Here is what you can look forward to each month…

One New Riding Exercise each month.

Each of our exercises are biomechanically designed to help your horse develop his balance, straightness, suppleness, engagement, and throughness. But it can get boring if you find yourself getting stuck in a rut of only doing the same, old exercises over and over. At some point, you feel the need for some variety and inspiration, so each month we bring you a new exercise to add to your repertoire. We will explain not only what to do and what the exercise accomplishes in the training, but how you can ride it in a way that will be best suited for your horse right now. We teach you how to modify the exercise to make it easier or harder, depending upon what your horse needs, and we teach you how to embellish the exercise to bring other elements in. We also teach you how to trouble-shoot the various problems that you may encounter with the exercise. With these in mind, you set yourself and your horse up for the best possible results. These exercises are sure to become some of your favourite go-to’s! Each exercise comes with instructional video and downloadable PDF with full instructions.

One Group Coaching Hot seat each month.

Feedback is VITAL to making progress. We have seen this time and time again in our courses. The riders who regularly ask questions and get feedback on their riding videos are the ones that excel in their training. So we are now adding this element into EOTM. A Hot Seat session enables us to watch videos that the community has submitted, and we give feedback, tips, and help troubleshoot any problems that came up. This all happens on a Live Zoom webinar, they are always recorded so you can watch later, and you can learn through watching others EVEN if you do not submit your own videos (but we encourage you to, if you can!).

"Wine with Friends"  Meetings each month.

Wine with Friends is like hanging out with your riding buddies in the afternoon with a glass of wine and chatting together about the stuff that is all on our minds. Sometimes we discuss Current events or hot topics. And sometimes we discuss Mindset matters: What gets in your way in making progress in your riding?  Whatever we are discussing, you have a voice here! These are held as meetings so that we can have a conversation together- all of us. Participation is optional, of course - you can attend and just listen. Whatever you feel most comfortable with!

Additional Bonus Trainings added periodically.

These can vary from masterclasses on topics like timing of the aids, shoulder-in, piaffe training, and long-reining. Interspersed throughout these are occasional commentary videos where we watch a recording of a famous rider or trainer and break down what is happening, what we see, and what you can learn by watching them! Variety stimulates learning and ideas! All trainings are always recorded, so you can watch as many times as you need and return to them whenever helpful. All previous trainings are always available in the archives!

Feldenkrais Mini-Lessons.

Each month you get a mini Feldenkrais lesson taught by Professional Feldenkrais Practitioner, Catherine McCrum. These lessons are designed to help you improve your coordination, balance, body awareness, and suppleness OFF of the horse (some are even done ON the horse) so that you can enjoy your riding more.  With these lessons you will develop independent use of your individual body parts so they all work more comprehensively together as a whole! This helps you to sit better, straighter and more relaxed, ride with more suppleness in your joints, and give your aids with better differentiation and finesse. These lessons are very soothing and relaxing to do, as well! Great for doing right before you ride if your busy life sometime impedes your ability to "arrive" mentally with your horse. You will find that not only your riding improves, but also your relationship with your horse.

The Ritterize Community.

The serious pursuit of riding Dressage can sometimes get lonely, particularly if you live in a non-Dressage area or feel like you’re the only rider at your barn who wants to train in a way aligned with Ritter values. But having the support of like-minded people who “get it” makes a world of difference. You may have already experienced (and fallen in love with) our generous and exuberant community in our other courses or challenges. They are a group of riders all over the world, committed to their and their horse’s progress, soundness, and happiness. Now you will be able to keep that awesomeness year-round, regardless of which course is in session, by tapping into our amazing Ritterize community. In this private, members-only community, you’ll have an amazing ecosystem of peers, trainers, assistant trainers, team members, and of course Thomas and Shana to help you make your riding goals a reality.

The Archive.

Every single exercise and training since the membership started in 2017 is stored in the Vault and you will have access to ALL of it. Coming in 2023: We are re-categorizing all of the trainings so that you can find whatever you need based on what you are wanting to do TODAY! There is so much in here - you will never, ever be at a loss of something new and interesting to implement into your training!

Your Ritterize Membership includes:

One Exercise Live Training with Q&A each month

One Group Coaching Hot seat each month

One Mindset Meeting each month

Additional Trainings

The Ritterize Community

The Extensive Archive of Exercises, Mindset Trainings, and Masterclasses

Total Value: €4685

Ritterize April 2025: Steady Tempo vs. Rushing

In the Zen Dressage perspective, ambition is seen as an obstacle or hindrance. Zen teachers often differentiate between having goals (which are clarifying) and being driven by ambition. They see unbridled ambition as problematic because it focuses on attachment to the accomplishment rather than focusing on the process to get there.

However, healthy ambition, where you don’t drive yourself (or your horse) too hard, is considered healthy. This is ambition is free of the anxiety which compels you to do things before your body and mind (or your horse’s body and mind) are ready.

In this month’s Ritterize discussion, we are going to discuss the Pros and Cons of Ambition. We will discuss the pitfalls and signs of unhealthy ambition, so that you can recognize it when it rears its ugly head. And we will discuss what is “healthy” ambition which is an ambition which is interwoven with patience, ease, and pleasure.

This involves allowing ourselves to slow down, take our time and be in the moment. Instead of focusing on results, we learn to focus on the moment and being in the process. It isn’t that the longing for progress doesn’t exist, but that we befriend it and let its pain and struggle soften and dissolve into curiosity and trust.

Also this month we are deep-diving into the topic of “Steady Tempo vs. Rushing”. This arises when riders step into trying to develop lengthenings with their horses. Mistakenly thinking the lengthening comes from pushing or driving harder, they create the opposite of what they intended - rushiness and loss of balance. There is a better way to develop lengthenings and it requires that we stay with a steady tempo first and foremost. We will explore all facets of what this means, why it is important, and how you can do this in this month’s Masterclass with Thomas Ritter.

To accompany this month’s themes, Catherine has selected a Feldenkrais lesson called “Rocking on the Sternum”. This lesson irons out the parts of your spine where you're either overly extended or overly flexed. The result is a sense of length and an upright posture that is effortless. In addition to this, the focus on balancing the asymmetries in the relationships of the neck, head and eyes has the potential to optimize how you orient yourself to the horizon. When your spine is lengthened and your head and eyes are truly on the horizon, your seat feels supportive, centered yet light and fluid and your legs hang freely from your hip joints. This frees up your horse's spine and ribs for easier changes in bend and direction.

The featured riding exercise for April is called “Conversano”. This is a good exercise for developing more pushing power, but also greater adjustability and greater suppleness of the hindquarters.

As always, we will wrap up the month with a Members-only Hot Seat session for the Exercise of the Month. This is a live session where Thomas will choose several member-submitted videos to to provide feedback, tips, and suggestions for improvement. Even if your video is not selected to be featured or you choose not to submit footage, you are sure to come away with tips and pointers from this session which you can put to use in your own riding right away.

Join us for April in Ritterize and let’s explore ambition, steadiness, and so much more… together!

April 2025 Schedule:

🐴 EOTM: “Conversano“ - released April 1, 2025

🐴 Feldenkrais Lesson - “Rocking on the Sternum” - released April 1, 2025

🐴 Masterclass: Steady Tempo vs. Rushing - Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 10:00am GMT+1

🐴 Wine with Friends: “Ambition” - Monday, April 21, 2025 at 6:00pm GMT+1

🐴 Hot Seats Meeting “Conversano” - Friday, April 25, 2025 at 6:00pm GMT+1