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Contact and Connection
Comprehensive online course with support, feedback, and community.
15-week online course to cultivate better quality, true, authentic contact and connection without resorting to devices or techniques which harm the horse.
When you know HOW to address the cause, you end the endless fixing.
You can DEPEND on the consistent steady contact that allows you to do better quality work, allows your aids to go "through" more consistently, and allows you to progress up the levels.
You and your horse can ENJOY a better relationship because this is no longer a cause of frustration and annoyance for EITHER of you.
This 10-module course addresses the horse and the rider. It includes theory lessons, ridden exercises with demo videos, rider imagery lessons, Feldenkrais lessons and yoga lessons.
THE PACKAGE is supported by
8 live Q&A Sessions
Facebook Community
PLUS all the bonuses!
OPTION TO ADD ON 6 Hot Seat sessions for additional support and guidance.
You will get LIFETIME access to the course materials. All live sessions are recorded.
The Ritterize Membership
Infuse your Training with Ritterize - your monthly infusion of Ritter Learning. Click on the button to learn more.
April 2024:
Connection
This month's theme is contact. We’re going to be exploring contact not just in the physical sense but also in the emotional sense. Together we will consider, improve and experiment with both WHAT we and HOW we feel.
We will take this topic a step further in our ‘wine with friends’ meeting where we will consider the interrelationship between emotional and physical connection.
Our hands play a huge role in our interactions with our horses. You are going to love this month’s Feldenkrais lesson called “Breathing Hands”. This gentle lesson from Charlotte Zetterberg will help you get curious about the way you use your hands in connection with your horse.
The featured exercise this month is called “Circle/ Square” . The transitions between the round and angular lines in this exercise are great for connecting the inside and outside aids. The overall impact on the horse is one of creating roundness and softness.
This exercise is paired with this month’s Masterclass training - How do I get my horse over the back and into the outside rein? A common question which Thomas will answer with an uncommon level of detail. There isn’t a quick answer to this question, and the solution comes from understanding where the problem originates.
At the end of the month, during our Hot Seats Session, we will review several members’ videos of themselves riding the “Circle/ Square” exercise for this month and give feedback. (When you ride the exercise do try to make the distinction between both lines visible.) Whether we review your video or you are just watching, you are sure to come away with some tips that will help you in your riding.
We hope you enjoy the curious month we have in store for you considering your contact and connections with your horse! I can’t wait!
A way of training horses which honors the horse’s mind, body, and spirit equally. A way of viewing our relationship with the horse which honors the horse as a partner in the process.
A way of learning which allows you, the student to be in charge of your own learning and the hands-on training of your own horse. A way that empowers YOU as the one who “holds the reins” (figuratively and literally!!). A way of learning to ride which empowers you, the rider, with the tools to understand the why, the what, and the how.
A way of approaching dressage training which honors your unique authentic vision and choice of expression. An approach that gives you the tools you need in a way that is straight-forward and reliable. So that you can build upon that framework of tools and express what it is that dressage means to you through your work with your horse.
A SINCERE Approach
Our approach towards dressage is an optimistic way of looking at the training of the horse. It chooses to focus on the positive rather than the negative, and cultivate that good, then develop it, so that it builds upon itself.
Building upon that essential goodness within the horse, we connect to the horse compassionately and approach everything we do with the horse with empathy for the horse as a living, sentient being whose soul and intentions are inherently good. As a being who plays a vital role in his training through his willingness, cooperation, and sincerity.
By viewing the horse and our relationship with the horse in this light, our interactions are completely transformed because they come from a completely and radically altered perspective. One which doesn’t treat the horse as an object to be manipulated but as a partner with whom to collaborate.
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You do not need to work HARD at your fitness to see the benefits in your riding and learning.
FeldenFit is Feldenkrais based Fitness program for Riders with Catherine McCrum with 30 days of daily 5-15 minute lessons. Catherine uses her knowledge as a Feldenkrais teacher and blends this with her background in sport and fitness to make a flowing sequence of exercises that enhance co-ordination, agility, suppleness and effortless power.
FeldenFit 30-Day Members-Only Challenges happen year-round in the FeldenFit Facebook Group. Join us and get FeldenFit for your riding!