Anybody else had a 'Ride with your mind' Lesson?

My regular instructor trained and teaches this way and I have found it fantastic. I've made so many changes to the way I ride to address issues that were never pointed out to me by anyone previously. But it's made me realise how far I have yet to go!
 
fatbird said:
My regular instructor trained and teaches this way and I have found it fantastic. I've made so many changes to the way I ride to address issues that were never pointed out to me by anyone previously. But it's made me realise how far I have yet to go!
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They're very interesting aren't they? And yep me too! But I hope to have one once a month from now on, they're really helpful.
 
My regular instructor is a Mary Wanless fan and has done her courses including the instructor course I think. So I think the way I am being taught is RWYM, lots of biomechanics and things I'd never heard of before. It's great because I'm finally learning what I have to do with my middle to make myself a good passenger and an effective rider. I think it's a very ethical way to ride as well, very understanding of the horse's experience.
 
Not sure if it was specifically ride with your mind, but had a session doing ground work and riding with a lady who also does communicating and behavioural things, and she taught me breathing and thinking as a way to 'stop/start' (cant think of a better way of saying it lol) the horse and it really worked on a fizzy bouncy young tb. Since then I do ride more with my seat and mind and the same goes for ground work. I feel alot calmer, kinder and more effective with subtle seat and breathing aids. Is that what you meant? :)
 
I had a few on old mare, were of no benefit to us.
(Mare had issues anyway, not sure many instructors would have been much benefit to us!)

The lady I used I believe is one of the higher level type and I wasn't keen.
Too much talk of rubbing your lady parts on the saddle, I'm not prude-ish in the slightest but it was seriously uncomfortable!!
 
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ngrace said:
Not sure if it was specifically ride with your mind, but had a session doing ground work and riding with a lady who also does communicating and behavioural things, and she taught me breathing and thinking as a way to 'stop/start' (cant think of a better way of saying it lol) the horse and it really worked on a fizzy bouncy young tb. Since then I do ride more with my seat and mind and the same goes for ground work. I feel alot calmer, kinder and more effective with subtle seat and breathing aids. Is that what you meant? :)
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It's the same sort of thing! It's just a specific technique, I believe the links up there somewhere ^^ If you wanted to take a look :)
 
My mum has her first ride with your mind lesson on my well schooled competition mare on Wednesday. They both loved it my mums riding improved instantly and my mare looked relaxed and very happy. I am relieved to say my mum was not rubbing her lady bits on the lesson thank god as I would definatley draw the line at that!
 
i have had RWYM lessons for 2.5 yrs now. Has completely changed my riding and my way of thinking about my position and how it affects the horse. Me and my instructor have different words for different feels etc, and we have our own languauge!! We have never had ladys bits rubbing saddle though lol! We do talk about having a flatter 'underneath' so that you sit better in the saddle and suction the horses back up.
I would recommend anyone to give it a go - My instructor covers Midlands, shropshire and staffs if anyone wants her number Pm me,
 
I've ridden and taught that way for decades - the mind is a powerful aid. It works incredibly well.

I also love Sally Swifts methods - helps some riders to visualise what you want from them.
 
I had my first ride with your mind lesson about 5 years ago and i've never looked back and my understanding of rider/horse interaction continues to grow. I was in such an awful place with my riding, so despondent and my body wouldn't do what i wanted it to. Now I have much better awareness of where my body is, what the horse is trying to make my body do and also have developed 'tools' that i can counteract the horses evasions. I have a long, long way to go (had 2 children in the last 3 years so haven't done much recently) but i am off to Ashen Equestrian Centre tonight for a simulator session. Becky Chapman is my instructer and I think she is fab.

If anyone in East Anglia is interested, Becky is holding a 'horsey' weekend that has various clinics, demonstrations and discussions on many different subjects like RWYM, biomechanics, stride analysis, saddlery, nutrition, farriery etc (and tickets are ridiculously cheap in my opinion!). I'm presuming i can't put a link to the website because of advertising but if anyone is interested I can pm you the details.

Trina x
 
I went to Ashen earlier this year and had two sessions on the simulator after years of being interested in RWYM techniques and seeing a Mary Wanless demo last year. Now, at last I've found a RWYM instructor (who was taught by Mary) and I've had 2 ridden and one dismounted session with her, the next ridden one is tomorrow.

At last I feel as if I am riding properly (after 30+ years :eek:) and although it's harder to understand what to do, as soon as I DID understand it, the riding was actually much easier physically and more effective. The imagery used is hard to follow at first, with phrases like 'keep your skin still' being used, but it does actually make sense.

I do recall that lots of the conversation at Ashen with Becky was centred around the use of the 'gusset' area!!!!!

I think my horse is thanking me...........:o
 
I will be at the Ethical Equine Extravaganza organised by Becky Chapman all weekend, working on a trade stand :-)

I also started my RWYM journey with Becky, initially in Strider the simulator and had a lesson on my own horse afterwards. I have now swapped to another RWYM instructor who is fabulous, she will also come to me, or her yard is easier for me to get to than Becky's if I decide to go there.
 
fliss26 said:
My mum has her first ride with your mind lesson on my well schooled competition mare on Wednesday. They both loved it my mums riding improved instantly and my mare looked relaxed and very happy. I am relieved to say my mum was not rubbing her lady bits on the lesson thank god as I would definatley draw the line at that!
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This thread is really making me laugh!! A local riding club to me seems to have around 3 members ( ladies) that ride in this way - I call it saddle sh****g (apologies for such crudity!) but it does really look disgusting and at every show I see one of them my jaw drops in horror. Mind you I don't know if they have been taught a RWYM technique. Weird indeed.:D
 
The saddle rubbing thing sounds horrible.

Like everything else there are good and bad instructors and I have had both. One horrible lady who was jumping on the bandwagon and really just wanted to talk about herself (v dull) and 2 brilliant instructors who have changed the way I ride and think and the confidence wise made a huge different. They both also have other inspirations other than Mary Wanless - ie use the information intelligently.

At its best RWYM is essentially good classical riding chunked down into small changes so that you can understand. Ie putting a system on good riding. Too many instructors may be effective riders who just teach to pay their bills, and may not have that much empathy with us poor souls who aren't naturally brilliant.
 
canteron said:
The saddle rubbing thing sounds horrible.

Like everything else there are good and bad instructors and I have had both. One horrible lady who was jumping on the bandwagon and really just wanted to talk about herself (v dull) and 2 brilliant instructors who have changed the way I ride and think and the confidence wise made a huge different. They both also have other inspirations other than Mary Wanless - ie use the information intelligently.

At its best RWYM is essentially good classical riding chunked down into small changes so that you can understand. Ie putting a system on good riding. Too many instructors may be effective riders who just teach to pay their bills, and may not have that much empathy with us poor souls who aren't naturally brilliant.
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Yes agreed canteron, that's what I thought of RWYM and also SS. Classical makes people think "oh no, too complicated" so this is why several variations on a theme have developed over the years, effectively too if understood well, like anything.

All very good, but again... the general idea is to relax and sit properly and carry yourself well as to enable the horse to carry YOU well... not s*** the flippin' saddle :D
 
Ive not heard about the lady bits thing either, but it reminds me of my old RI from the 80's who would bellow to everybody about polishing the seat of the saddle with our behinds as we all cantered round!

Ive watched some of MW's videos and taken in some really good ideas. One thing on particular that does spring to mind, is how Mary demonstrated you using your knee as a pivot when you rise to the trott, keeping all your weight into your knee and your lower leg will come beneath your body and your feet only need to be resting lightly in the irons.

This combined with the bearing down (breathing exercise) really helps control my pony's trott, particularly around corners where she has a tendency to rush.

It takes a little getting used to, especially getting away from the pushing all your weight into your irons thing and keeping your knees loose.
 
Pod77 said:
Ive not heard about the lady bits thing either, but it reminds me of my old RI from the 80's who would bellow to everybody about polishing the seat of the saddle with our behinds as we all cantered round!

Ive watched some of MW's videos and taken in some really good ideas. One thing on particular that does spring to mind, is how Mary demonstrated you using your knee as a pivot when you rise to the trott, keeping all your weight into your knee and your lower leg will come beneath your body and your feet only need to be resting lightly in the irons.

This combined with the bearing down (breathing exercise) really helps control my pony's trott, particularly around corners where she has a tendency to rush.

It takes a little getting used to, especially getting away from the pushing all your weight into your irons thing and keeping your knees loose.
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Ah... you see, this one I don't really understand - the knee gripping thing in rising trot. You don't need a "pivot", you need a good rhythm using the momentum from the SIT - this takes away any pony-club sit-stand-sit thing.
 
Tally ho, I know what you mean!

From what I can gather, Mary is referring to riders who use their stirrups to propell themselves into the rise, which causes the lower leg to swing forwards and the rider's COG to shift backwards, therefore creating a heavier landing on the saddle when you sit.

However, any RWYM people please correct me here!
 
I'm confuddled. I had 4 RWYM lessons before I chucked it in, I hated it. The position was completely different to the way my classical instructor teaches me. Shorter stirrups, knees gripping, sitting a bit like a duck. Very hard work and it didn't do a lot for me or my horses. On the other hand, I know peole who absoultely love it, so I think it's probably "horses for courses".
 
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