Riding Refinery
Re-Define The Way You Ride
The Riding Refinery Riding School
Combining Horse Training Traditions With Modern Science
Why Create A Riding School?
Humans helping horses is the foundation of the riding school. The riding masters of the Old School believed that every horse is valuable and should have a meaningful purpose filled life. The modern world is not very accomodating of the natural lifestyle of horses. Within the walls of a riding school horses can find purpose and give meaning to their existence within this human-centric modern world.
You may be thinking, "How does a riding school represent humans helping horses? Isn't that more a case of humans exploiting horses for their own enjoyment?"
We help our horses by doing everything we can to enhance their lives and make them happier and healthier. This entails learning as much as possible about equine physiology, equine psychology, equine biomechanics, equine environments, equine social structure, etc. Then we turn that knowledge and insight into practical applications to improve our horse's welfare and quality of life. In the riding school we teach humans how to make happier healthier horses. Riding and training also exercises the body and sharpens the mind of the horse improving their overall health and quality of life.
What Is A Remote Riding School?
The remote riding school is an ambitious project to build an online forum of self study and instructor led courses with the goal of passing on to the next generation of riders and trainers a long standing equestrian heritage of horse training knowledge and traditions from the Old School. For clarification, the Old School to which I refer is a very specific training lineage that lived within the pre-World War II Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria. Within the Spanish Riding School, this line of training became known as the Weyrother method named after the famous chief rider Max Ritter von Weyrother; although some of the traditions likely existed even earlier. This unique training found new life in the new world in the form of The Mikolka Method. Karl Mikolka was the last student in the Weyrother training lineage of the Spanish Riding School. He brought his methods to the United States and spent 40 years honing, refining, and expanding upon the methods of the Old School. In the Riding Refinery Remote Riding School, we will combine, update, and examine the ancient training techniques from the Old School with modern scientific knowledge. Sometimes, modern science reveals the errors in ancient thinking; yet, other times it explains and reveals why the ancient methods work so well.
What Is Taught In The Riding School?
The four educational cornerstones of the Riding Refinery program are:
- Equine Education - Teaching horses to be ridden
- Rider Development - Teaching humans to be riders
- Equestrian Gymnastics - Developing the mind and body of horse & rider through the art of high school riding
- Understanding Equines - Producing happier healthier horses (and riders) through science
Bonus material may include special topics such as: hoof health, equine nutrition, equine environmental sciences, equine physiology and psychology, biomechanics vs. biotensegrity, riding as physical therapy for humans, and riding as physical therapy for horses.
Interested In The Riding School?
Cornerstone Courses
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Learn more about the Riding School inside the Riding Refinery Store
Who Is Riding School For?
- Horse owners seeking to improve the life of their horse
- Those seeking to truly understand their horses
- Riders interested in continuing the traditions of the Old Masters
- Anyone interested in advancing their riding technique
Who Should Not Join The Riding School?
- Weekend warriors who are happy with their leisurely horse activities
- Show riders only seeking ways to improve their test scores
Will the riding school work for me and my horse?
In a word, Yes! I have been using these techniques for the past twenty years, and have not found a single horse for whom this method did not work.
Roscoe
An unrideable rogue who found a new life with a wonderful family
Roscoe was a beautiful but unrideable arab x quarter horse cross. He could neither be cross tied nor bridled. Those brave enough to dare work with him could only hop on bareback with a halter, grab some mane, and pray fervently while hoping to stay on as they flew across the open fields. The systematic approach of the Old School turned Roscoe into a beautiful family and lesson horse for young and old alike. He was able to jump fences up to three feet, perform intermediate dressage movements, and showed some talent for advanced dressage. However, his first love was caring for the students and his family.
To learn how to transform your own horse, find the riding school inside the Riding Refinery Store
Chad
An off-track thoroughbred ex-race horse and collegiate jumper with serious health issues.
I knew Chad from some of my early work at a local riding stable. He came back into my life about five or six years later at the age of 28. He was suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, a heart murmur, and was nearly a skeleton from the nutritional burden of his intestinal condition. The vets told his owner there was not much else they could do for him. She asked if I would help him live out the remainder of his days as comfortably and restfully as possible in our pastures. We changed his lifestyle. I researched nutritional information, modified his diet, and put him into light rehabilitation work to build muscles. With the proper combination of emerging science and time tested training techniques, Chad slowly but surely regained condition and muscle. He started learning the beginning stages of the piaffe and taught some young students how to canter. Chad lived to the ripe old age of 32. He is still sorely missed by many.
To learn more about these methods, find the riding school inside the Riding Refinery Store
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart. Proverbs 17:3
As fire refines precious metals by removing impurities, so too does the trainer refine the horse by daily gymnastic work in the arena.
The time tested gymnastic training process of the Old School improves the horse by imparting mobility to joints, strength to muscles, and refinement to the intellect.
