Online Rider Training

[spacytracy]

Forgive me if this has been asked, but does anyone see the FB ads for these programs? Has anyone done them?
Two I can think of off the top of my head:
Dressage Rider Training
Your Riding Success

I think its enticing for me because I like having a “program”, at the same time, I don’t know if its the best use of $$.

[RedHorses]

I’m in week six of Dressage Rider Training. I decided to give it a try because the lockdown prevented joining a gym (and I’m not sure I’m really gym inclined anyway) and the cost was less than $20/week. I needed something to strengthen my core and support my back. Plus I’m hoping to start dressage lessons in the spring and wanted to be less than useless on horseback.

DRT is not riding lessons but is a core strength, flexibility, strength training program for people who ride. Your Riding Success appears to be more of a replacement for riding lessons. Completely different objectives.

I’m enjoying it more than the first couple of weeks. The exercises generally have several levels of difficulty and I’m planning on going back to some earlier workouts and doing the harder options. You can download the workouts to keep or buy the program on a memory stick.

The catch (if you do the homework and daily stretches) is that it does take more time than the promised three 20 minute workouts per week.

I do feel stronger and more balanced when doing exercises that were also in the first few weeks. It’s subtle - I’m not shifting my feet as much to stay balanced. I can’t speak to riding as there’s not much subtlety when riding in deep snow.

[spacytracy]

Thanks! I appreciate that! I need alot of work on my core, I have a really bad habit of hunching forward. So I’ve been looking for some workouts to help that.

[outerbanks77]

I’ve been in a couple of the Ritter Dressage courses and have found them very helpful. I still take lessons, but my instructor travels in from out of state about once a month, so it’s nice to have something else as well. The course go into a lot of depth on theory and detail that there isn’t time to get into in a lesson, but helps me get a lot more out of my lessons, and problem solve so I make more progress in between. They also have periodic Q&As, though they aren’t always at convenient times since they are in Portugal and I’m in Idaho. The courses aren’t cheap, but you get lifetime access to the materials and get to participate with the group each time they re-run the course (I’ll be doing What, Why How for the third time this spring).

Recently they started working with a Feldenkrais practitioner doing 30 day Feldenkrais modules with daily sessions. I’m about halfway through the second module and definitely have made some progress in sorting out some of my position bugaboos. It’s not fitness per se, but more range of motion and breaking up unproductive habitual movements.

[Snowdenfarm]

I also like having a program to follow. I do Dressage Rider Training, Ritter courses and Mary Wanless courses and find them all very helpful. The Dressage Rider Training is great for rider-specific strength, stretching and balance. The Feldenkrais is great, but not alone as it very passive.