RWYM training

[canteron]

Anyone’s experience (Ride With Tour Mind). Just had a couple of lessons with new instructor. It’s just so different and while we have gone right back to the most basic of basic, and my confidence has plummeted (have I been this wrong all the time) I can’t help but think the theory behind it is right?
The horses reaction to a different approach was also quite different in both good and bad ways. Quite unsettling but the instructor says I have been giving mixed messages and this is how to isolate the message and give the horse the freedom to move properly.
Would love to know thoughts from anyone who has trodden a similar path.

 

[SEL]

I did some lessons at Overdale pre Covid before it closed to lessons (Mary's yard). My first lesson was at walk just sorting out my position because I'd started to get a really hollow back.

For me it was mainly tweaks but also very telling in how one sided I'd got. I was riding the school horses which was a good change for me, especially one that was more of a schoolmaster from a dressage perspective and wasn't going to do shoulder in on the left rein whilst I was crooked.

What changes did the instructor make?

 

[TheHairyOne]

I had one lesson once and whilst I found it an interesting concept I dont think the person I had was very good at instruction so didnt pursue that any further. As such I cant really comment on the ethos. Maybe better with someone closer to the source.

I found someone who combines a variety of schools of training from a classical base instead.

 

[Skib]

I read her books as 60 years old novice and I bought an exercise ball. I went to a demo she did at Merrist Wood. There was little other guidance around for adult beginners.
Myself and another woman who had also tried her method spoke to her and she conceded that due to our age and physical uneveness neither of us could ride in her style.
A riding contact of mine but considerably younger did have a Wanless riding instructor. This friend has suffered more riding injuries than me. I had basic BHS, then a combination of classical and Mark Rashid where breathing and relaxation are the keywords. And safety a priority.
I may be wrong but my teachers emphasised communication between horse and rider, whether through seat, leg or hand whereas with Wanless, an accurate riding style dictated and controlled the movement of the horse. What it looked like was more important than what it felt like.
I have just returned from a touchy feely geriatric hack and that works for me and the current mare. None the less I still keep the Wanless books. I have a fine library of books on riding and I compare it to a painter having a palate of many colours. Anything you want of a horse, there are answers to choose from.

 

[JackFrost]

I did a weekend at Overdale with MW on their horses. My impression was that MW was not so interested in the less natural/able riders.
Lessons focused on how to sit in walk, but not how to maintain this doing anything more dynamic, which is the difficult bit.
Her work on biomechanics is great, but we are all different and I don't think we can all of us naturally do what we 'should' be doing by their theory,
and we have to figure out ourselves what works for us.

 

[Burnttoast]

I think a lot of it is to do with the understanding/talent of the coach. I had one RWYM lesson with a teacher who would have arranged me like a poseable doll if she could have. It introduced a lot of unnecessary tension into my seat which did nothing for the horse, though she was pleased with what I looked like. She spent a lot of the lesson ridiculing trainers who just told their clients to 'relax'. During the same summer, and on the same horse, who was a very buzzy, tight, easily bothered partbred Luso who was trained to advanced WE, I got the best connection I've ever had on a horse, wonderful changes, relaxed extensions, a feeling of complete maneouverability, ease and lightness, with a trainer who did nothing but tell me to relax and removed all unnecessary tension from the equation. Funny really.

A different RWYM trainer, a lot higher up the hierarchy as well, taught friends of mine and I watched their lessons. She had an exceptional eye for a lack of straightness and areas of weakness in the rider, and could induce straightness in previously very crooked horses simply by telling people to move a hip forward, or tone up one part of their body.

 

[SEL]

I think a lot of it is to do with the understanding/talent of the coach. I had one RWYM lesson with a teacher who would have arranged me like a poseable doll if she could have. It introduced a lot of unnecessary tension into my seat which did nothing for the horse, though she was pleased with what I looked like. She spent a lot of the lesson ridiculing trainers who just told their clients to 'relax'.

A different RWYM trainer, a lot higher up the hierarchy as well, taught friends of mine and I watched their lessons. She had an exceptional eye for a lack of straightness and areas of weakness in the rider, and could induce straightness in previously very crooked horses simply by telling people to move a hip forward, or tone up one part of their body.

The second paragraph is more the training I had at Overdale. I've never felt as crooked as when I managed to get SI on the left rain - at which point I was obviously (finally!) sitting straight but it was very odd for my muscle memory.

 

[pistolpete]

I had one RWYM lesson and it went well but not my idea of an enjoyable path to follow. So much concentration required!

 

[planete]

I tried a lesson with one of her instructors many years ago. I struggle to be fair as she did nothing wrong but I did not want another one. I was more than happy to work on myself, my symmetry and my aids, just not in this particular manner.

 

[cauda equina]

I had some lessons with Ali Wakelin years ago and found them very good, but I don't know how much that was down to the RWYM element and how much to Ali herself

 

[Burnttoast]

I had some lessons with Ali Wakelin years ago and found them very good, but I don't know how much that was down to the RWYM element and how much to Ali herself

It was Ali who was the second RWYM trainer I mentioned.

 

[ihatework]

I did a weekend at Overdale.
There were some interesting concepts and I did take away a couple of really good key messages to apply to myself/training, but to be honest I wasn’t that impressed with the whole package and to be honest most of what I witnessed tipped people into over thinking and stiff rather than really learning to ride naturally and by feel

 

[benz]

I have been having lessons with a RWYM instructor for a couple of years. I’ve been riding about 35 years and never been able to get a horse to move so well as when I have a lesson with her, when I’m left to my own devices it’s a different story mind

Most of my friends had a lesson or two with her and gave up, I think you have to be very much into minutiae detail and be willing to do ground work and a lot of walk and really pay attention to your body and your horse’s and not be expecting a quick fix. I love it especially as my instructor can explain things to me in ways I actually understand, but again is that the RWYM or the instructor?

I also watched a few demos with MW and found her to be as attentive to the kids and novices on cob types as the people out competing on fancy warm bloods so the opposite experience to a poster above. This was last year so she may have changed.

I’d say give it a go with an open mind and have fun

 

[lme]

I did one of her non ridden courses almost 40 years ago when she taught from her flat in Tufnell Park. Also went on a weekend ridden course with her in Wales but left part way through as it wasn't for me - it felt as if the horses were treated as sports equipment.

 

[Orangehorse]

I did a weekend non-ridden course years ago. It was interesting but different and as others have said, led to a lot of tension I decided and unless it was possible to have regular lessons with a good RWYM instructor it would be all too easy to fall into traps. So many times there is a good theory, and then it is misinterpreted by those following it without years of study.

I also heard of someone who had been following a RWYM instructor for some time and was having trouble with her horse, she turned up to a lesson with my then instructor who told her to completely forget it and do the "classic" dressage which he was teaching, having studied at the Spanish School and immediately the horse went better. It was confused by what the rider was trying to do (this was from someone watching). Unfortunately this instructor moved out of the area.

As a PS - if I was starting out with a new horse I would go the Phillipe Karl route, but once again only if there was a good instructor locally. I took my horse to a weekend session and I can honestly say the he had never gone better and it felt as though we were on the same page and working together, whereas before most of my schooling sessions left me with the impression that he was saying "OK, if you really insist I suppose I can do it" which was upsetting for us both.

 

[canteron]

Just an update. It has been amazing for me. The first lessons was on hands, the second upper upper body, third lower upper body, (this was amazing, it makes your upper body stable, who knew I had been riding with an unstable upper body and no one in 20 years of lessons had noticed!), the next on legs and lastly seat bones. I now feel so much more stable in the saddle and look hugely better.
The groundwork is pretty impressive too - it is based on being connected to riding, ie making the horse understand your aids. There are 10 principles - one of which is only use one instruction at a time (as the French masters say, hands without legs, legs without hands) as the horse can only understand one thing at a time so will tune out the other. All those years of using legs while 'squeezing' the bit. Already my horse is going better, really reaching into the rein, no jiggling of hands required.

Only updating, as if anyone does a search on this, I want to suggest that the changes may not be easy, but for me, so far, they mean that I feel I am already a safer, more stable effective rider!