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 July 2024: Longitudinal Bend

In July, we have for you a wonderful selection of trainings and exercises that were inspired by questions and problems we noticed members having in our various courses and training sessions. No matter where you are in your riding journey, you will find something here that is likely to “hit the spot” and be exactly what you need right NOW. 

The theme for this month is Longitudinal Bend. It is the perfect follow-up to June’s topic of Lateral Bend. Through the combination of Lateral bend and Longitudinal bend, we build the resilience and throughness of the horse. Thomas will teach a Masterclass training where he will explain the theory, strategy, and practical application in regards to Longitudinal Bend. 

To support this Masterclass training, the featured riding exercise this month is called, “Spiralvolte - Halfpass” and even if you do not ride half passes with your horse yet, you can modify this exercise for where you and your horse are in the training and you will find this is an amazing exercise for building on the lateral bend theme of last month and developing the longitudinal bend and throughness. I can’t wait!! 

The Feldenkrais lesson this month is, as always, a brilliant choice to match the horse work. Catherine has selected an exercise called. “Elbows on Knees aka The Airport Lesson“ which is from her FeldenFit 4 course (next round starts July 15th - if you like this lesson, you will LOVE FeldenFit 4, and we invite you to join the FeldenFit4 30-Day Challenge). In this 14-minute lesson, you will be invited to explore possibilities within yourself of bending, flexing, extending, and rotating which helps you to let go of small habitual braces which tend to keep you a little bit twisted or collapsed when you ride. This will give you more evenness in how you use the two sides of yourself when riding. 

To round all of this off, we will be meeting half-way through the month to discuss a topic that I am sure most riders have to deal with at one time or another: Stress. More specifically, how do you LEAVE all the stress behind so that you can go to your horse and ride without carrying that stress with you. Whether you deal with this issue yourself, or you have some insights and advice to share, your input is welcome in this special Members-only discussion. 

As always, we will wrap up the month with a Members-only Hot Seat session for the “Spiralvolte - Halfpass” 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, you are sure to come away with tips and pointers you can put to use in your own riding right away. 

July 2024 Schedule:

🐴 EOTM: “Spiralvolte - Half Pass“ - released July 1, 2024

🐴 Feldenkrais Lesson - “Elbows on Knees aka The Airport Lesson” - released July 1, 2024

🐴 Masterclass training: Longitudinal Bend - Wednesday, July 10, 2024 at 9:00pm GMT+1

🐴 Wine with Friends: Stress-Away: Leaving the Stress behind when you go to ride your horse - Wednesday, July 17, 2204 at 2:00pm GMT+1

🐴 Hot Seats Meeting (“Spiralvolte - Half Pass”) - Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 7:00pm GMT+1