"As I promised in my last blog, here is an exclusive preview of the Case Studies material.  

Case Study One

This blog is an insight into one client's experience through the Academy’s Case Study initiative to give you an idea of what we do at the Academy and what I do on a daily basis. Annette was a case study on the Development Programme (full Case Study report including videos showing Annette and her horse’s progress will be available here on our website."

Video of Annette's assessment training day at Hall Place Equestrian Centre.

Annette and her horse

Annette says: "I’ve been riding since childhood with one big (ten year!) break and I am currently the proud owner of Pocholo - a five year old PRE (Andalucian) dark bay gelding. He is a very sensitive horse with a cheeky nature. 

To me, having lessons is absolutely crucial to make sure that you are firstly not hindering the horse and (hopefully) helping them. With a young sensitive horse like Pocholo, regular lessons help me keep on track and progress both of us in a guided way.

I love training at home and exploring the bridleways, but I do want to test our abilities and get some variety through competitions. I love the old adage: You win your rosettes at home, you only go to competitions to pick them up.

About Academy Training

Participating in the Academy has been great and I can’t wait to start on our next training plan. To pick out a couple of the elements:

* Intensive training days are incredibly useful to quickly improve elements of your riding. After each of the single days I’ve done there’s been a noticeable improvement and I've come away with handy exercises I can practice at home to make sure the change is sustained.

* Watching videos of the lessons is very painful but very useful – often how something feels is quite different to how it looks.

* I love to understand the theory and science behind what we’re expected to do in the saddle. Wiola has introduced me to a number of articles, websites and books that have been illuminating.

* With only one horse to ride who isn’t very physically demanding it’s been good to have an 'off-horse' fitness programme, particularly the Pilates exercises. 

* Wiola’s lessons with me and Pocholo have been excellent. Her knowledge is always backed up by theory and she knows what judges want to see – very beneficial for us as we won first place in our first Dressage Anywhere competition! It was reassuring to see that the judge’s comments matched precisely to Wiola’s and reflected all the areas we had been working on.

Future plans

I will certainly be purchasing training plans. In addition to the obvious benefits of regular lessons, structured programme and holistic approach to training it will be good to look back at the programmes in a year or so and see how far we’ve come!

The programme has really helped me to understand training in a more holistic way and I’m so eager now to continue improving and learning.  If only there was more time outside work, I’d happily spend 12 hours a day riding and learning about riding!"