Copies of this limited first edition sold in UK, Australia, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Liechstenstein.......

Introducing “Riding Dynamics”

When Kerry Turner left her 20 year career as a management consultant and moved from the UK to rural France she created the perfect opportunity to fulfil her lifelong ambition to write a book. “Riding Dynamics”, the process of learning and its application to riding, is the result.

What can riders learn from the business world?

Kerry’s work as a consultant focuses on understanding the dynamics of business to improve decision making and business performance. She uses these techniques in this book to explore the dynamics of riding and training horses…..literally what affects what when we ride. By better understanding these dynamics we can make better choices and improve our riding performance.

Successfully implementing our choice is all about self control, controlling our mind and our body. To achieve this Kerry encourages us to commit to becoming a “learning rider”, a rider committed to lifelong learning and self development. In this book Kerry shares with us some of the tools and techniques she has found helpful in her own quest to become a “learning rider”.

Unlike many books on riding and training the author is not a professional horsewoman. Kerry freely admits that she is not a natural rider. She struggles with nerves, with tension (mental and physical) and with physical problems. She started writing in a diary to capture the results of her own riding experiments. What she had tried. What had worked. What hadn’t. Why? What to try next. She found that her writing complemented and reinforced what she had learnt about herself and the riding process.

Charitable aims

As she started to structure her notes she realised that these could benefit other riders similar to her self and, through these riders, the horses they ride. The decision to donate the profits of the book to her favourite international horse charity, the Brooke Organisation, completed the project. Kerry says, “I liked the idea of a book written to benefit riders and their horses in the developed world also benefiting horses and their owners in the less developed world”.

Publishers were less interested in this aim. Unperturbed, Kerry decided to publish a limited first edition of 500 copies of the book herself. She sought and gained support in the form of sponsorship of some of the printing costs from leading UK horse feeds manufacturer, Dodson & Horrell.

Research

Besides her own experiences, Kerry has drawn on a variety of material to create this work. This includes an extensive reading list of equestrian books and a survey of the views of dressage judges and trainers in the UK and internationally which she designed and conducted herself. Kerry says, “the nature of riding means that many riders have little time to participate in other sports and activities.” Kerry believes that this restricts riding progression both individually and collectively. She encourages us to use every opportunity to use all our experiences to learn about riding not just those involving horses.

Endorsement

The book is endorsed by British Horse Society chairman, Patrick Print, and is stocked by the BHS bookshop. Patrick says, “Riding is an art that involves another living being, the horse, who is as unique and individual as us. The difference between the rider and the horse is that the horse is not a volunteer. As a result we owe it to him to constantly strive to improve our skills and “connection” with him if his welfare is to be uppermost in our hearts and minds, which should be the case for all good horsemen.

All too often good horsemanship is sadly measured by how many competitions have been won or difficult horses conquered, when in reality it should be measured by a state of peaceful agreement and co-operation between horse and rider - in other words HARMONY.

Good harmony can only be achieved by understanding oneself first and then the horse, along with a sound grasp of technical skills. When the rider is truly aware of this and is committed to constantly strive to improve, only then can he or she reap the rewards this lifelong journey will bring.

I know that by reading this book your own and your individual horse’s journey can only be enhanced.”

Feedback from readers has been very positive........

“...I was immediately drawn into reading bits from it, and had to put it down firmly to wait its turn after the book I am still halfway through. Now that's quite an achievement”

“ I am reading it presently and want to say what a super job you have done. To be able to describe the thought process is quite amazing. You can almost describe feel which is really impossible....your book is one I will read often as there is so much to take in.”

“everything I would have liked to write about in a book on riding”

“…very user-friendly, it is written in a nice straightforward style and makes absolute sense”

How to obtain your copy

You can obtain your own copy of the limited first edition by sending a cheque payable to “Kerry Turner” together with your address to: Kerry Turner, Riding Dynamics, 9 Aldham House Lane, Wombwell, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S73 8RF. You can find out more by contacting Kerry via her email address: shantiesmum@yahoo.co.uk

Special Offer

Kerry has arranged a special offer price for Riding Club members and students. The RRP of the book is £18 but for a limited period you can obtain your copy for £12 plus postage and packing at £2 for 1 copy (total £14) or £9 plus postage and packing of £4 for 2 copies (total £22). Why not buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend as a birthday gift?

Kerry is available to give talks on the book and its contents to interested riding clubs and colleges. The first of these for the London area riding clubs took place at Vauxhall City Farm on the 15 December. It was a great success…. “a fascinating evening”, “went down a storm”

Chapter 1 Introduction

What is this book about?
This book is about understanding the dynamics of riding. Literally, what is happening when we ride. If we can understand the dynamics of riding we can make better riding choices, and improve the effectiveness of our riding. I believe that riding is an activity of the whole self – the mind and the body. So to improve our riding we have to develop our whole self, both our mind and our body.

Ultimately we are what we think. We can have the best body and riding skills but unless we believe this we have nothing. Riding develops and tests our self control. Each moment we ride brings a new test. To ride really well we must learn to rise above all tests. We have to “know” riding in our mind and really trust ourselves to achieve our full riding potential.

To “know” we have to learn. We never stop learning. It is a lifetime’s task. We are constantly refining and improving our knowledge. This book aims to develop the concept of a "Learning Rider" and to help the reader to become one. A Learning Rider is a rider who is driven to perpetually deepen her understanding of the horse/rider interaction and to use that understanding for the benefit of all riders and horses.

We are all individuals, and unique. Our horses are all individuals, and unique. This means that we have to understand our self and our horse. What works for me may not work for you. We have to seek out and find what works for us and create our own recipe for riding success. This news is either exciting and liberating, or daunting, depending which way you look at it. But it is the truth.

Nowadays we see riders focussing too much on what I call the “outside” of themselves (their position/appearance) and of their horse (outline). Corrections which only influence the outside will never succeed in the longer term. They will not last. Sustainable improvement comes from the inside. When the rider develops the inside of themselves; their mind (understanding) and their body (balance, strength, flexibility), and the inside of their horse, the improvements are lasting. Then and only then will the outside be as it should be and sustainably so.

Fortunately there are tools and techniques to help us in our quest. Read on to discover more.

Who can benefit?
Stand outside any swimming pool and ask the people coming out with wet hair what they have been doing. Invariably they will look at you a little funny and say “swimming”. But this single word masks a whole spectrum of skills and motivations. For some their swimming is a social activity; for others it is for physical well-being (health and fitness); for others it is because they have been told that they should swim.

Watch the swimmers in the pool. Many of these swimmers aren’t really swimming; they are simply managing to stay afloat between two points. They are content with this definition of swimming or perhaps they believe that’s all there is. Either way they have no interest in improving their swimming; in really knowing swimming.

It is the same in the riding arena. If you are happy with the effectiveness of your riding then this book is not for you. This book is for people who are seeking to progress their riding and realise their potential. Perhaps you are struggling to find the right way forward…or a top competitor looking for new ideas and inspiration.

It follows that this book is not about “learning how to stay on a horse” and therefore it is not for absolute beginners. I subscribe to the school that says that absolute beginners are better to throw away the books and let the horse teach them to feel what it is like to ride.

All riders (including beginners) are horse trainers. This is because when we are with a horse we are training him whether we like it or not. Good riders know this, bad riders either don’t think or don’t care.

Good riders also know that training is a two-way process. The horse trains us just as much as we train him. He trains us in the art of self control. He can bring out the best or the worst in us. Choose to let him bring out the best and what you will learn will benefit you in all walks of life.

Why did I want to write this book?
I write when I become so excited about something that it has to find an “outlet” or I would burst. Writing is my release. It also helps me to clarify and confirm my thinking as I have to structure my thoughts so that I can explain them to others.

I also wanted to give something back. To whom? To horses and their people. I feel that by sharing this thinking with people like you I can benefit people and horses in the developed world. Equally, by using the book to raise funds for an international horse charity, The Brooke Organisation, I am benefiting equines in less developed countries and therefore the people who depend on them for their livelihood. And by buying this book you are too.

I chose to publish this book myself for two reasons. Firstly, because it enables me to generate more profit for charity (as opposed to the shareholders in a publishing company). And secondly, because I wanted to maintain the integrity of my words. I know many authors whose words have lost their original meaning through the editing process.

This book will undoubtedly be improved on in future; perhaps by me, perhaps by someone else. I know this because I have struggled to draw a line under what I include in the book now. Every day brings new discoveries I am anxious to share. So this is a record of my thinking based on what I have learnt up to now. It is all any book ever can be.

Along the way I have made choices about the look and feel of the book as this affects the production costs and consequently the price of the book and the money I raise for charity. Perhaps I have made some compromises on look and feel that may make the book less attractive to read. I ask you to bear with this and forgive me for it. Being an unknown author has a price.

Introducing the author
I learnt to ride when I was 11 years old. I spent my 50p a week pocket money on hiring a pony from a local farmer for an hour every Saturday morning. I rode over there on my trusty bike, equipped with a riding hat my dad had found in a ditch, a new crop and the Ladybird “Learn to Ride” book (which I still have today). I handed over the cash, tacked up the pony and went out into the field. Every so often I would stop and get the book out of my pocket to work out what to do next.

Eventually the farmer retired and I went on to helping out at a local stables in return for rides. I ate, slept and dreamt “pony” and eventually, at 14 years old, my parents saw that this was no passing phase and bought me a pony of my own.

We had no experience. I wanted the first pony I saw as I was terrified that they would change their minds. “Copper” was the result – a 13.2hh Chestnut cob-type pony, nappy and lacking in “jump”. He was my pal for 2 years. I outgrew him and sold him to another young girl.

I then concentrated on school and exams…through ‘O’ levels, ‘A’ levels and University…gaining a First class Degree in Maths and a Masters in Operational Research (maths for business). I started work as a management consultant and worked hard to build my career…through this period equines were far from my mind.

At the age of 28, Graham, my long suffering partner, said “you’re boring, you need a hobby, why don’t you start riding again?” He bought me a hat and some riding lessons at a local riding school for my birthday. The inevitable happened. The old yearnings were rejuvenated. After a year I bought my first horse – a 7 year old Palomino part-bred Arab gelding with a hell of a jump called “Shantie”. I still have him today. He is enjoying his retirement.

I changed to part-time work in order to concentrate on my riding and competed at the weekends (mainly show-jumping). I took a career break and went to study BHS Stages at Moulton College. I studied to Stage 4 but failed my Stage 3 Riding. I started eventing and discovered I let myself down on the dressage.

I guess that’s where I started my quest to improve. I tried a succession of trainers, 2 new horses (one too small, the other too nasty), and BD Judge Training. I had glimpses of “great feelings” that were tantalising – but I never knew where they had come from or how to recreate them. I accepted these feelings as random. So random they stayed.

My strength is in analysing, learning and communicating – taking information from lots of sources; processing it; testing it; understanding connections; drawing conclusions and presenting them in ways which make things clearer. Ironically, I used this strength in my work but not in my riding or my home life.

In 2003 life became too much for me. I had a nervous breakdown. I left my career of twenty years and moved to France with Graham to start a long journey of self-discovery. For the first time I began to exercise the analytical skills I applied at work in my riding and my life. I started to really learn. About myself.

The riding process stopped being random. I started to understand what worked and why it worked. What didn’t work and why it didn’t work. I started to “know” riding. I wanted to share it with everyone. Partly so it could be discussed and partly to reinforce my own learning – to know that I know. I hope that you can see this and that this book can help you to make discoveries that work for you.

Shantie had an injury that meant I had to retire him from serious training, and I bought a lovely young horse, “Eric” a six year old pure-bred Lusitano gelding. We continue to learn and grow together here in this idyllic part of the world. This book marks the end of one chapter in my life and the beginning of a new one.



The Survey
In addition to learning by applying my own methods, a lot of my experience has been gleaned from others. I have been particularly influenced by the trainers I have worked with and by the books I have read. However, I am very conscious that this is a fraction of the knowledge that could be available to me.

To try to rectify this and to gain a broader, more balanced spectrum of views on riding and training, I created a questionnaire and sent it to a cross-section of well-known trainers, judges and riders. I also contacted various international federations and organisations in the hope that their members could assist me.

You can find the questions in the appendix. Why not take half an hour and write down your response to my questions? Don’t think too hard. Write down what is in your mind…what you would say if asked the questions in an impromptu interview.

I contacted over 300 individuals and organisations. 28 were keen to help and went on to provide me with a completed written response or the opportunity to cover the questions in an interview. This relatively poor overall response rate masks some huge variations across the sample. Almost 40% of trainers and 20% of British Dressage judges (Lists 1 and 2) did respond. I am incredibly grateful to these individuals, a number of who continue to help me with this project.

I had hoped that perhaps I would gain a statistically significant sample of responses that I could go on to analyse overall findings and implications. This has not been possible given the limited response. Instead I have used quotes from the survey to illustrate the range of opinions on different topics. Some day I hope that an equine organisation will properly fund and support a project like this to enable us all to benefit.

How to use this book
First of all you must read it. This is no coffee table book. And you must experiment and try out the ideas I am presenting. See if they work for you. Ask yourself - am I convinced this is worth a try? If it is then try it out.

Have no expectations. See what happens. Think about why it happened. Have another go.

Tell your horse about it. He’ll help you out.

Buy yourself an exercise book or a large diary with a page per day. At the end of each day, or the morning after, write down what you think happened and what you learnt. In this way you will write your own book of riding.

I want this book to really make you think. There are questions for you to answer all the way through. You will only receive the full benefit if you use them.

I want to encourage you to never regard any word as sacrosanct, whether written or spoken. Seek the truth, ask questions, challenge, experiment… take responsibility for your own learning…and start to do it now. The world will never be the same again. Trust me and try it. Read on and become a Learning Rider…

How the book is structured
Chapter 1 introduces the book and the author.

Chapter 2 encourages the reader to examine why they ride. Only by being clear about why we are doing things can we make better choices and act in ways consistent with achievement.

Riding well is a complex process. To achieve our riding objectives we need to understand what helps us to make progress, what gets in the way and all the cause and effect relationships between them. To help with this, in Chapter 3 we consider a simple thinking tool called Systems Thinking. It is a powerful way of understanding the dynamics of riding.

Our ability to influence our horse is impacted by the strength of our connection with him. Chapter 4 analyses these connections and suggests how they may be improved.

Chapter 5 looks at the physical implications of connecting with your horse. Specifically, it considers all the aspects of contact.

Strong connections provide us with the possibility of improved communication. But what do we communicate about and how? These are the topics for Chapter 6.

The previous 3 chapters have considered the rider’s influence on a trained horse. How do we go about improving a horse? Chapter 7 considers alternative training approaches and analyses some of the pre-eminent texts on training.

Chapter 8 considers how the rider can improve her riding effectiveness. Riding involves our whole self. To do it well we need to use our body and our mind. So we have to learn about ourselves, about our body and mind, to use them more effectively and efficiently.

Chapter 9 looks at what actually happens when we mount our horse with the aim of training him. It brings together the concepts presented in previous chapters and demonstrates the practical application on horseback – literally, riding in the moment.

Chapter 10 encourages the rider to take responsibility for her own performance improvement and provides some techniques that can help as well as discussing finding the most suitable equine and trainer partners.

Chapter 11 examines the controversial topic of equipment for horse and rider training and provides some opinions.

Chapter 12 considers how the reader can continue to progress by adopting the habits of the continuously improving “Learning Rider”.



Acknowledgements
Of the many people who have influenced me over the years I would like to especially mention:
My Trainers: Inger Bryant, John Micklem, Gloria Pullen, Jean Halls, Trudi Dempsey, Sophie Volet
My Family: Gerald and Beryl Turner and Graham Hey
My Horses: Shantie, Eric, and all those I have ridden over the years
My horsey pals: Anita Thomas, Paula Shirreff, Pauline Smith, Chris Shelton and Judy Pickerill
Dennis Sherwood, Sarah Bell and my many colleagues over the years at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Coopers & Lybrand, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and IBM. And, of course, my consulting clients who provided so much food for thought.

For help with this book I must thank:
Anne Fenn for creating the illustrations in figures 1,2,6,12,13,16,17,19,
20, 21,22,27,30,31,32,34,36,38.
Graham Hey for proof reading and help with layout.


Special thanks must also go to all those who gave their time and knowledge by responding to my survey and completing the questionnaire.

Finally, thank you to those who took the time to share their thinking in the texts I have used to help me with this book. I now know how hard this task can be. References to the texts I have used are marked by (#) and a complete reference is given in Appendix 1.

Review - Dressage Today October 2009







Table of Contents
Foreword 7
1 Introduction 9
What is this book about? 9
Who can benefit? 10
Why did I want to write this book? 11
Introducing the author 12
The Survey 13
How the book is structured 15
Acknowledgements 17
2 The Objectives of Riding 18
Control or influence? 19
Achieving self control 23
Systems and riding 24
Communication 26
3 Understanding Dynamics 29
Structure affects behaviour 29
Mental Models 31
Variables and Relationships 32
Digging deeper 34
Feedback 36
Equilibrium 42
Improvement 43
4 Connection in Theory 47
Rider Ingredients 49
Strengthening the connection 52
Influencing the horse’s ingredients 54
5 Connection in Practice 58
Hands 58
An Independent Seat 77
Legs 83
6 Communication 89
Balance 89
Communication - Correction and Reward 96
Definiteness 104
7 The Dynamics of Training 107
Correct musculature 107
The Scales of Training 112
The Way Forward 123
8 Rider Dynamics 125
Brain control 126
Inside vs Outside 128
Body control 129
Back problems 131
Pilates 132
Alexander Technique 134
Nutrition for riding 138
Fitness for riding 138
9 Application - Riding in the moment 140
Dismounted preparation 140
Thoughts on lunging 141
Initial Assessment and warm up 144
Down to work 146
Training opposites 150
Cool-down 151
Some thoughts on riding exercises 152
Circles 153
Going sideways 154
Improving the Canter 156
Improving the Trot 158
Developing the Whole 161
Training and competition 162
10 Managing your performance 164
Finding the right horse 165
Choosing a trainer 171
Assessment and Feedback 178
Prioritisation 182
11 Thoughts on Equipment 186
Horse equipment 186
Bits 186
Nosebands 189
Saddles 191
Numnahs and girths 194
Lunge Tack and facilities 200
Shoes 201
Rider equipment 202
Riding surfaces 203
12 The Way Forward – The Learning Rider 206
The Learning Cycle 208
Improving Learning effectiveness 211
Knowledge acquisition 213
Active reading 214
Filtering knowledge 215
The Learning Zone 216
Adaptation 221
Afterword 226
Appendix 1 - References 228
Appendix 2 - Survey questions 231
Appendix 3 – Pilates 233
Appendix 4 - Osteopathy 239
Appendix 5 - Massage 246
Biographies 248

Thanks to:
Dustie Capellina for all her help with this book:
http://www.dustiecapellina.com/Dustie_Capellina/Osteopath,_Sports_Therapist_%26_Physical_Trainer.html

Kerry recommends:
Lynn Henry. Think Like a Pony: http://www.thinklikeapony.co.uk/