Ride with Your Mind Essentials: Innovative Learning Strategies for Basic Riding Skills

Excellent guidance from Mary Wanless best used by established/experienced and maybe confused riders to improve/change (for the better) riding techniques that might (Er hum) have developed into some bad habits. Also this would be excellent for a lot of instructors to help understand the depth of information and break down of technique that their clients are looking for. Alongside regular instruction, (and watching and listening to pretty much anything Wanless has published online) this book has helped me sooo much. It fills in many of the gaps left out of the you tube videos etc and speaks a language that is more easily understood than many standard riding books. Bought on kindle. Enjoyed reading it and have learnt a lot. Now wish I’d got this in hard copy too.

Fantastic insight into how you can improve your ability to ride and be at one with your horse. Mary explains in detail what you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

This book has literally changed my riding life! For anyone who likes theory backed up with accessible and comprehensible explanations of how the theory works in practice. As an example, Mary gives more than one explanation for how to find your seat and I love the fact she also talks about how it feels when you haven't got it. Everything she says I have been taught before, but I have never been able to absorb in quite so meaningful a way. My instructor - who is first class - has noticed a marked improvement in my riding and we are now working through the book together. I Have ridden all my life to a relatively high level, but have never made so much progress with my technique in such a short time.

I used to have riding lessons when I was young, but never felt confident. This was because I never felt like I was actually in control of the horses - I was just a passenger. After a 30-year break I've just started having lessons again, and thankfully, I'm being taught to ride with my core, rather than with the 'kick and pull technique' which was prevalent in my younger days, and which, sadly, is still being taught in many places today. I'd had 6 half-hour lessons, but I still wasn't getting it, perhaps because, although my teacher is good, I was being confused with the 'sit tall', 'sit deeper', 'breathe in and tighten your buttocks' kind of suggestions. I felt I needed something more, and after reading the reviews, I got this book. I started to read it immediately, and although it took some time, and some re-reading of paragraphs, to get my head around with what really needed to happen with my core, I kept getting light-bulb moments and realised some of what was going wrong in my lessons. I'd only got through about 6 chapters, but was keen to put into practice what I'd learnt in my latest lesson, yesterday. I didn't always get it right, but my teacher was amazed by how much better I'd done, and I felt so much more confident that I could actually communicate with the horse. Particularly noticeable was my ability to 'bear down' (essentially sucking in my lower abs and pushing my guts against the ab wall, to create stable pressure), which had the magical effect of halting the horse immediately (which is what I'd wanted to happen). Normally the horse would've slowed up a bit, but also kept taking some steps forward, because of my confusing aids (such as clenching my buttocks etc.). Horses are such obliging, tolerant animals that don't haven't a voice to tell us when they feel pain. It's shocking the abuse they have to suffer from people who blame them when they don't do what they want, when it's the rider who is at fault. With this book I'm really hoping I can master (or at least significantly improve) my communication with horses, which should make riding a much more enjoyable, and successful experience, for myself and the horses I ride. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to start riding and those wanting to improve their riding.

Takes a while to get the hang of the language/terminology as it does get a bit technical in places, but I found it really useful and an interesting read. A different approach to riding to many, and one that set me on a path to understanding how horses move and how the rider impacts them. Have since been to a few of her clinics and she has a great way of teaching.

This book is easy to read but the instructions can be challenging to put into practice, which is the whole point. The off horse exercises are particularly useful as I don't ride everday. My understanding of riding has vastly improved and hopefully my practice will continue to improve as my body gets used to the corrections in my position and thinking as I ride. I can really recommend this book to Amy equestrian.

I am I suppose what you call a professional rider, but this is still the best book I've ever read on riding. It's simply the key that will unlock everything else. The instructions are simple and nobody else I know has ever managed to explain how to be aware of one's core at all, let alone like she has. However it's not enough to read it, you have to do the physical work ;) Absolute must - have.

I am relatively new to riding, and have known since I started taking lessons that something was missing. My instructor was doing her best to impart her expertise to me, but things just weren't 'clicking'. I was on the brink of giving up, horse riding obviously wasn't for me. The explanations in this book have helped me understand what is actually behind the horsey jargon - 'use your seat....' 'Get him forward....' More leg...' It has helped me to technically interpret what the essence of good riding is. I knew there was a gap in what I was being told and what that physically meant in practice -the gap is this book! Mary tells us at the start that there is at least 2 years worth of learning in this book, looks like I've got a busy few years ahead!! Can't wait to put her amazing knowledge in to practice.

This book is going to change how you ride and coach. Prepare for a total paradigm shift. Your horse will thank you.

Cristal clear and stright forward, it gives you awareness of the riding goals and of the most common mistakes (in many of which you will recognise yourself and your horse) but, first of all, it provides understandable and effective suggestions to make significant steps ahead. Your coach will appreciate your improvement.

Second Wanless book I've read (started with her first book). She's great, love the way she explains things and goes to great ends to try and make it clear. Lots of sympathy for the horse and rider and the struggle to get it right! I'm planning to read all her books as they make so much sense, are easy to understand and to read. She gives you a lot to think about. Sometimes it does take careful consideration to visualise but I find if I read an explanation a few times, then go and practice what I THINK she said, seems to help. Her methods make SO much sense to me overall. She is keenly aware of how many instructors bellow out instructions without any explanation as to how to execute what they want....(or an explanation that makes sense!).

So you have been told to sit down more, sit deeper, put more weight on one seat bone, be relaxed and on and on. But nobody tells you truly how and what they tell you often does not work. Then everyone gets frustrated - the instructor because you can't follow their "simple instruction" and you as a rider because you feel too "dumb" to do it. Frustration creates tension and with that your last little chance of moving forward just went out the window. Bring in Mary Wanless to the rescue. Not only does she explain how your body works on the inside, but she has some great "off the horse" exercises that allow you to feel your body, those elusive seatbones and make it clear how you can be a better rider. This book has made a great difference for my own riding and has helped many of my students to finally understand and see instant improvement. Truly remarkable insights. Kyra Kyrklund uses many of her techniques (I had the chance to observe first hand at the USDF convention 2008)and they simply work. Go get this book - it will help you become a better rider and make your horse a lot happier, too.

This book will open the door to more progress in your riding, than infinite lessons with traditional riding instructors could. Mary breaks the art of riding down in to bite size chunks that your mind can process in a meaningful way to make dramatic changes. This is not a "heels down, sit tall" type of instruction book. If you incorporate Mary's ideas and visual images into your riding you will see a marked improvement in a very short time.