Riding Refinery Riding School
What Is The Riding School?
Join Dan Gillie for a 6-month rider training program combining in-person riding lessons, training sessions, remote learning, and video review feedback. The Riding School is a program designed for those who want to elevate their horsemanship skills and take their riding to the next level. Exclusively available only for current WillowBrook Equestrian clients. Enroll now. Only ten openings available. Registrations close May 1st.
What's Included In The Riding School?
The Riding School is a six month rider training program running on a trial basis from
May 1, 2025 to November 1, 2025.
The Riding School program includes:
May 1, 2025 to November 1, 2025.
The Riding School program includes:
- Custom designed exercises for each individual student
- Personalized student coaching
- Two 30 minute private lessons each month (slots available on Monday and Saturday afternoons)
- All lessons recorded for video review and posted to a remote learning web portal
- Access to a self-study library containing four cornerstone courses focused on riding and training horses
The four Cornerstone Courses are:
- Equine Education Â- 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 dressage
- Elevating 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, riding as physical therapy for humans, and riding as physical therapy for horses.
Is The Riding School Right For Me?
The Riding School is designed for:
- Clients of WillowBrook Equestrian Center
- Intermediate riders who can walk, trot, and count to 10 (canter is optional icing on the cake)
- Horse owners seeking a transformational their relationship with their horse
- Those seeking to transcend the bounds of their current limitations in the saddle
- Riders seeking to truly understand their horses
- Owners of horses in need of specialized training therapy due to injury or trauma
- Riders in search of a thorough understanding of the ABCs of riding & training
Who Should Not Join The Riding School?
- Weekend riding warriors who are happy with their leisurely horse activities
- Show riders only seeking ways to improve their test scores
- Riders or horse owners content to pay equestrian professionals to deal with training issues
Will the riding school work for me and my horse?
In a word, Yes! Every single horse I have trained in the last twenty years has responded to these techniques and been transformed. I always start with the time tested methods of the Old School that have proven effective and reproducible for centuries. 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. These unique training techniques found a 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 these methods to the US and spent 40 years honing, refining, and expanding them. Through the Riding School, I share the well kept secrets of this rare training heritage with interested students. For over twenty years, I have combined the Mikolka Method of training horses with modern equine science. Sometimes, science reveals the errors in ancient thinking; yet, other times it explains and reveals why the methods of the Old School work so well.
Roscoe - An unrideable rogue who found a new life
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, pray fervently, and hope to stay on as they flew unbridled 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.Chad - OTTB race horse & 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. Leo - A WillowBrook Farm Favorite
For the past year, I have worked with Leo to help him improve the function of his hips, hocks, stifles, achey back, and help prevent age and use related arthritis. During the past few months, the work we have done with Leo has improved his range of motion, put some bounce in his steps, and a sparkle in his eyes. In return, he has graciously helped my daughter improve her mental and physical health issues through a series of high end Therapeutic Riding sessions. The work Leo and Kelly have done together has helped to rewire her brain, heal her mind, and mend her body. Leo is a great example of humans helping horses and horses helping humans in return.
