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 November 2024: Improving the horse’s gaits

November in Ritterize we are going to focus on Improving the Horse’s Gaits. First we will talk about why you would even want to - in what situations should you try to change what your horse offers and why. Then we will talk about the biomechanics involved - what is actually at play here? And then we will discuss how you can do this with strategy, technique, and exercises you can integrate into your riding which will gradually contribute to healthier, more beautiful movement.

Also this month, we wanted to bring for discussion in our “Wine with Friends” meeting something that people rarely talk about in the horse world: How can you best support a friend who also rides? This can be tricky territory if perhaps you don’t want to intrude, but you also see something that you really think your friend needs to address. How can you best go about this without making them feel bad or intruding on their autonomy? How can you do this in the most humble, supportive, and loving way? This is an open discussion for the community, so you are welcome to bring your own experiences and ideas to the discussion. We will offer our own perspectives, but we would also love to hear your perspectives, too. 

The featured riding exercise this month is called, “Bounce Back”. It is an exercise designed to develop straightness, throughness, and elasticity in your horse - all of which can help to improve your horse’s gaits. 

Catherine has selected a Feldenkrais lesson this month called, “Balance and Stability”. Sumo wrestlers are like immoveable objects - stable at the expense of mobility. Conversely, tight rope walkers are as finely balanced as a pencil standing on its tip, yet teeter as the audience hold its breath. The conundrum for riders is we need a touch of both and we need to be able to move readily between the two states. And as we are sentient beings rather than inanimate objects, our thoughts, feelings (and life generally) conspire to upset our equilbrium. In truth, humans can neither be perfectly poised. nor consistently stable, but we can improve our stable instability so we lose it less often and recover more quickly. Find out in this short movement lesson where you are on the balance/stability continuum. Are you more Sumo? Or more tight rope walker. Then let us know.

As always, we will wrap up the month with a Members-only Hot Seat session for the “Bounce Back ” riding exercise. 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. 

November 2024 Schedule:

🐴 EOTM: “Bounce Back“ - released November 1, 2024

🐴 Feldenkrais Lesson - “Balance & Stability”  - released November 1, 2024

🐴 Masterclass Training: Improving the horse’s gaits - Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 6:00pm GMT

🐴 Wine with Friends Discussion: How to be a good friend and best support a “riding buddy” - Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 6:00pm GMT

🐴 Hot Seats Meeting (“Bounce Back”) - Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 6:00pm GMT