. I am thrilled to tell you that he’s wrong. Even older horses can let go all the stress and tension from their earlier days and just like people, they can heal and regain some of their youth.
It’s impossible to separate good horsemanship from healing. There’s lesson after lesson after lesson where you’re increasing your skill with your Feel and at the same time you’ll be systematically helping your horse to let go old stresses and tensions. You’ll watch withered muscles regain their shape and bones start sliding into place like Pye in the photo above. He had had no muscle work whatsoever to achieve that incredible healing in 8 weeks.
There’s a beautiful lesson on Fast Track about what to do if releasing an old trauma triggers your horse to let go so much old stress and tension that they start acting like a baby horse. Far out that’s an incredibly special opportunity for horses that have been seriously stressed in their previous training.
Let’s put bells and whistles around this section. We can heal our horses while we ride or we can hurt them.
A beautiful self carriage in a horse is not something that you see very often. It’s when their bodies are kind of floating along, their stride is rhythmic, they’re relaxed and yet powerful at the same time. Their back is lifted up, which means that when you’re riding they can carry you with strength and ease without hurting themselves.
And they’re doing it because they feel good, not because someone’s framing up their bodies with a hand here and a leg there trying to get it to happen. It’s SELF carriage, with sheer delight in the feel of their bodies and there’s sheer delight for you in being able to use your centaur riding seat to enjoy that.
We bring self carriage into the reach of everyone before we even get on our horse and it starts from the very beginning. Our horse’s ability to carry us with strength and ease starts with BEing and FEELing safe from the first approach and hello. A horse who has released their old stress – who is in their Comfort Zone – is automatically in self carriage.
That’s a very big far reaching statement that you’ll see the simplicity and the truth of, for yourself, on Fast Track.
Step by meticulous step eliminating every tension from your horse’s routine, systematically deepening your Feel and getting more and more confident using it.
Remember that our horse’s ability to lift their back, to carry us with strength and ease, comes from eliminating the stresses and tensions that are important to YOUR horse. So we have lesson after lesson that prompts you to check different aspects of your horse’s routine, releasing any stresses and tensions, bringing enjoyment to them and you.
It’s all very well to have this lovely low key work helping our horse to feel good, but can we feel it together when the energy is high?
There’s also lessons on increasing your horses ability to deal with high energy, steadily and gently increasing you and your horse’s ability to “keep each other safe” when unusual things happen around them, like when something flaps in the wind. This is not the flooding, flapping, desensitization that tends to increase a horse’s tension – this is helping our horse to find a feeling of understanding and relaxation when something high energy happens and have a deep sense of confidence together.
There’s a lesson that Bobby gave me to keep my tiny granddaughter safe when she started crawling under the fences to be among our herd of horses. It’s a lesson that gently builds the mutual “keep each other safe” that is a foundation of the horse and human partnership here. It has huge implications for the ridden work, specially if the crap is ever hitting the fan around you. The wisdom of that horse still makes me smile.
There’s non-riding simulations too, that get muscle memory happening before you have to do it with your horse.
Simulations are worth their weight in gold and part of what makes it possible to BE brilliant instead of practicing to get brilliant at some time in the future. It’s easy to get your muscle memory happening when you don’t have to think about your horse as well. You can go as slow as you need, to change the neural pathways in your brain.
For example, there’s a lesson on smooth hands. Smooooth hands create a smoooth reaction in our horse. We can even can release old defensiveness and bracing, producing a horse who comes with you smoothly and willingly. Smooth hands on the ground leads to smooth hands and a soft, responsive horse in the ridden work – and it all starts with these wonderful simulations of BEing smooth before you even put the halter on.
The Release, Re-Learn and Re-Program technique will knock your freaking socks off.
We take you step by meticulous step through your horse’s life, RELEASING old resistances and fears and traumas, RE-LEARNING how it should have been taught and RE-PROGRAMMING that new way of doing something into your horse’s muscle memory FAST.
See… a fear and tension that was established earlier in their training doesn’t just disappear when you put your foot in the stirrup to get on – it’s still there waiting to bite you on the butt whenever they’re afraid or confused. It means that the source of a problem is often not where you think it is.
This one simple technique, which incorporates the foundation philosophies, means you can help your horse to release OLD crap and OLD tension AND old fear – even OLD terror and OLD injuries. We’ve watched student after student after student bring healing into their horses’ lives. We’ve watched horse after horse after horse’s bodies heal – sometimes even while we watch.
We’ve watched problem after problem after problem simply disappear because the SOURCE of the problem, wasn’t in the behavior at all.
We’ve watched horses just melt their resistance.
We’ve watched angry horses sigh and relax.
The Release Re-learn and Re-Program technique is a major contribution to the FAST of Fast Track – the BEing brilliant with horses.
Solving a problem can be the key that catapults you into BEing brilliant with horses. There’s lessons on:
* What to do when your horses says “no” and you don’t want to use force.
And yes folks, for this BEing beautiful together stuff, you don’t want to have to be using force.
* Fix catching problems so easily.
* Happy feet training, your feet person will love you for this one.
* Solve aggression or upsets at feed time.
* Learn an acupressure point for relaxation and pain relief.
* Make your horse safe from fences and ropes
After this one, if they get caught in a fence they’ll just be like “ho hum, get me out of here please.” Or or if they step on a rope, they feel their way gently to freeing themselves again without panicking and injuring themselves. This one lesson is enough to save you thousands in vet bills.
* Learn how to release the fear from a horse who’s terrified of motorbikes.
* There’s preparation for riding out with fun and safety.
Which includes how to get a horse safe from cars and tractors and stuff they’ll meet out on a bush track or the road. When you’re using your Feel to do things like this, it’s so simple and so easy and so low key.
* Helping herd bound horses with separation anxiety should be of the highest priority – and here’s why.
Think about it. You bring your horse out of the pasture or the barn and the tension starts rising in them as you take them away from their friend. That tension doesn’t suddenly leave them when you put your foot in the stirrup – it affects EVERYthing that you do with them adversely.
I see it sooo often. Dressage riders think that they have a piaffe problem or a flying change problem, trail riders think their horse is spooking about stuff on the trail, trainers think they’re got a difficult horse to work with – but that’s not the problem at all. The problem is all the way back in the tension of the separation anxiety that started when they first brought their horse away from their friend.
That herd bound tension becomes the foundation of EVERthing else that they do. TENSION is the foundation of EVERYthing they do from that point on.
Do you understand what that means? If separation anxiety isn’t attended to it means STRUGGLE! If it’s not attended to, it means PRACTICING to be a good rider, PRACTICING to be good with horses, instead of BEing a good rider and BEing really good with your horse.
FEEL for your horse is the key to eliminating separation anxiety. There’s two specific lessons on separation anxiety on Fast Track, plus discussion on the student forum, including a seminar featuring Susie in the photo above.
* Biting horses are so misunderstood.
Oh mannn there’s so many horses in the world who bite and it’s so darned sad because they’re sooo… misunderstood. They just don’t need to express themselves like that when you’re listening to them and using your Feel for them. Solving biting like we talk about in these three lessons this will INCREASE your bond with them.
* My giant warmblood Oliver brings us some spectacular lessons including the ability to solve the sudden uncontrollable reactions of PTSD in horses.
There’s a 8 lessons from Oliver sprinkled through the Fast Track program, one of which is a video of how he changed from a dangerous horse with PTSD into a giant teddy bear.
Some of his lessons are about simple but frustrating things, like he’d always been cross tied and had no idea how to stand still for anything to be done with him. Now you can throw the lead rope on the ground or even trim his feet at liberty and he stands still politely. His haltering is simply gorgeous, he literally throws his head into halter saying “take me!” There’s another lesson about releasing braces and stuck spots in his body.
Then there’s the big one – some real time video of the techniques we used to release his PTSD that turned him from a dangerous horse into the giant teddy bear that he is today. These PTSD reactions was no doubt the reason this valuable horse had been given to me.
* Gosh, tying horses up can be a controversial subject.
Some people think “tie them up solid and let them fight if they need to. They’ve gotta’ learn they can’t get away.” I saw stats once that said a horse dies every week in Australia from pulling back when tied up. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but as a healer I’ve seen some horrifying injuries in some desperate horses that were totally in their “Oh Shit I’m Dead” Zone, with reactions where they can’t control themselves. Some of those horses were suffering full on PTSD symptoms (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Think about it – the tension within them caused by being tied up and stuff done to them without Feel, the tension caused by the terror of pulling back – that tension doesn’t suddenly disappear when you put your foot in the stirrup, does it? It gets in the way of your horse BEing a happy co-operative partner!
That tie up tension is still inside them, ready to bite you on the bum, increasing every other fear that they experience, adversely affecting everything that you do with them, making you think they’re a nervy reactive horse when all along it was something simple like this underneath, causing it.
So my tie up philosophy is different. There’s 3 lessons in Fast Track about preparing a horse properly to tie up – BEFORE you even think about tying them up.
For horses who pull back, we have techniques that release these old terrors and automatic brain pathways. Then with that happy relaxed mind, we can re-teach tying up and reprogram the new learning. Then you never need to tie them up solid again, because they come off a much lighter pressure on auto pilot.
Those really bad, desperate pull backs are a PTSD response and should be treated with that kind of compassion.
* Solve floating and trailering problems yourself.
This photo shows a gobsmacking moment when Oliver – who had been involved in a traumatic floating incident not long before he came to me – dragging his lead rope behind him, pushed in from the side of the ramp and loaded himself onto the float to show the other horse (who was stuck at the bottom of the ramp having difficulties) to show him how to do it. He even demonstrated how I’d taught him to feel the roof of the float with his ears. This was a classic case of a horse BE’ing happy and co-operative, actively working WITH the people to achieve an objective. I see this kind of thoughtful co-operation all the time.
Oliver’s floating drama that started the train of events that led him to me, involved him pulling back and getting loose, turning his giant body around and trying to jump out the back. From that terror to loading himself to help another horse… bless him!
Invariably float or trailer problems have many threads that have nothing to do with getting on the trailer. We cover all those components plus the innovative ways that we came up with to help Oliver get confidence around the roof of the trailer. At 18 hands, even in our extra large trailer, that roof is very close to his head.
There’s a suggested list of tasks that will have your horse looking to YOU in a scarey situation BEFORE they freak out.
Ahhh what a relief this is when your horse gets a fright and looks to you to find out whether this thing is OK and what they should do about it – and this is utterly teachable.
We call these suggested tasks “seasoning” – step by step expanding our horse’s experience of things in such a gentle and systematic way that they become a happy “Steady Eddy.” You’ll adapt these lessons to things in your own environment.
Get the saddle into your horses Comfort Zone and then into their DEEP Comfort Zone.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to get the beauty of riding together as one being, unless your horse is in their comfort zone with their saddle. Although many horses are generous, I can count on one hand the number of horses I have met who were in their Comfort Zone with their saddle.
There’s two lessons here – the first is about saddling step-by-step and releasing old anxieties and safe saddling procedures. The second is what I call extreme saddling – getting our horse REALLY comfortable with that saddle you’re going to be sitting on.
The tension that a horse experiences when the saddle goes on doesn’t suddenly disappear when you put your foot in the stirrup. That tension is there, ready to bite you on the bum when anything goes wrong, getting in way of beautiful relaxed riding and learning together. You will have seen it yourselves even if you didn’t notice what caused it – someone who thinks they have a nervy horse and they’re not a nervy horse at all – their first saddling left them with tension that’s never been addressed and that tension is so big it makes them look like a nervy horse!
There’s another lesson on how to get the bridle into their Comfort Zone for the same reasons AND then another about getting a soft response with it.
Then we’ve got some fabulous information on saddle fit.
It won’t make you an expert, but by crikey, at the end of these three in depth lessons with these simple diagrams and explanations from Sandra. you’ll know more than most people and you’ll understand what’s important to your horse and why.
Imagine when the pressure’s on or something goes wrong and you’re able to breathe out and instantly drop into your magnetic riding seat and just flow with your horse.
We have lessons for that! Your breathing when you are riding is an important element of a being a good rider and a “good” breathing lesson is the foundation.
This is followed by a lesson called “Creating space for the magic to happen” teaching you HOW to be Present with a horse and experience the magic of BEing.
Then we take you into the saddle in a way that is so sweet and so powerful that you’ll wonder why riding has ever been taught any other way.
You can throw away your horse’s lovely self carriage if you throw away your Comfort Zone as you get on their back. Translation : You throw away your horse’s ability to lift their back automatically and carry you with strength and ease if you allow any tension to continue.
May I be even more blunt? If your horse is not lifting their back to carry you with the strength and ease, then your riding is going to be causing harm. That’s the simple cause of most of the back problems we see in sooo many horses and it’s easily changed with what we do here.
There’s a beautiful lesson that I call The Way of the Child that will give you and your horse a whole new level of confidence in the next step.
There’s lessons about releasing any old stresses and /or vulnerabilities around mounting for both you and your horse. You’ll learn how to have your horse stand there happily for you to get on and you’ll clear up any of their anxieties first if you need to. No tension allowed!
You’ll learn a way to mount your horse that eliminates the slight anxiety that most riders experience getting on a horse. I’ve done this lesson hundreds of times and only come across two people who got on in a way that was safe for them and safe for their horse. Yes you read that right – only two people got on safely.
You’ll take that brilliant centaur riding seat that you got in a chair and you’ll re-program that onto your horses back. This is so easy and so beautiful that again, you’ll wonder why riding was ever taught any other way.
Every now and again we’ll pop you back in a chair for a lesson or two, to clean something up, learn something new or get something clear.
You’ll get to release your hip joints – fabulous for those of us who have pelvises that are older, gotten stiff from accidents and bearing children – and you’ll make turning your horse effortless. There’ll be no more of “pick that hand up, put this leg there, wrestle with this, struggle with that” – just smooth, effortless BE’ing together.
Then it’s full steam ahead in your saddle work – keeping these beautiful feelings and keeping your horse with the lifted up back of self carriage, where they can carry you with strength and ease.
Take your magnetic butt out to your horse. In previous lessons you RELEASED your old stresses and tensions on your chair horse – now this lesson is your turn to take your magnetic butt out to your real horse, to RE-LEARN that beautiful feeling, your safe, stable, magnetic seat and to RE-PROGRAM it, to anchor it into AUTO-PILOT, on their back.
Then we’ve got one of my favorite lessons that Bobby taught me, that’s a brilliant baby step to keeping your beautiful magnetic riding seat into movement. Again, it’s so spectacular in its results that you’ll wonder why riding hasn’t always been taught like that.
A conversation about stopping and backing up with the soft feel of the rein. This lesson is about getting a beautiful softness with the rein first, so that we can use that as an explanation when we are teaching back up from the body. To get that softness, we need to release any resistance or old stresses to the action of the rein when the horse is being ridden.
There’s another lesson that I call “Gliding backwards on Cloud 9”, because it feels THAT sweet to teach a horse to back up like this.
There’s another lesson about our contribution to softness in a stop. I take you back off your horse to get your pelvis flexing softly for a stop. If you desire to be a great rider, if you want to dance with your horse – then here is YOUR contribution to the softness that is necessary for that dance together as one being.
Then there’s a goosebump lesson called “Dancing to a stop with two reins” that pulls all the pieces together.
Anchoring a beautiful feeling of chilled out happiness.
We have a lesson about why our horses WANTS us on their backs. This lesson is about anchoring a beautiful feeling of chilled out happiness, anchoring it into AUTO-PILOT when you are on your horse’s back. This lesson is such a Fast Track to Brilliant Riding, that it will be very much worth coming back to every now and again.
RIDE your horse to wellness.
Riding like this is such a beautiful experience for you and your horse that you can help your horse heal WHILE you’re riding. This lesson is from a seminar about about how NOT to disconnect from your horse physically while turning. This explains what I call OVER-RIDING – which disconnects us from our horse and confuses communication AND it’s about a beautiful opportunity to help your horse to heal while you are riding.
We’re almost at the end now!
Understanding the Fast Track to Brilliant Riding. This lesson is about how your magnetic riding seat and the flexion of the pelvis and spine is your part of the powerful circuit of energy between horse and rider.
Learning to ride with the Feel of your whole body. This lesson is truly the keys to the kingdom of fast tracking brilliant riding. Many riders will break through into experiencing the circuit of powerful energy in this lesson, as you release whatever is in the way and learn to ride with the feel of your whole body.
The circuit of energy between horse and rider – the holy grail of dressage riders, a gorgeous One-ness with your horse for everyone else. This lesson is about cleaning up any small, not so useful quirks in your riding position – helping you to find anything in your riding position that wants changing, in order to have you brilliantly riding as one being with your horse. This will be the breakthrough into the circuit of energy for many people.
Confidence in motion
This lesson is not just about getting a gorgeous Comfort Zone happening in movement and your horse learning how to move with the turning of your body – it’s also what you’ll want to have happening if you’d ever like to ride bridle-less – i.e. the freedom of nothing on their head at all.
And the crowning glory of this wonderful program
We have an incredible lesson that Re-programs your own “oh shit” reactions, so that you are seriously magnetized into the saddle if something goes wrong.
It’s an instinctive reaction to grab your horse and even pull on them when you’re in trouble – you’ll watch even riders on the world stage doing it, with some remarkable exceptions. Well, you’ll become a remarkable exception too with this lesson that gives you auto pilot reactions that get you OUT of trouble instead of the grabbing and pulling that gets you into trouble.
We’ve got testimonials up the wazoo here – some of them moving, some hilarious.
Click on the picture or the heading for the Fast Track testimonials.
Fast Track Testimonials
There’s also as much as you could ever wish for, on the student only forum
There’s over 10 years of recorded seminars and extra lessons covering things like feet training (oh this is a BIG one and sooo important!) how to prepare your horse for unpleasant experiences like the dentist, fixing (interesting word!) a needle shy horse. These are all things that require Feel, in order to apply the techniques.
There’s more work on separation anxiety, more simulations about avoiding over-riding so you don’t disconnect from your horse (one of my passions, because it sooo gets in the way of togetherness), float and trailer training and so much more that I can’t think of off the top of my head.
Fast Track is $1,500 for access and joy for a lifetime. Email me if you need a payment plan.
But don’t go looking for your wallet yet!
Firstly, are we the right fit for each other?
I offer a “love this program or get your money back” guarantee and there’s been only two times in seventeen years that I’ve needed to refund – and it was because I didn’t get them to think about these questions:
Are you open to doing things differently?
Because we don’t get these kind of results from doing things the same old way.
Are you gentle or do you want to be?
I ask that question because I wasn’t gentle myself – I didn’t know how, because I’d been taught some pretty high pressure ways of working – but I DID want to be.
Do you WANT to be able to listen to and understand your horse? Don’t worry about the “how” yet, that’s MY job and I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t teach this to.
Do you WANT to be able to listen to and understand your horse and know how to use that in practical ways that will bring you outstanding results in both problem solving and creating lovely outcomes together?
Are you WILLING to put your horse as the first priority? Mannn… you wouldn’t believe how much faster things progress when you put your horse and feeling good first!
Do you have a desire to be REALLY good with horses? If you have the desire, you can achieve just about anything.
If you’ve answered yes to those questions, then it looks like we’re a match. Fast Track is a PRACTICAL, step by step pathway to bring beautiful concepts into reality and you won’t find anything like it – or results anything like it – anywhere else in the world.
You might also need to know:
- that I’ve been known to swear when I get really passionate about something and that passion is a part of me.
- that although I’m not religious, this beautiful work seems to fit with all faiths.
I repeat… with all my programs, clinics and books – love this or get your money back.
In addition to the syllabus that you’ve been reading, here’s what else you get on Fast Track:
♦ We’ve talked already about the Foundation Principles and over 100 lessons that will have you BE’ing a brilliant rider on a horse who is BE’ing happy and co-operative.
♦ Support is the biggest deal of Fast Track – as part of your support, depending on what brings you into Fast Track, I might get you to focus on a particular lesson or add something else from our 20 years of on-line resources. (Crikey has it been THAT long?) So let me know what it is that brings you to us, so I can point you to extra resources for that particular issue.
♦ More support. There’s a student only forum that contains vast amounts of specialized support for problem solving and a lovely community of like minded people. I can’t emphasize how special it is to have the support of a whole community of people who are either centered or know how to find it. There’s a section for asking me questions. There’s extra lessons on things like feet training for the feet trimmer or farrier, how to get them ready for a much easier dentist visit, solving a needle shy horse and more. It’s a quiet forum, full of people who spend time outside enjoying their horses.
♦ And even more support. Fast Track students get preference for the one on one live work with me on the free live seminars.
♦ Did you guess it? Even more support still! There’s an invaluable archive of seminars going back years on the student only forum – a treasure house of lessons and unedited live discussion that you can either browse through on a rainy day or I’ll point you to specific things that help you with the dream / problem that brought you into Fast Track.
♦ You work at your own pace. At the bottom of each lesson page is the button to trigger the next lesson and you click that when you’re ready. I’ve done it that way so that even if you skim over some lessons as you go down the page to get to the button, they’ll be in your brain to come back to your attention if you need them.
♦ After the last Fast Track lesson, you’ll get a spinning wheel with links to every lesson, that you can playfully use to bring extra focus to some area of your horse life or reference a particular lesson that you want to revise.
♦ You keep your access to the whole program and the support that comes with it, “forever”. There’s no monthly fees.
♦ My “Love this program or get your money back” Guarantee.
$1500 – access and joy for a lifetime. Email me if you need a payment plan.
We also have seminars and podcasts and other free resources that I’m happy to point you to, as well as … (don’t skip over this next bit) … as well as some ideas about how you might go about getting what you want here even if your wallet is empty, so email me about what brings you here. It might take me a while, but I answer EVERY email.
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