Equestrian coaching · Gloucestershire
Dressage, showjumping and cross country, taught by a BHS-accredited coach who has spent a career giving riders the confidence to believe in themselves and in their horse.
The long way round
I came to riding coaching the long way round. Before setting out on my own I spent the best part of twenty years as a specialist sports coach in independent schools, sixteen of them at Wycliffe College and most recently at Westonbirt. Including Equestrian Team Manager and Coach for both schools, with success at school and National levels.
That's a career built on pastoral care, on knowing children and on the daily work of helping someone believe they can do the thing they were sure they couldn't. Confidence is what I care about most, because everything else a rider learns is built on top of it.
Who I teach
For parents
Handing your child over to someone else, around an animal that can weigh half a tonne, asks a lot of trust. I've spent my whole coaching career earning it. I keep it fun and let them find their confidence at their own pace rather than mine. I won't push a nervous child faster than they're ready to go, and you're welcome to watch every lesson. After nearly two decades working with children in schools and Pony Club, I have extensive experience in pastoral care.
While they're at school
I teach a lot of adults who may spend weekends with their children at the yard and never quite get round to riding themselves. Term-time weekdays are made for this. The children are at school, the yard is quiet and a standing morning slot that's yours alone takes nothing at all away from the family. No pressure, no competing, no one watching. Just you and the horse.
With a goal in mind
If you're out competing, or trying to be, I coach across all three phases and I'll be honest with you about what's working and what isn't. A dressage test that keeps slipping away, a stop at a ditch that's got into your head, a whole season you want to plan properly. We work together.
Lessons & rates
Real progress is achieved over a series of lessons, not the odd one-off, so block booked as a standing weekly slot is the best way to work with me.
Six lessons, valid for 10 weeks.
For between two and four riders of a similar standard.
Seasonal small-group sessions for grid work, cross country schooling, show jumping and competition preparation. Dates go out on my socials.
Tell me a little about you or your rider, where you're based and what you're after, and I'll come back with what I'd suggest and my current availability.