The Original RIDER CONFIDENCE COURSE with karl greenwood and zana cousins greenwood This is a course with a difference, sports hypnotherapy combined with practical arena sessions that really work. Scroll down for course content...... Course dates are listed towards the bottom of the page. "We don't do brave here - we do well trained" New - Join Karl Greenwoods 'Enjoy Your Horse' Club for £4.99 per month for 'How To' training videos, support, questions, live video chats and more. Click the link to go to Karl's club website to join https://www.karlgreenwood.club/ Scroll down for course dates and more info!
In our Rider Confidence course we offer a unique combination of techniques, activities and approaches to eliminate fear and stress, and enable you to move up to the next level and beyond. Taught in a small friendly group learn how to deal with a fall, rear, losing your seat, bolting, bucking, horses falling/slipping over and general safety and confidence issues all in one day!
It makes sense to learn what to do in a controlled environment and work it all out then risk panic, brain freeze and second guessing in the moment.
Its a choice - Learn what to do beforehand and be confident or wait for the moment maybe on a hack, or the road, and see what happens!
We know which we would choose.
The day starts in the classroom before learning practical skills in our arena.
Everything is demonstrated by instructors.
This is the ONLY course in the U.K, possibly the world to be able to offer all this.
Be aware of cheap copies cat versions.
Delighted to have our Rider Confidence course featured again in this month's Your Horse magazine. This is the second part of a 5 part series on Rearing this time and how to deal with it. Go pick up a copy - Feb issue 2020
" Don't dumb down your horse......horses are capable of anything and everything if we can be bothered to teach them, show them and create trust "
" Confidence comes from the rider first .........its not a horse's job to give you confidence........its your job to help your horses out"
"Don't be brave..........................................be well trained and ready for what ever life throws at you!"
And most importantly ..................REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!
"I had the BEST day! It was such FUN!!!! It was soooo useful to be given the tools to use for that ' oh dear' moment!!! With this new knowledge I am adjusting my practice and equipment, and carrying out some additional desensitisation to help my ponies cope in any tricky situation! Yay!!!! what next???? Thank you so much!"
Jill
Want to Ride Like You've Always Dreamed Of?
Then You've Come To The Right Place!
"Thank you so much to Zana and Karl (and the extremly well trained horses) for an absolutly fantastic time on the Rider Confidence course last Saturday. Thank you all so much for being so friendly, encouraging, positive and passionate about your jobs and the course. I will definitely be making the journey from Bristol to attend another one of your courses again in the near future :) Xx"2019
Teaching Harry Styles to rear on Teake for his new music video - Daylight 2023
Training new soliders at The Household Cavalry in Windsor 2023.
Dear Karl and Zana If I write the review of the course here can you manage to put it where it needs to go - technology is not working with me this morning!! Thank you again for sharing your tool kit with me last week! I took the rider confidence course on Wednesday 20th April with clear objectives. On Saturday 23rd April I was entered into the Silver Spur (a steeplechase of 2.5 miles over 20 hedges and 3 open ditches, in a field of 32 horses with an extremely high fall rate) and I needed to control my butterflies and wanted experience with falling so that I could ride boldly and fast into the fences with confidence. The course was fantastic, Karl and Zana are both excellent instructors and I drove home from the course grinning at the prospect of the adventure I would have on my horse Claude. On the day of the race I was calm and collected and quietly confident, I knew that myself and my horse were as fit as we could be, had been training for a long while and the butterflies had gone - from just hoping I would get round I knew that I would ride hard and was truly in it to win it, If I did come off, no big deal I now had the tools to cope. Claude was amazing and flew the hedges and I was smiling with exhilaration, then unfortunately a horse went down in front of me so I gave Claude a huge kick and he extended to jump the horse as well, as he did so I felt a tremor go through him and knew something was wrong. Thanks to the training from Karl and Zana I did not panic, as he started to fall on landing, which would have been disastrous for him, me and the 20 or so horses behind me I kicked and kicked and rode him back up again and out of the field. Unfortunately I was now heading for the spectators and it was clear we were on borrowed time. Still not panicking I was able to yell for the spectators to scatter and call out for the vet whilst bailing out from my collapsing horse! On the ground and unhurt I was able to leap up and attend to my horse who had suffered a pulmonary embolism, dramatic but not necessarily fatal. Thankfully Claude is fine thanks to everyone's swift action. No one could have scripted what happened to me on 23rd April but everybody was amazed by how calm and fast thinking I was and that is thanks to Karl and Zana. Taking the rider confidence course was the best thing I ever did and ensured that a situation that had the potential to be breathtakingly disastrous is instead a dramatic anecdote with happy smiles at the end! I am recommending this course to everyone that I ride with, best money I have ever spent. The Countess of Denbigh (Suzy) April 2016 BOOKING Booking is simple - just find a date you like and email us on info@horsebackcombat.co.uk or use the contact us form to apply for a place (PLEASE CHECK COURSE AVAILABILITY WITH US FIRST BEFORE BUYING A PLACE IN CASE THE WEBSITE HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED.) YOU CAN NOW PAY FOR YOUR COURSE USING PAYPAL STRAIGHT FROM THE WEBSITE BY CLICKING THE YELLOW BUTTON BELOW (after you have spoken to us first regarding which date suits you)
This course fills up fast so to secure your place you can use the yellow PayPal button above or pay using BACS once we have discussed suitable dates with you first.
We will then email all the course info over to you.
Please check your course date choice with us first before purchasing any course.
Price : £299 per person - One full day course.
10.30am- 5.45pm approx. Small groups of max 7 people
Arrival 10.15am
COURSE DATES 2024
We usually run two to five courses every month, except December.
The Course Dates are put up 1 -2 months in advance, so July's dates will go up in May/June, for example.
January 2024
Sunday 28th - Now Full
February 2024
Saturday 17th - Now Full
Sunday 25th - Now Full
March 2024
Saturday 9th - Now Full
Sunday 17th -Now Full
Sunday 24th - Now Full
April 2024
Sunday 7th - 1 Space Available
Wednesday 17th - Now Full
Sunday 28th -Now Full
May 2024
Bank Holiday Monday 6th - Now Full
18th/19th " Confident to Canter" weekend - 2 Spaces Available
£699
Sunday 26th - 6 Spaces Available
June 2024
Sunday 9th - 6 Spaces Available
15th/16th "Confident to Canter" weekend - 3 Spaces Available £699
Wednesday 26th - 6 Spaces Available
July 2024
20th/21st 2 day Rider Confidence Course - 2 Spaces Available - £550
August 2024
Sept 2024
Oct 2024
November 2024
Please note: We are now more weather dependant as we go into the winter months.
Please keep this in mind when booking and be flexible if booking in winter
See our Q and A page for our policy on weather.
COURSE DETAILS
Scroll down to bottom of the page for course Structure.
Age Limits: 14 yrs and over, no upper limit, but currently our oldest client has been 75yrs and completed the whole course with gusto, what an inspiration!
Please contact us to discuss the suitability of the course for you if you have concerns.
Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult but you don't need to sit in for the classroom sessions, its a small room!
Numbers: The nature of this course demands our full attention on our clients, so we must limit numbers per group to a max of SEVEN persons, usually the group is kept at 6.
Weight and Fitness: Horses used are around 15hh to 15.2hh.
Please inform us of any injuries that may affect you on the day. You will need to be fairly fit to get the most out of this course, but also to ride horses at all.
We give a weight limit of 15 stone - however 15 stone sports people are very different to 15 stone couch potatoes! - We do have a tall mounting block you can use.
Remember we will be climbing on and around the wooden horses and crash mats, etc.
People with previous injuries or medical conditions are most welcome, the course is taken in easy bite size pieces and we can work with everyone to learn safely what to do, what not to do and how your own body would cope with any situation a horse can throw in, we say its better to learn and to know in a controlled environment than second guess in the moment.
We have so far welcomed para dressage riders, a lady registered blind, amputees etc which is wonderful.
We do have big mounting blocks.
We regret spectators are not allowed on this course due to its personal nature, there is NO exception to this.
This is your personal day to try new skills or work through any issues without being judged or made to feel uncomfortable.
We also spend time in the classroom where its not possible to have extra people inside.
Its not a spectator sport.
We welcome spectators on all our other courses here.
No photography or video to be taken on this course.
"After participating in the confidence course with Karl and Zana I have done things with my pony that I never thought I'd do again, we have hacked, alone and in company, I have ridden in the school and I've even ridden bareback!
"We have jumped ditches and logs in the woods. I have been able to deal with my ponys foibles calmly and confidently (napping, spooking and the odd buck) so if you are toying with the idea of booking I would definitely recommend it! Thank you Karl and Zana!"
Danielle - Oct
Louise Lambert reviewed The Centre of Horseback Combat – 5 star
12 August
"I did the confident rider course on Wednesday last week, it was exactly what I was hoping it would be! It has given me a great set of tools which mean I now feel equipped to deal with it if things go wrong, 2 days after the course I got on my pony bareback for the first time, I’ve been wanting to do it for months but always bottle it st the mounting block, not anymore � Today I went for a group lesson at my trainers yard, there were 2 horses galloping round in the field next door, not so long ago that would have been way too much for me but actually I coped fine, my instructor couldn’t believe the difference in me, I’m now sitting up rather than trying to curl into the foetal position � I’d honestly recommend anyone to do this course even if they don’t have confidence issues and I’ve been telling anyone who will listed! Massive thankyou to the whole team, you’re all fabulous!"
nn
COURSE CONTENT SEE BELOW
course content
What can I expect on the course?
We begin with a classroom session on the brain, and how our expectations lead to either primitive or intellectual responses to challenges. There is a detailed description of the day's activities, so that every exercise is broken down into bite-sized parts and each bite-sized part is fully demonstrated beforehand. The physical exercises in the arena are entirely voluntary - but lots of fun. (There is a lot of laughing throughout the day!) The morning activities will be devoted to experiencing and dealing with rearing, and then we'll turn our attention to issues concerning balance and posture. Over the course of the day we will cover:
The Unimportant of a Correct Seat
Use our horses special talents to learn how to regain balance without any fuss, fear or bother. It's a strange opposition that the better a rider's seat and posture, the more they are thrown when that support is temporarily lost. Using our special saddles, you will not only lose your seat, but move completely out of the saddle and back in whilst on the move! And of course you will fix the experience in your mind that losing your seat is not the end of the ride and can become entirely normal and be dealt with calmly.
We will also look at sharpening your reaction times and removing that dreaded 'brain freeze' moment.
Training is key!
Rearing
Our horses are trained to rear on command, so we are able to offer the experience of acclimatising and familiarising our minds and bodies to a rear, and practice staying in our intellectual brains in order to take action. We will cover what to do (and what not to do), as well as how to school a horse to not rear in the first place.
This is vital skill-set so this tool can live in your pocket, should you ever need it, its there!
Don't second guess what to do.
Falling
After lunch the falling rider section will cover how to fall from the saddle as the professionals do to keep you safe from harm. We begin with a detailed classroom discussion and analysis of avoiding the commonest mistakes, then we head out to the arena for step by step instruction, gradually leading through the techniques we have used through years of experience. Using crash mats and our wooden horse to teach you a safe technique to prevent injuries and raise confidence levels.
We also take a look at what we can do should our horses fall, trip or slip over with us on board, how to not get caught with your stirrups and how to think, react, stay calm and deal with any and all situations.
Training is key!
Hypnosis
Karl is a qualified Sports Hypnotherapist, and one unbeatable Rider Confidence hypnosis session is included in the course.
Due to Covid restrictions this session is now emailed to you to listen in your own time at home and you can listen again and again should you wish to.
Karls methods can easily show how what we once perceived as being our limits, of our personality, our skills and abilities, are actually stepping stones - necessary stepping stones - to be harnessed and used for even greater success!
At the end of the day you will return home possessing the tools, skills and experiences to banish limiting fears and ride joyfully into a fantastic future for you and your horse!
Knowledge is power.
is this course for you?
Do you want to take your riding to the next level?....
The excitement of horses is a passion in the blood, but does your nervousness hold you back at all?
Are rides spoiled at the thought of bucking, rearing, napping or jumping? Or would you just like to have that 'edge' to take your riding up to the next level?
Do you know what to do when a situation arises?
Are you full of the 'What if's'?
Do you want to learn more about horsemanship and why horses do behaviors?
Do you want to learn about relationship and trust with your horse?
People often find that they reach a "plateau" in their riding or sporting achievements - a barrier which seems to be the extent of their courage, skills, personality or abilities. These ceilings can be at any level, from getting out on a hack, to breaking into a canter, or in facing drops, banks and ditches at top level competition.
We will provide a program of familiarisation - rearing, falling, balancing and re-balancing on the move, and even including falling horses - along with considering alternative saddles other than the common English Easy-out!
Our horses are trained to rear on command, to fall when asked and to support balanced and unbalanced riders - a set of abilities that YOU can use to build your experiences and confidence in a safe environment.
NO other facility can offer such a unique package to transform your capabilities and confidence - leading to horse-riding success, whatever your age and discipline!
