“I did exactly what you said and he immediately responded.
He was round, he was soft -
it was a wonder!" 

We know you want to have fun and enjoy working towards your chosen goals while preserving and enhancing your horse’s health and happiness.

But is your day to day reality matching up with that dream?
Which of these ring true for you?

• You keep trying the same things but aren't making any real progress.
• You ride endless circles on a resisting horse and feel like neither of you are getting anywhere or having any fun.
• You (or your horse!) are unhappy at what you’re asked to do in lessons, like riding with very short reins, a strong contact, an over bent neck or relying on gadgets.
• Dressage judges’ comments leave you frustrated and confused with no real understanding of what it is they really want or how to actually achieve it.
• You or your horse just find schooling boring!
• You avoid riding in the school altogether in favour of hacking out or jumping instead. (Well, they’re more fun, aren’t they?)
• You’ve been told your horse isn’t talented enough but you love him to bits.
• You worry that you aren’t good enough to do him or her justice.
• You worry that you’re going to break your horse if you carry on doing what you’re doing.
• You have a new horse and want to ‘get it right’ this time.
• You don’t live close enough to a good teacher who can answer your questions and guide you in your schooling.
• You already have a great teacher and you love your lessons - but life in between times seems to throw up challenges that you just don’t know how to deal with.
• What you learned in your last lesson worked really well at the time but it just doesn’t seem to help with other horses you ride

If any of this resonates with you then
you’ll want to read every word on this page, because

WE GET IT!  AND IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!

Riding horses in a way that preserves and enhances their health, happiness and longevity is more difficult than most people would like to admit.

The thing is, as you’ve probably already realised from your own experience, every horse is a unique individual.

Some, thanks to centuries of selective breeding, are born with an amazing athletic physique, eye-catching beauty and incredible grace. They’re light on their feet, quick to respond and highly manoeuvrable.

But many horses (i.e. the ones that most of us own and ride!) are born with less than exceptional natural talent and a few even struggle to use their own bodies in an efficient and effective way - even before anyone sits on them!

Horses like this can still become lovely riding horses - it’s just that they need a lot of help and consistent, appropriate training even to learn how to balance themselves when carrying a rider, never mind attempting to jump a clear round or competing in dressage.

This means that caring riders like you are going to
face some serious challenges:

• Even if you’re lucky enough to have a horse with an exceptional level of natural ability, you still need to learn how to influence his awesome walk, trot and canter without pulling, gripping or otherwise compromising his amazing natural gaits.
• You need to know how to communicate what you want him to do in a way he can actually understand and respond to - and you need to know how to do all of this without causing him any pain or provoking a fight.
• And if you have a more ‘normal’ horse (or maybe even one of those horses that was even less blessed by mother nature...) he’s going to need a lot of help and good training to cope with simply carrying a rider at all before you can even think about asking him to tackle more demanding challenges.

Now, you may not realise it, but most teaching today actually stems from 19th century military origins and is often focused on how to get horses to ‘follow orders’ and fit into a certain framework that’s considered ‘correct’. 

 And although it’s easy to understand why that was necessary in the old days of the cavalry, this ‘one size fits all’ systematic approach doesn’t always lead to success, especially with the less talented (often described as ‘naughty’, ‘over sensitive’ or ‘difficult’) horses that most people actually own.

Even if you are fortunate enough to have a horse with huge amounts of natural talent, or have one who has been trained to a high level of education by someone else, unless you yourself know how to ride with the sensitivity and understanding that will keep him at this highly-tuned level, your horse’s performance and responsiveness - as well as his good will and enthusiasm - will inevitably deteriorate as time goes by.

And if, like most of us, you have a more ‘normal’ - or even a very ‘ordinary’ - horse he will inevitably struggle, unless you are sufficiently knowledgeable and adaptable to understand what help he’s asking you for from one moment to the next. 

And what’s more, you need to know how to give him the exact help he needs in the right way - a way that will progressively develop his ability to carry himself without your support in the future.

So what that all boils down to is this:  

If the horse you’re riding is leaning on your hands, refusing to take a contact, hollowing, bracing, ignoring your legs, refusing to bend, refusing one canter lead, resisting going sideways, running off, napping, spooking, bucking, rearing or any of the myriad of other unwanted behaviours we could list...

But don’t despair, there is hope!

There is a proven way of riding and training that makes it possible for everyday riders to understand what their individual horses have been trying to tell them and give them the help they so desperately need.

Based on the teachings of the old French classical masters, it’s been tried and tested over many centuries and can be summed up in one word:

LIGHTNESS

 Escape the gravitational pull of your current plateau

Make more rapid progress

Improve your horse’s state of mind

And reduce the risk of injuries

Then we have some great news because our own horses, and those of our clients from all over the world, consistently tell us that:
lightness is the kindest and the most effective way to ride, train and develop the horse of your dreams.

Now maybe you’ve already heard of ‘lightness’ and you may even be lucky enough to have lessons with a good teacher who understands this approach.

But putting what you’ve learned into practice in your daily riding when your instructor isn’t there in person can still be easier said than done if you don’t have an overall map and compass like we teach in our online programme outlined below. 

And if you aren’t fortunate enough to already live close enough to a good teacher who can help you:

You’re left feeling pretty lonely and incompetent, leading you to lose motivation...

You know what your problems are but you get frustrated at your lack of progress…

You worry that you aren’t choosing the best approach or even making some serious mistakes...

Because when it comes to riding horses,
lightness is a concept that is easily misunderstood. 

Lightness is not about having big loops in your reins or avoiding contact with your horse’s mouth.
And it’s not about creeping around the arena without any forward activity either. 

Lightness, if properly pursued, brings the mythical ideal of the ‘centaur’ to life -
even for the everyday rider with an everyday horse!

Riding in lightness creates an incredible partnership where two separate beings become one - as if telepathically connected. 

It’s the way to develop a happy, healthy, engaged, enthusiastic yet calm horse who is capable of doing everything you can imagine. 

Whether you’re dancing together on the ground, or with you in the saddle, you lead and he follows softly, listening attentively to your every thought. 

Lightness is the way to create a horse who wants to truly engage with you in all senses of the word, who responds to the mere weight of your reins and the breath of your boots, who is comfortable to ride and who gives you such a feeling of confidence that you’d trust him with your life. 

And if you have a taste for more exciting pursuits, whether that’s coping with the odd exploding pheasant while you’re out for a quiet hack or tackling serious cross-country fences, you’ll be thankful you’re riding a horse you can trust to listen and respond so you can both keep safe. 

Riding in harmony with your horse's nature is a dance of joy. It looks beautiful, it feels amazing and most importantly of all,
horses absolutely love it!  

So, how can YOU learn what you need to know
to become the rider your horse would choose?

After all, great practical lessons from a great teacher still aren’t enough!

“I was a bit lost and floundering in between my excellent lessons. I knew I wanted to learn more… But it’s difficult to cram everything into an hour...I wanted to pay extra so I can have half an hour to talk over things… but any instructor has to be a bit strict about getting the lessons done, they can’t always hang around and chat..."

Ginny Banks

"When you're with your instructor in a lesson for an hour, you think, 'Oh I've got to remember it all', but you can't! "

Rebecka Blenntoft

How can you learn to understand your horse more intimately than ever before and give him the help he really needs, without spending a fortune or taking 20 years (or more!) to piece it all together?

Imagine, just for a moment...

...that you had a way to clearly understand what your horse is trying to tell you…

...you had a way to clearly understand exactly what your horse needs whenever you ride him, not just from one day to the next but literally from moment to moment…

...you knew exactly what to do to give him all the help he needs…

And you knew how to do all that in a kind, gentle and horse-friendly way, without the need for gadgets, tight nosebands or any other coercive aids?

Wouldn’t that totally transform the experience FOR BOTH OF YOU?

Well, you don’t have to “imagine” any longer. Because... it’s here.

And then there's Iain and Rebecka who've started their youngsters since joining Schooling Made Simple...

Straight from the horse's mouth!

One of our members' horses explains a breakthrough and shares his opinion of Schooling Made Simple 😉

Nemo Horse

And The Horse
Who Just Hated
School Work...

And What about the horse who
didn't want to be ridden at all?...

The Happier Hacker

Karen Jenner loves to hack out in the beautiful Welsh mountains. She tells us how Schooling Made Simple is helping her and her two ponies: Connemara Aero and Welsh Cob Ifor.

• the unintended challenges we cause our horses simply by sitting on them
• asymmetry, what really causes it and how and why you must improve it
• how your horse controls his own posture, balance, speed and direction
• where your own individual horse is starting from, right now, today
• why there’s a gap between this starting point and how you’d like him to be
• why some horses are easier to school than others
• what to do about it if you have one of the less-easy ones (clue - most riding horses actually fall into this latter category!)

• how to establish a language for 2-way communication
• how to use the aids in a way that helps, rather than hinders your horse
• understand the mise en main (getting your horse in self carriage and on the bit) in a way that work with your horse's nature and not against it.
• understand and resolve contact problems
• why there is no single ‘correct’ way to use the aids
• how to be clear without resorting to strong or rough aids
• how and why riding a green horse differs from riding a more advanced horse
  
• why you don’t need gadgets

• how to get started with your horse on the ground in a way that respects his nature
• how to create the foundations of the language you’ll use throughout your horse’s training
• how to teach and develop balance on the lunge
• understand the critical importance of lunging on straight lines as well as circles 

• how to use a bridle and bit to promote balance and relaxation in your horse 
• teach your horse how to keep himself comfortable with the bit at all times
• introduce and develop the rein aids in a clear, simple and gentle way that every horse can understand
• using flexions to develop balance, relaxation, flexibility and your horse’s understanding
• preparing your horse properly to carry a rider 
• how to introduce and develop the neck rein turn to address asymmetry and develop the thoracic sling
• establishing the mise en main (getting your horse in self carriage and on the bit)
• how to introduce lateral work from the ground

• how to establish the right foundations that enable easy and consistent progress to more advanced work
• using the aids in a horse-friendly way - in practice
• developing relaxation, flexibility and your horse’s understanding by using flexions under saddle
• using the basic schooling figures to develop the right fundamentals
• improving longitudinal balance and lateral balance
• developing the neck rein turn under saddle
• resolving asymmetry and developing straightness
• developing the thoracic sling
• understanding neck extension WITHOUT losing balance
• introducing transitions 
• introducing rein-back

• a simple way to get started with lateral work
• understand each of the classical training exercises (shoulder-in, travers, half pass, renvers, counter shoulder-in) 
• learn how to use the exercises to improve and develop your horse’s physical capabilities 
• when and how to introduce each exercise
• how to improve and develop them
• how to know when your horse is ready for the next step
• why starting with what’s easiest isn’t always the best approach
• developing collection in preparation for piaffe, passage and canter pirouettes (without compression between hand and leg!)

• understand the canter and why it can pose particular difficulties
• how and when to introduce the canter
• how to solve the difficulties in getting a particular lead
• how to develop the quality of your horse’s canter
• counter canter
• canter lateral work
• straightening the canter
• understand flying changes

• discover the secrets to making more rapid progress in your schooling
• know what to work on - even when riding on your own
• identify the root cause of any difficulties so you can solve problems more efficiently
• how to assess your horse's lightness to the aids
• how to interpret the feedback your horse gives you
• how to know when you've done enough
• how to know when it's time to try something new
• strategies for horses who are easily distracted 
• strategies for horses who get over-excited

Now, you may be thinking… That sounds like a TON of stuff! We know!

And if it all seems a little overwhelming, believe us,

It’s not.

We created Schooling Made Simple to eliminate overwhelm, not create more… to make riding and training easier, not harder.

We've designed it to make your transformation from struggling rider to being the rider your horse would choose easy and fun - for both of you!

In fact, it’s the exact kind of programme we wish had existed when we started our search for a better way to ride and train our own horses, over 20 years ago.

First of all, the lessons and exercises are broken down into small, bite sized chunks averaging around 5 minutes each. You won’t have to sit through hours and hours of videos that suck up your precious time.

More importantly, all the content is clearly laid out and easy to understand, so you build confidence and momentum.

Now having said all that...

Schooling Made Simple is NOT  for everyone

SMS members say Schooling Made Simple is the most complete, most accessible way to put the joy back into having and riding a horse.

It’s easy to follow. It gives clear explanations and answers the questions that others gloss over. Our demo videos show you exactly how to put the knowledge into action, the common mistakes and challenges to watch out for and how to put them right.

And you get our A-Z map of training that takes all the guesswork out of knowing what to do, when.

SMS guides you through the process of developing a happy, well-schooled and cooperative horse who loves being ridden like no other programme out there (and we have the success stories to prove it!) 

But, it’s definitely not for everyone.

If you’re only looking for a few tricks or ‘quick fixes’ then SMS is not for you.

If you only care about competition scores and aren’t interested in helping your horse enjoy dancing with you and live a long, happy, healthy life, then SMS isn’t for you.

But if you’re ready to develop the partnership of your dreams with a horse who practically begs to be ridden and you’re willing to put in the time and effort (yes, there’s time and effort involved) to make your vision real… then here is your chance!

If that sounds like you and you’re finally willing to make that commitment to yourself, your horse and your dreams, we promise you that SMS will be your surest path to success!

OK, how much is my investment?

Schooling Made Simple may not be cheap but it shows you how to actually get the results you’ve always wanted. It’s not some £29 a month membership or a £49 a year newsletter subscription.

It’s a small investment in yourself and your horse that pays huge dividends in both your futures.

We’ve each spent over 20 years and well over £100,000 developing the hard-earned knowledge and experience we’ve distilled down into our signature programme that will transform the way you ride and train.

It’s exactly what we taught and shared with riders who paid over £12,000/year for our help at our equestrian centre - and even then we still couldn’t share with them everything that’s inside this programme!

If you’ve read this far, chances are you can already see what understanding your horse at a deeper level, knowing exactly how to give him or her the help they really need and having a constantly growing resource of information, step by step guides and expert guidance to fall back on will do for both of you. 

And let’s not look at just one horse…

...but every other horse you ride… now, or in the future! Because...

Plus, when you enrol in the programme today you’ll get LIFETIME ACCESS to the course content and ALL FUTURE UPGRADES.

And what's more, you are also invited to participate in our monthly Q&A/coaching calls for as long as we continue to support this programme at no additional cost! (And we have no plans to stop any time soon).

That’s right, when you join Schooling Made Simple online programme today, you’ll get all the benefits of future additions and enhancements to the programme but WITH NOTHING MORE TO PAY!

When you weigh all that against the investment and what it will do for you, your horse and your future together, then it’s an easy choice.

Because we’re committed to making Schooling Made Simple as accessible as possible, so as many riders who want to can use it to turn their equestrian dreams into reality and because you’re reading this during our special ‘Happier Horses, Happier Riders’ event, you can join today at our special promotion price of just twelve payments of £99.

That’s right! Until midnight UK time on Wednesday 8th November, you can join us inside Schooling Made Simple for just £99 today.

Plus, you can rest easy knowing that we’ve taken ALL of the risk out of investing with our 100% no-quibble money back guarantee.

But you’ll need to act fast!

Because we need to get the programme started, we’re going to keep this offer open only until midnight UK time on Wednesday 8th November. After that, this chance will be gone and right now we don’t know when we’ll be opening for new members again. What we do know is that the price will almost certainly be higher when we do!

A set of done for you, ‘fill in the blanks’ schooling session example templates that save you time by helping you get started making the most of your schooling sessions.

• How to engage your horse’s mind throughout the process of training
• How to develop trust and enthusiasm
• How to understand and resolve 'resistances'

• Managing your attention and awareness
• How to bounce back from disappointments and deal with criticism

• How to tell if your horse's thoracic sling is functioning well
• Consequences of poor thoracic sling function
• Exercises to correct sling function from the ground
• Ridden exercises to maximise sling function and strength

OK, LET'S RECAP!

When you join Schooling Made Simple, you'll get everything you need to make riding and training the most productive, the most effective and the most fun it’s ever been for both you and your horse! Including...

OK… if you’re like some people reading this, you may be thinking, “I want to join Schooling Made Simple but I can’t afford it.”

The fact that you’re on this page means you KNOW you need a programme like SMS to get you to where you want to be. And the fact that you’re on this page also means that you’ve not yet found that programme, because if you had, you wouldn’t be here now, right?

If this applies to you, what you’re about to read is the most important thing about improving your riding, your training and your relationship with your horse.

Doing nothing comes at a cost!

You’ve probably already heard wise riders say that every moment you spend with your horse is a moment of training (whether you realise it or not...). You’re always either training your horse in a positive way and making things better, or things are going backwards and getting worse. There is no in between.

If you’re in a  place where you want to join Schooling Made Simple, and you think you can’t afford it, then you may be caught in the 'hope riding' trap (ignoring the long term cost of continuing to do the same things while 'hoping' for a different result).

Here’s the truth

You have to ask yourself this one vital question that will determine whether you reach your goals, or not…

“Am I going to be 100% responsible for my horse’s experience while being ridden and trained or am I not?”.

According to the dictionary, the definition of responsibility is; Causing something to happen.

So what that means is that whatever happens in your development as a rider and trainer you have caused and what does not happen in your development as a rider and trainer you have also caused.

We know that you’re not where you want to be today and you now recognise that you’ve caused that. And, if you really want to be the rider your horse deserves, you now know that it’s going to be you who causes that too.

The Question Has Changed

If you’re going to truly be 100% responsible for your riding, your training and the relationship you have with your horse, the question is no longer can I afford it. It’s now “How can I be 100% responsible and MAKE this happen?”

If you’re going to stop here and do nothing different, do you know what that means? It means you’re choosing not to stretch your thinking out of your comfort zone. You're forgetting your greatest gift - the gift of creativity!

It also means you’re choosing to ignore the costs of inaction and risking saddling yourself with the even higher costs of putting right the mistakes you make along the way...

...or even risking letting the situation deteriorate so much it becomes unrecoverable, so you miss out on realising the dreams you have for you and your horse altogether!

How to escape from the 'hope riding' trap...

You’ve probably heard the old story about how every journey begins with a single first step.

And that first step for you is about making a DECISION.

It’s time for you to make a choice:

If you already have the horse of your dreams, a horse who’s light to your hands, light to your legs, responds to your mere thoughts and does everything you could ever ask with ease and enthusiasm, then you don’t need our programme - you need to go and celebrate!

But if you need some help in solving your current issues without resorting to force or gadgets, or want to know exactly how to make real progress in your riding and training and have a happier horse, then your options are simple:

You can choose to do nothing... and then of course nothing changes. The problems just get worse...

OR you can choose to be the CAUSE IN THE MATTER and do something about it.

You can choose to avoid the problems altogether and hope that they'll magically go away (but guess what - they won’t!),

OR you can get 100% Committed to doing something about them!

If you choose the latter, then now is your time to get signed up and get started!

Otherwise, you can just click right off this page!

 But CHOOSE Quickly! 

Because we can't keep the registration period open forever…

The programme starts soon, so Membership in Schooling Made Simple is only open until midnight on Wednesday November 8th, that’s less than 96 hours from now! After that, it’ll be quite some time before you have the chance to join again.

You’ll miss out on the chance to transform yourself, your riding and your horse.

If you put this off, what will change? So don’t wait! You can get started today! 

You CAN do it. With the right guidance, the right techniques and the right support, you can transform your life and the lives of all the horses you ride, train or work with - now and in the future.

And we will be there to help you every step of the way.

So, don’t waste another moment dreaming about how things could be...

Join us now and become The Rider Your Horse Deserves!