Equisimulator Adult Beginner Workshops at East Leigh Farm, Harberton, Totnes, South Devon TQ9 7SS

What is the most important thing you can teach a beginner? How to stay on!! This very subject is never explained in normal riding lessons. There seems to be some unwritten rule that only practise will teach you to stay on and falls are an inevitable part of the process! Heather Moffett disagrees vehemently! If the rider is taught, from day one, to synchronise their own movements with those of the horse, the risk of falls, provided the rider is being taught on a safe and well schooled horse, is minimal.

Heather pioneered the teaching of riding with horse movement simulators, and has become internationally renowned for her specialised teaching of the correct seat and adhesion to the saddle, through the work with the Equisimulator machines.

The Equisimulator was developed by a friend of Heather Moffett’s, Jonathan Brought-Heyes, at her request. Heather had been trying to get such a machine made, for many years, believing that it would revolutionise the teaching of riding, especially when combined with her unique methods.

In the twelve years Heather has been working with the machines, she has taught several thousand riders, at her workshops here in the UK and lectured and demonstrated with them as far as the United States and Australia.

It is possible to give the beginner the best possible start, in complete safety, increasing confidence and already instilling the basics of how to interact with the movement of the horse. Using the unique ‘hands on’ method she developed many years ago, Heather guides the rider’s back and pelvis to synchronise exactly with the movement of the horse.

Heather is now running special workshops at her farm in South Devon, UK, especially for adult beginner riders. These are four days long and will cover the basics of handling the horse on the ground and how to recognise body language, how to groom, saddle up etc, ridden demonstrations by Heather and her staff, dismounted workshops and daily work on the Equisimulators to teach the correct basics of riding, establishing the foundations on which to safely build the future riding career.

The workshops are for a maximum of ten participants and costs are £400 per person. This is not inclusive of accommodation, there being many excellent hotels, guest houses and especially farmhouse/village bed and breakfasts. Lunch is included daily.