YOUNG RIDER JESSICA RICE WARD

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Consequently, Tanja’s main focus is the rider. “To me, riding is a team sport consisting of the rider and the horse. Each has equal responsibility for the outcome,” she says.

Every limited belief affects how we sit on a horse, she says. “I help people understand their limiting beliefs and how these affect how we sit on a horse. Your position influences how your horse moves. Your horse is the best personal development coach you have.”

If a rider is tense, the horse mirrors that tension. The first rung on Tanja’s training scale, the base line of her pyramid, is relaxation. “It’s the breath out that is important. That’s what makes you - and your horse - relax. Get your breath below your belly button,” she advises.

The next rung of her pyramid focuses on the sternum and core engagement. “Slouching is common,” she explains. “One mistake is to over-correct, and to raise yourself too much, hollowing the back. This blocks the horse. The trick is to lift the sternum and engage your core – drawing belly button back towards the spine. She reminds all her riders that: “The core is the central balance point.”

The third area she speaks about is movement of the pelvis and the importance of feeling weight on the sit bones rather than on the pubic bone.