Ride With Your Mind

Rider Biomechanics or Ride With Your Mind coaching is a technique developed by Mary Wanless from the UK. Cara is one of two 'Ride With Your Mind' coaches in Australia who can help you to train your body to behave and react more like the professional rider who makes it look easy!

Cara takes her 'Intelligent Horsemanship' training forward from the ground into the saddle, producing well grounded, well behaved and well schooled horse and rider teams. Having trained with Mary Wanless in the UK, Cara is now very excited to bring these methods to the Perth area and Australia in general. Focusing on the riders body and mind, the 'Ride With Your Mind' approach takes

Talent Can Be Taught!

The ‘Ride With Your Mind’ approach is a tremendous advance in teaching and learning. It shows any rider how to organize her mind and body in the same way as the riders we call ‘talented’. This enables each person to learn the same feels and to achieve the same results.

Our coaching techniques are very streamlined. By increasing each rider’s body awareness and using innovative imaging techniques, Mary helps riders understand both what to do and how to do it. The bottom line is that improvements in concentration, body awareness, and core muscle strength create incredible improvements both in the rider's seat, and in her horse's response to her body. These can be obtained in a very short time, defying traditional expectations. Learning then becomes satisfying, exciting, and fun!

This system of coaching utilises elements of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the Alexander and Feldenkrais systems of bodywork. It is highly interactive, with rider and coach acting as equals as they combine their perceptions to unravel the puzzle of how the rider affects the horse and the horse affects the rider. Learning always takes place in a calm, safe, supportive, and appropriately challenging environment, with no raised voices, no 'shouting louder at the natives', and no impossible demands.

Learning through this method does not take talent, it simply takes learning how to notice. Mary has pioneered coaching methods that 'get through' to people, creating those 'Aha!' moments where 'the light bulb goes on'. We then build on those moments as new skills become ingrained.