Susan Dickson Freelance Coach

A wee shout out and a big well done to Mhairi Stephenson Orme who rode a very pleasing forward and accurate test yesterday with the lovely Ryan.👏👏👏👏

They came away with a very respectable individual 🏵️6th place and team 🏵️2nd place at the British Riding Clubs Area 1 Summer Qualifier , which was held at The Daimler Foundation at Morris.

Lately we have done quite a bit test riding practice which is definitely paying off, well done to you both 👌

Enjoyed my First aid refresher training today , valid for another 3 years with Albacare the BHS Scotlands first aid training provider.

BHS STAGE 4 ACCREDITED PROFESSIONAL COACH

Weekend and midweek slots available for lessons.

I enjoy teaching riders of ALL ages /levels /confidence / abilities and the pace is very much set by you .

Whether you want to go out and compete or just need a boost in confidence and someone to hold your hand a little, I’m happy helping riders and their horses and ponies progress whatever the starting point .

Mainly in Lesmahagow and surrounding areas such as

Lanark
Carluke
Strathaven
Larkhall
Stonehouse

‼️Currently discounted prices ‼️

(For 2 or more clients/ lessons in same yard )
starting from

£25 for half hr
£35 for 45 min

Susan Dickson Freelance Coach
07771635380

Last training session and signing off BHS Skills Record for Millie Elliot today at Smithstone Equestrian Centre ready for her British Horse Society Stage 3 Ride examination.
Good luck Millie .☘️

Flatwork session from Susan Dickson again today to put the finishing on Millie’s assessment prep.

Absolutely 👍

I am going to have a tiny (loving!) rant: Not every riding problem is a confidence problem. Sometimes it’s a safety problem.

I constantly hear:
“I just need to be braver.”
“I’m frustrated with myself for being scared.”
“I should just push through.”

But fear isn’t a personality flaw. Fear is information.

Your brain has one main job: keep you alive!

So when you feel that deep, heavy feeling saying “not safe” - not butterflies, not nerves - your nervous system isn’t being dramatic. It’s assessing risk.

Would you do mindset work to confidently put your hand in an oven? NO! 🔥

You wouldn’t breathe through it.
You wouldn’t visualise it.
You wouldn’t repeat affirmations.

Because the issue wouldn’t be confidence.

The oven is hot! 🥵

And sometimes in riding the “oven” is:
– a horse who is escalating
– behaviour you don’t understand
– pain signals being dismissed
– a mismatch of ability
– too much, too soon

Confidence is not “doing it anyway.”

I don’t teach riders to override fear. I teach riders to interpret it.

There’s a huge difference between: “I’m nervous because this matters” and “I feel unsafe.”

You are not weak for listening to the second one. You might not be lacking confidence at all. You might actually have very good instincts.

My job isn’t to make you braver. It’s to help you work out why the oven is on… and what to do about it!

Couldn’t agree more , too many horses today work twice or thrice a week , on circles , on a surface , ( if they’re unlucky it’ll be deep or inconsistent in depth) both of which puts strain on soft tissue and joints which never get a chance to harden up and get strong .
Roadwork in walk is so beneficial to get and keep horses fit, strong and sound .

You don’t need fancy rehab centres and treadmills…

Rehab is boring. It’s hard work. It’s loooooooong (yes, even longer than your discharge notes say if you want it to work!). And it takes a lot of discipline and effort on your part.

If you haven’t got the time then yes - sending your horse away for rehab might be necessary. But remember this… it’s not as hard or as scary as it sounds! And also - there are no shortcuts.

Your horse doesn’t need to be splashing through the water treadmill, pounding up big hills or doing 500 raised poles a day after injury or surgery…

They need to learn to do the simple, everyday things CORRECTLY first, BEFORE you think about strength building. It is likely that they have been carrying a ni**le for a while before you noticed and as a result developed compensatory movement patterns to avoid using the part that hurt in the correct way. This puts added strain on supporting structures and before you go building strength, you need to first teach your horse to just stand and walk normally. To understand that it is safe to use that limb normally again and there is no need to avoid the motion for fear of pain. To discover the range of motion they didn’t know they had.

That means WALKING. Not ambling, walking with purpose. Every day. In straight lines, with no gadgets, just in hand, then on the long lines, then under saddle. All with gradual increases in daily walk time. Steady gradual inclines spread throughout your route - not long steep never ending hills. Not at this stage. Just those 3 different ways of walking (with and without pressure/weight) require use of different muscles and will rebuild strength.

I’m a huge advocate of walking out hacking. I’ve rehabbed 3 horses successfully post surgery and each one of them has done weeks and weeks of just walking on the road. It kept me fit putting the miles in on the floor too 🤣

Only once they’ve done the walking should you think about raised poles or water treadmills. Those are fantastic tools I am wholly in support of them! But for fit horses. Not horses recovering from injury.

Teach them to walk without any pressure first. So they can learn to use the limb again - in a different way. And only when they have regained that correct movement - then go and build strength. If you try to build the strength before you have regained normal movement - something else will take the strain and you may end up with a different injury down the line.

There is no substitute for just walking on the hard surface in my opinion! An essential part of rehab.