The excitement of horses is a passion in the blood, but does your nervousness hold you back? Are rides spoiled at the thought of bucking, rearing, napping or jumping? In the rider confidence course, Karl and Zana Greenwood offer a unique combination of techniques, activities and approaches to eliminate fear and stress.
This course, held at Hemel Hempstead, Herts, expects and achieves real, measurable results. There is an instructor to student ratio of 1:2, and a maximum of six people attending. This ensures that each person gets the attention they require and goes home educated and benefitting from the course.
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This is no wishy washy feel-better-about-yourself workshop — it is a practical, real-life course backed up by years of experience, providing solid actions, responses and tools that you can trust. At £240 for the day, this course is a serious investment. For the price of a decent pair of riding boots, you can empower yourself with a series of coping strategies — backed up by practical excercises and personal experiences — which you can rely on to bring your confidence and performance to the level it should be.
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This course is unique. Karl and Zana Greenwood work in the film and stunt riding industry and use these techniques day in, day out to minimise risk and allow them to perform. Karl is a qualified sports and equine hypnotherapist, Zana is a leading stunt rider and the horses are professional Spanish performance horses with many years of experience.
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What past clients say:
“Thank you for the great day with on Wednesday. I encourage everyone to attend a rider confidence day with you guys. I don’t know what I am more excited about, my improved riding skills and confidence on the back of a horse or my new positive mental state. Instead of feeling anxious about my next competition, I actually cannot wait to get in the ring now. If only I had taken this course months ago! I now have all of the skills to enjoy and look forward to competitions. After leaping on and off of Todo, I even fancy giving the trick riding a go, in fact, there’s nothing I feel I cannot achieve now, so thank you, thank you. PS: I hate heights, even Nelly’s height, but how much fun was learning rotational falls, I want to do it all over again — loved it.”
“Did this course the end of May. Last weekend I did my first solo hack in 13 years. Thank you xx”
“So last night I tested out the skills I learnt when I did the rider confidence course with Zana and Karl!! Yep I took a tumble at speed. But at no moment did I panic, I just somehow came off and rolled away from my pony just as we had been taught on the course. I then got back on and continued like nothing had happened, and would ride again tonight if I could.”
“I did the course to help me get over my previous accident and gain confidence; I know it had helped me massively in that part. Until last night I didn’t appreciate just how much more the course is than just for confidence. All riders would benefit from this course and I cannot recommend it enough. So a big thank you to Zana & Karl. xxx”
“Brilliant course on Thursday, well worth the trip over from Ireland. I will recommend it to all my friends. Thanks Karl and Zana, great fun.”
“Just to say a big thank you for the fantastic lesson last week. It was brilliant and great for Sharon to see me doing ‘scary’ things with a smile on my face and laughing. I will definitely be booking another time with you in the near future.”
“Just wanted to say a big thank you. The confidence day and, ‘it’s normal, just ride the horse’ has made a huge difference to me and my Welsh cob mare Star. I can’t believe I am beginning to jump her and hack her out. She is totally different as I am not gripping and tightening. I can’t thank you enough.”
“I can’t believe the difference this course has made to me. I rode the day after I did it and the horse I ride (usually the most docile lazy pony in the yard) had a little fizzy fit. Yes, I was scared but I stayed on, knew I could stay on and even agreed to go and trot him in the indoor school to calm him down.
“But the difference has not only been around horses. After the hypnotherapy and working on positive thinking I feel able to cope. I cannot thank you enough. This course is absolutely totally and utterly brilliant and you guys are life changers.”
“We really wanted to share our story from last night. I’m still smiling, so something definitely worked.”
“What started as a nice ride round to the dressage arena for us to take part in a riding club competition (nervous but not anxious) turned into a napfest. The scariest fire-breathing, horse-eating muck heap was coming to get our boys! One reversed at 100 miles an hour into the other and spun round. The other reared and spun, nearly falling over. And instead of the usual panic, I want to get off, we both had immediate thoughts — Tam thought ‘I wonder if I should get road studs?’. Me, ‘how are we going to get past this obstacle?’. We asked someone on a bicycle to give us a lead, which worked.”
“A heartfelt thank you to you and your team for giving us the tools to deal with everyday situations. We can now build on this and go back to enjoying our horses.”
Getting back to enjoying your horses is the be-all and end-all of this unique and powerful course.
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