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”

Read "Riding Dynamics" online here .

Kerry has also written many articles about horses. Find a full list here: Writing about Equines