Sue’s coaching focuses on helping you improve your and your horse’s asymmetry, for improved soundness leading to more harmony and connection between you and your horse.
Everything starts with you as the rider/handler, only you can make the changes you want to see. This could be in your ridden training or in-hand.
Sue works with you to create a more balanced and aware posture that helps you and your horse excel in your chosen discipline, whether that be Show Jumping, Dressage, Eventing, Western, Endurance or Pleasure Riding.
Horses are not naturally designed to be ridden, it is, therefore, our responsibility, as humans, to prepare them and yourself for riding, physically and mentally.
"My aim is to improve you body awareness, concentration and muscle co-ordination, which allows you to have a more positive and ethical influence on your horse, this is achieved by a highly interactive approach between myself and you. I am passionate about helping you to improve your rider biomechanics so that you can transform your riding, discover new skills, achieve goals, solve problems and build confidence. It is also my goal to assist you to improve your horse’s biomechanics, the better the rider sits the better the horse goes and vice versa. My approach aims to improve both you and your horse’s way of going, straightness, rhythm and balance helping both you and your horse stay sounder for longer."
Sue is a qualified ESNZ Coach as well as one of only three Accredited Ride With Your Mind Coaches across New Zealand. In addition, Sue is Certified in using Franklin Method Balls for Equestrians.
Through online webinars, membership programmes and workshops Sue continues to develop her knowledge and understanding of horses and riders, keeping up to date with the most recent research findings.
Sue’s lessons and clinics aim to empower you to train your horse in a way that optimises your Biomechanics for improved soundness, performance and ride-ability. Sue brings a depth of knowledge and understanding to her riding lessons that is unique.
Sue's coaching philosophy compliments the training of most riding instructors.
About Ride With Your Mind
Mary Wanless, the founder of Ride With Your Mind, is an internationally renowned coach and is the author of the 'Ride With Your Mind' books. She coaches riders at all levels, from relative novices to top US dressage riders and some of the Canadian eventing squad. She has B.Sc. degrees in both Physics and Applied Sports Coaching and holds the BHSI certificate. The world's best riders may have implicit knowledge or 'know-how', but they cannot put this knowledge into words. The resulting dislocation between expertise and explanation makes it hard for skilled riders to 'clone' themselves when coaching - indeed, what they do, and what they say they do can be poles apart. Mary discovered that their skills have an underlying structure, and knowing this explicitly enables RWYM coaches to communicate it to others, making the 'how' of riding and its biomechanics explicit and learnable whilst avoiding preconceptions that stifle learning.