Thoroughbred School

The school takes the shape of both in “semesters” and “mini terms.” Semesters will be three months of commitment, while the mini terms will be one month. The school will be made up of “classes” and “open gym hours.” Students get to select a “tier” of engagement for each semester – there are options for full time, part-time, and ad-hoc participation, which hopefully will make this as accessible as possible. And each month, there will be a roundtable potluck and discussion about a determined topic relevant to riding / riding and caring for Thoroughbreds. Auditing the lessons and coming to the roundtables will help build community and make all of this more fun, so those parts, even if one doesn’t ride that day or week, are strongly encouraged. 

We have two distinct digital enrollments. One is free for everyone who signs up and requires no commitment. It offers access to our Facebook group (Thoroughbred School Student) where we recap (and share videos) of the classes, discuss rider challenges and build community. Roundtables are hosted through Facebook live on that page, and in the future there will be a guest speaker series posted there as well. 

The pay-in digital option allows riders to send between 15-20 minutes of video of their personal rides each month for comment, productive critique and homework. Anyone can add this element to their existing enrollment (but in order for me to keep track, it all needs to see signed-up-for)

These are group lessons featuring up to five of my horses. The goal will be to get each rider experience on different Thoroughbreds, so students won’t be stuck on the same one every week. Some classes may involve a bunch of jumping off horses and hopping on another. Classes are two-and-a-half hours two times a week (Sunday from 2-4:30 and Thursday from 5-7:30) and include tacking up, discussion of horse conformation, tack needs, shoeing needs, etc. I certainly don’t expect the horses to be in constant work for just under 3 hours. There will be breaks, tack changes, horse changes as necessary. But tacking up and learning about their bodies, their brains, their feet, their behavior, and their tack is part of it. Even if you have your own Thoroughbred, classes will be on my horses (see below for the explanation there) and you may end up doing exercises on more than one horse during the class.  

Open Gyms are a 2.5-hour blocks that happens two times a month on Tuesdays from 4:30-7.  For these, riders schedule a slot and have a chance to practice their Thoroughbred skills on one of mine. I’ll be in the ring, probably working with one of my young ones, and will happily toss ideas around, but these are not in a strict sense, lessons. Open Gyms are times to have a discussed plan of what you’re working on and ride to test and figure it out partially on your own (with help as needed). To have access to these open gym times though, you’ll have had to have ridden in a class recently within the last three weeks. 

Once a month, we’ll all get together and over food and drink, we’ll spend an hour discussing a topic of particular interest to the group – the topic will be sorted out ahead of time. After that, casual conversation and community will get a chance to continue until I close down the barn. These are live-streamed through our Facebook page (and I promise to keep getting better at technology as we go)

Each month, I will publish an email newsletter with updates about the rides, findings, and tips of the trade. Each newsletter will feature insight from a current student about the process and the things they find most useful in the “learning to ride Thoroughbreds process.” Members past and present will have access to a private Facebook group both for scheduling and interaction.

Reach out with any questions!