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 2026: The Dynamic Seat and Dealing with Overwhelm

It’s April and the best time of the year to return our focus to the seat. This month in Ritterize, we want to discuss The Dynamic Seat and how this differs from the “fixed seat”. How can this simple shift in how you sit and how you adjust your seat affect everything (for the better) in your riding?

If you know anything about Thomas’ approach, you are already familiar with his love for nuance. And this is so perfect for talking about the seat, because the key to making the seat really work for you and your horse is to explore the subtleties that are within this nuance. When the seat is alive and dynamic, rather than rigid and fixed, it works WITH your horse rather than against your horse. But how do you do this and how can you apply this to your riding right away? This is what this month’s Masterclass Training is about!

A problem that many riders encounter, however, is Overwhelm. Once you turn your attention to the seat, or anything in particular, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the many, many things to keep track of and “fix”. And that overwhelm can be a serious problem - it can really get in the way, especially when you don’t have a clue on what to prioritize and focus on first. So how do you deal with that overwhelm? How do you release the feeling that you need to fix everything all at once? This is what we will be covering in this month’s Mindset Discussion.

To complement all of this, Catherine has selected a new Feldenkrais lesson called “Yielding to the Ground” which is perfect for helping you down-regulate your already overstimulated nervous system - something that all riders can benefit from. When we can show up for our horses in a calm, regulated state, we are able to be more present and available for our horses. We are also able to think more clearly, make better quality decisions, prioritize (aka deal with overwhelm) better, and everything will work more cohesively.

This month’s featured riding exercise is called Trançado. The word “Trançado” is a Portuguese word meaning “woven together” and it aptly describes this month’s featured exercise. This is a brand new exercise, not yet included in any of our courses or programs. In fact, Thomas just created it the other day while riding his horse, Gulipipas. It is a beautifully elegant exercise to supple the horse’s shoulders, ribcage, and hips with frequent changes of bend, shoulder-in, and figure eights. It can be ridden with a half pass at the end (or a simple diagonal line, if half passes are too advanced for your horse right now). I think you will love how this exercise feels to ride and how it makes your horse feel as a result of this comprehensive approach to suppleness.

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 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.

Let’s have an amazing month together in Ritterize!

April 2026 Schedule:

🐴 EOTM: “Trançado“ - released April 6, 2026

🐴 Feldenkrais Lesson with Catherine McCrum: Yielding to the Ground

🐴 Masterclass: “Dynamic seat vs. Static Seat” - Wednesday, April 15, 2026 at 6:00pm GMT

🐴 Wine with Friends Mindset Session: “Overwhelm - Releasing the Need to Fix It All at Once” - Wednesday April 22, 2026 at 6:00pm GMT

🐴 Hot Seats Meeting “Trançado” - Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 6:00pm GMT