Ride With Your Mind
I began training with Mary Wanless in 1992 and taught for several years as an accredited RWYM coach. After a break I'm back training with Mary and once I've submitted some case studies I'll be once again, one of the accredited coaches of this amazing method!
If you are not sure what Ride With Your Mind involves, please visit Mary's Site at www.mary-wanless.com for more details. All I can say is that this method has helped me be an effective rider where no other instructor had me riding anywhere close! Whereas most 'traditional' instruction will focus on the horse - and almost always be in the negative - i.e 'your horse is not forward enough, your horse is not straight enough, your horse is not round enough - Ride With Your Mind instruction initially concentrates on the rider, their effectiveness and power, position and balance and then moves on to the way the rider influences the horse.
The method is ethical and horse friendly - the way to improve the horse's way of going is inherent in your postion, so no gadgets ( at least - no HORSE gadgets - there are some people gadgets!) no instructions to kick or pull, no pressure to bully or intimidate your horse.....
The instruction is based on several core principles and once these are ingrained, good riding will be achievable to anyone - yes, ANYONE! Even if you think you are beyond hope; have been told you will never be any good because you have no feel; are the wrong shape or are physically limited in some way. Ride With Your Mind embraces the Neurolinguistic Programming skills of "modelling" which states that if ANYONE can do a skill, then potentially, EVERYONE can do the skill, as long as they can work out how the first person does it. The skill is broken down into tiny steps or "chunks" and each step is achievable by anyone. My own experience will be familiar to many, as I struggled to ride well for years, despite having lessons with top trainers and passing BHS exams. Finally I found the missing pieces of knowledge that allow me to do the equivalent of "throwing a six" on the dice when playing a board game. Before Ride With Your Mind I was endlessly destined to ride not quite well enough to really enjoy the game!
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