The Clinic training sessions will take place between 9am and 5pm on the Saturday and during the morning of the Sunday. In addition to the actual training, a fun Working Equitation competition featuring both the Ease of Handling and the Speed Trial phases is scheduled for the afternoon of the Sunday. Participants can choose to […]
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A one day clinic with PI (the electronic horse) & Fran Griffith MISRB Saturday 18 September If you have ever wished that your horse could tell you what he thought about the way you ride, wondered if you sit more heavily to one side or other, or whether it is you rather than your horse
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These booking conditions apply to the following events and are in addition to the Terms and Conditions relating to the use of this website PI Posture Assessment Sessions WE Working Equitation Training Clinics Rider Biomechanics Clinics PAYMENT Full payment for the Clinic or PI session is required at the time of booking. Cancellations made before
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To find out about upcoming clinics – click here What is Working Equitation? Working Equitation (WE) is a relatively new sport designed to promote and preserve the classical principles of the working riding culture of Southern Europe. In competition, WE comprises of 3 phases, dressage, ease of handling and speed. Working Equitation can also be
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If you would like to book a PI assessment session then please contact me using the form below to arrange a suitable day and time. Please do not pay before contacting me so that we can discuss your requirements and arrange a mutually suitable time. Standard sessions include 45 minutes of assessment. This time can
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The way the rider sits on the horse will have a dramatic effect on its soundness, performance and development. The rider’s posture, tone, alignment, symmetry and breathing are all mirrored by the horse. Sometimes it is necessary to make quite dramatic changes in our body, but often it is the smallest of changes that has
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Pilates for Riders Classes & Courses These pre-recorded classes & courses offer a series of exercises designed to help your body function better. The classes focus on the skills needed to be a good rider – good alignment, core stability, flexibility and balance. Although we concentrate primarily on strengthening the deep abdominal muscles that support
Human Biomechanics Lessons Read More »
Horses are born left or right handed (hoofed) and become progressively more asymmetrical as they grow older. This isn’t a major problem if the horse is never going to be ridden but in order to carry a rider without undue strain, the horse needs to develop a strong back, be equally strong and supple on
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By now we have all heard that Pilates is really good for us. When done regularly the benefits of Pilates are numerous, including strengthening our core muscles, which in turn helps our back to become stronger. In addition Pilates teaches us body awareness, makes us more supple and can help reduce postural related pain. What
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To find out about upcoming clinics at Pengraig and elsewhere – click here For individual PI sessions at Pengraig – book your session here PI – our Posture Assessment Indicator – provides information on the rider’s position and balance as well as their rein contact Sensitive sensors give continuous feedback of your weight distribution – whether
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The shoulder is one of the most complex joints in the human body and as such is vulnerable to all sorts of problems and injuries. It is a relatively shallow joint in comparison to our hip joint and is extremely dependant on muscle tone for correct alignment and joint stability. Imbalance in any of the
A correctly placed and aligned knee prevents knee injury, whether we are on or off our horse. While in the saddle, a correctly placed knee can be used for subtle aids. However, very few people actually spend any time thinking about the positioning of their knees ,until they start to experience knee pain. But what
Many riders avoid doing any lateral movements with their horse. This can be because of fear of doing them wrong and “hurting” their horse, lack of knowledge and not knowing where to begin, or even not knowing why doing such movements are so beneficial for the horse. I often hear riders say they “just enjoy
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When I first started teaching Rider Biomechanics it was perfectly clear to me, standing and watching, whether a rider was sitting straight in their saddle, or collapsing to one side, leaning forwards or leaning backwards. However, it soon became abundantly obvious, that what I was seeing and what the students thought they were doing, were
The half halt is something that virtually every one of us has been told to do, at one time or another, during a riding lesson. But from running my Posture Awareness Clinics I now realise just how few riders understand how they are supposed to do a half halt or even why they should should
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Biomechanics seems to have become the buzz word in the equine industry in the last 10 or so years. Everyone these days is a biomechanics coach, but what does biomechanics really mean and is biomechanics really important to you or your horse? Lets us look at the meaning first. If we look at Wikipedia, biomechanics
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“The application of one aid alone will never produce an accurate and correct movement. Only the correct application and co-ordination of all the aids can bring about perfection” Charles Harris – Workbooks from the Spanish Riding School. An aid can only be effective if it is timed correctly so that the horse can comply to
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A good seat is an essential if we want to be a good rider. Every book and every trainer seems to agree on this. How a good seat can be achieved or what constitutes a good seat, is perhaps a little less clear. Perhaps the first question we need to ask ourselves is why our
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Contact is the third building block in the classic German Scales of Training pyramid following after Rhythm and Suppleness (sometimes shown as Relaxation). However, the question of what contact is, or more to the point, just how much contact is needed and how soft or how firm the contact should be, seems to be something
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It has been a couple of months since I last wrote my last article, as apart from being on holiday and spending spent some quality time with my own horses, I have been thinking long and hard about what this article should be about. Then I had one of those light bulb moments – both