Mallory Rode hunters for years, and has been doing dressage for 10-years now:
"Having way better body control and awareness has made me SO much more effective and has also helped me feel every single shift and change, which is really instrumental to riding at this level. This 14-day-challenge is a game-changing program that unlocked this superpower within me! It’s not a workout program and it’s not stretching - it’s awareness through controlled movement that’s focused on building brain-body connections!
Ready for a big improvement with minimal effort?
It is easier and more accessible than most people think. You owe it to yourself, and your horses, to try. The course is guaranteed to work for you.
You can say goodbye to performance-limiting back and hip tension within just two weeks. Several students have written in to share their jubilation - with major improvement to their riding and some finally getting rid of chronic pain.
You’ll experience a significant change in your seat — a newfound suppleness, elasticity, and body awareness but also improved abilities. A more effective seat, a deeper seat, and moving much more with your horse.
Whether your goal is to learn to follow in a comfortable, correct, and non-disturbing way, or better to direct your horse with pelvic and lumbar nuances, this course is right for you.
We also refer to this course as Seat 101 and like lunge lessons, something all riders can come back to as often as possible. Your horses will most likely go better as a direct result!
This course is the perfect introductory course for those who aren't quite ready to dive into the full program (Please note, this course is the same as Module 1 of the 60-Day, 5 Module Program).
This course is gentle and suitable for almost everyone, including those currently in pain (recovered from injury however still painful, fibromyalgia, pain patterns).
No matter your riding level, discipline, or age, you’ll become confident with every ride.
Would you splurge on just one expert lunge lesson?
DO THIS GUARANTEED COURSE INSTEAD!
Many of us would and should jump at the opportunity for an expert lunge lesson on a schoolmaster, but one lesson will not guarantee success.
Unlike anything else! Experience the magic of the Feldenkrais Method® for riders, with Dave Thind. Get shocking and lasting results!
Every rider could benefit from increased suppleness, and besides, not everyone has access to lunge lessons. This online Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® course costs about the same but likely yields better and longer-lasting results.
14-Day Challenge: Unlock Your Hips and Swing With Your Back
Discover an amazing new feeling of riding with a truly swinging back, complete with optimized hip joints to beautifully guide your horse's every stride. Imagine if you could go back in time, before compensation patterns, injuries, trauma, and poor muscle memory from inappropriate tack or the wrong discipline…
Short of going back in time with lunge lessons on schoolmasters, this is the best thing you can do for your riding!
This movement-based neurological reboot course is NOT exercise, and it is EASY and FUN for all fitness levels. Don't worry, this is not theoretical biomechanics; it is Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement®. "We're not just working on the body, we're working on the brain-body connection. We're helping people move more efficiently, more easily, with less effort."
Doing this at home, unmounted, allows you to make revisions to your nervous system's subconscious patterns and movements on auto-pilot. If you haven't tried a DTM course, you owe it to yourself and your horse to give it a go.
The course is guaranteed to work for you. Accept the challenge this month with our featured course. We specialize in this, and we challenge you to decide if doing HALF of this course is as good as or better than one expert lunge lesson. They are not the same, and this is not meant to replace a classical lunge lesson.
Here are some questions for you:
- Even occasionally, do stiff hips, a somewhat aching back, tense neck or slightly unruly hands frustrate your riding experience?
- What you like it to be easier to sit big movers?
- Does the mirror (occasionally) reflect a rider even slightly struggling with posture and balance?
- Perhaps you find yourself leaning slightly forward when you THINK you are upright? This as opposed to what you KNOW you can do, the effective, supple and graceful classical image you hold in your heart?
- Do you find yourself even slightly worried that your best riding years might be behind you?
- Do you experience slight tension from performance anxiety, show nerves or even fear?
- In all these years, have you been missing out on a key element, a "secret" taught at both pony riding schools and classical institutions across Europe... Do you truly understand how to ride with your back, or "Kreuz"? We don't know what we don't know.
Perhaps some of these feel uncomfortably familiar,
but we are here to help.
Welcome to Unlock Your Hips and Swing With Your Back, a comprehensive introductory course that targets every rider's foundation, our seat. We also refer to this course as Seat 101— from improving your suppleness, ability to sit deeper, remain upright, and effectiveness of getting those hind legs under, and your horse beautifully uphill. This while improving the subtlety and beauty of your position and aids. The changes happen occur on a neurological level, as close as possible to going back in time and gifting yourself priceless lunge lessons as a child! With the Feldenkrais Method, we reboot and rewire,"To make the impossible possible, the possible easy and the easy beautiful".
An added bonus in this particular DTM course, through doing the course, you will learn how posture and emotion go hand in hand, therefore you will likely experience freedom from tension and anxiety. This is crucial for every rider. This is a proven course that delivers results, guaranteed!
You’ll get life-long access to on-demand videos designed to arm you with the tools to be the best version of yourself— protecting your back, restoring your youthful uprightness, improving your suppleness, and elevating your overall riding skills.
With with the help of this very course, here is a success story from Kelly in the UK:
"I’ve worked with horses all my professional life. I had my first back injury in 1998 at the age of 17. In 2022 I had a nasty fall off a horse and fractured my pelvis in 5 places, this left me bedridden for 6 weeks, then on a long road to recovery.
I stopped competing in dressage last year as I’d got to Advanced Medium, at this level you have to do sitting trot…..sadly my back and pelvic pain just wouldn’t allow me to do it. I was having regular treatment from a range of therapists, as well as doing loads of strength and conditioning exercises to try and improve it.
I heard a Podcast with Dave Thind as the guest. He talked about the Feldenkrais Method and how it helped him through injury. He then went to on talk about the method he has developed for riders called DTM to help them reduce pain, and be able to ride I n harmony and ease.
I tried a short exercise and was astonished by the difference I felt.
I then decided to do his 14 day “Unlock your Hips and Swing With Your Back” online course. I can honestly say it’s changed my life! For the first time in 20 years I feel there’s a way I can be pain free!! I can’t recommend it highly enough!
I now plan to do more of the DTM courses…Thank you Dave for helping me! I hope to be back out competing again very soon!"
Listen in for Kelly's touching story and see her amazing results with her horse!
Get Started
Meet Dave: Your Trusted Instructor on the Path to Masterful Riding
Dave, a lifelong equestrian, German Equestrian Federation Certified "Trainer A" and an expert in the Feldenkrais Method®, knows firsthand the struggles dressage riders face.
From major injuries to frustrating stiffness, he's experienced it all and emerged stronger, thanks to his application of the Feldenkrais Method®. In terms of trainers, Dave has been lucky enough to train with some of the best, including long-term training with: Martin Plewa (Former National Team Trainer, Germany), Rainer Jackel (Westphalian Riding School), Johan Zagers (Germany, Brazilian Olympic Team Trainer), Hartwig Burfeind (3x German National Professional Champion), Arthur-Kottas (Spanish Riding School), Jacquie Brooks (2X Olympian, Canada), Juan Manuel Vidal (Spain), Manuel Ponce Vasquez (Spain), , Christoph Hess (Germany), Rien Van Der Schaft (NL) and Monica Theodorescu (German Olympian and National Team Trainer). He has also received training from many other top trainers, to whom he is grateful for having shared their knowledge.
He has also spent countless hours in the traditional role of a trainer educating horses and riders, however, his unique skill set includes expertise in the Feldenkrais Method.
To help even more people than tradition 1 on 1, Dave has tested dressage specific Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons and correctly sequenced groups of lessons (courses) that are proven to deliver. Results are within the global theme of the course and much more, sometimes unexpected results!
"Everyone is unique in their patterns, but humans all share common movement blueprints so regardless of where the starting point, doing mat work movement lessons based on evolution and childhood development that also incorporate the science of biomechanics are extremely effective." These movement lessons are done out of the saddle, from the comfort of home. "Improvements are made not only to biomechanics, pain- relief and excelling in performance, but riders experience more creativity, spontaneous reactions and adaptability to change, as well as more confidence. Seeing so many smiling and amazed riders in person, I knew I had to bring this to the whole equestrian community! Hence the DTM online courses for riders to enjoy from home."
Dave believes that opposed to attempting to make improvement while in the saddle, with DTM unmounted, we can stop our habits, disable being on auto-pilot, learn to "feel" more, learn better flow and timing, have options and reboot/recalibrate. Therefore faster, and more permanent, "rewiring" and results.
With over 25 years in the horse world, Dave understands your challenges and dreams like no one else.
His passion? Sharing this transformative method with riders across the globe. For two decades, Dave has continued to be excited and amazed with the Feldenkrais Method and how riders can experience nothing short of miraculous, effective and quick improvements.
Whether you're battling discomfort, aiming for the next level of performance, or you just want to work on your seat through a replacement to longe lessons, he's dedicated to helping you achieve your dressage goals and transform your riding experience.
Expect Lasting Results
Not exercise. Discover DTM's 14-Day Challenge
Expect results for YOU, Guaranteed. The course is yours to repeat and access whenever you wish, but for maximum effectiveness we suggest completing the first time within 14 days.
Develop natural, upright posture effortlessly — exuding confidence in and out of the saddle
Enjoy longer riding sessions without any discomfort or fatigue — Say goodbye to back and hip pain
Develop your ability to communicate effectively with your horse
Transform your performance & enjoy the freedom to ride without restrictions
Improve your seat to a whole new level! This course is one and the same as Module 1 (5) in DTM's 60 Days to a Better Dressage Seat.
What Sets Us Apart?
Unlock Your Hips and Swing With Your Back is a uniquely designed course, specifically for dressage riders, using Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® — a cutting-edge brain-rewiring method that enhances the connection between the brain and body through effective movement training, resulting in more efficient, effortless saddle ride.
Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
With Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement®, I’ll help you understand your skeletal alignment, showing how to work your body rather than against it. You’ll recognize your own natural patterns of movement that’ll reduce any discomfort with every ride.
You’ll be able to fine-tune your posture, boost your suppleness, and break down the barriers without letting belief systems about permanent habits or even age hold the reins — allowing you to continue your freedom to ride and unlock your timeless equestrian elegance.
Whether you're struggling with posture alignment, have pain/stiffness, or struggling with injuries, our program is designed for dedicated riders — just like you.
WHAT YOU WILL GET:
✔ 5 simple DTM Awareness Through Movement Lessons. Easy to do, interesting and fruitful enough to repeat again and again!
✔ An overall Insightful Guide to Improving Your Seat
✔ Any and all of your questions answered by Dave inside the course
✔ Access to our private student group, connecting you with a supportive community
✔ Lifetime access to the course material, so you can revisit these invaluable lessons at your own pace
PLUS, we're offering a 5-Day Money Back Guarantee — so you can dive into the first two lessons risk-free. And if it doesn't feel right, you can cancel without losing a dime.
Remember, lasting transformation requires commitment. So to see results, you have to complete all lessons.
Get StartedBy the end of the course, you’ll be able to…
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Improve your ability to follow and influence your horse's movement eliminating stiffness, gripping and pain.
- Sit deeply in the saddle, achieving the type of seat progress (and more!) normally only attained through countless expert lunge lessons.
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Be in control of your self direct learning. Through feeling your own body though specialized movement lessons, learning and clarifying biomechanics in a way that can only come from personal experience
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At any given moment, the skill to discern and naturally create the most easy and flowing way to complete a task or function.
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Distribute loads proportionally throughout your entire skeletal system for balanced and natural movement.
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Cultivate flexibility and resiliency of the joints to sustain your body weight while in motion.
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Boost your ability to withstand stressful situations, easily finding natural postures that strengthening your body's natural armor, breathing and mental ease.
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Restore functional springiness to your knees, ankles and hips to support and carry you with every stride.
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Harness the power of the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement®, maximizing your riding capability.
PHOTO: Charlotte Horst and Nintendo - "Dave's courses have catapulted my riding in a direction that I am very happy with - and I am much more supple in my body, both when riding and in my daily life."
Maximum Effectiveness with Minimum Aids
"What if you could move your body exactly as intended by nature—with economy and ease as well as with mental awareness and clarity?
That’s what the Feldenkrais Method is all about. Feldenkrais said that the purpose of his method was to 'make the impossible possible, the hard easy and the easy elegant.'
The Dave Thind Method (DTM) is all about that same Feldenkrais journey, but Dave, an international-level dressage rider, invites the participant to imagine applying those micro awarenesses to riding a horse. The ideal equestrian result is maximum effectiveness with minimal aids. Harmony grows from the economy and ease of movement, awareness and clarity that is learned while lying, sitting or standing quietly on a mat in class. The Feldenkreis journey with Dave is enlightening and delightful. Try it. Your horse will thank you."
- Beth Baumert
International Trainer, and Author of When Two Spines Align
Dr. Hollis Day, (M.D).,
"You have to experience it to believe it. I have first-hand, witnessed and experienced powerful, undeniable and almost unbelievable improvement in both posture and motor function using the Dave Thind Method,” attested Dr. Hollis Day. Dr. Day, who is head of Geriatrics at Boston Medical, is a lifelong hunter/jumper competitor that now trains and competes in dressage. “Dave’s highly advanced knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics and how humans learn is something every rider can benefit from," she added.
Dr. Hilary Clayton (DVM)
“Dave’s classes are interesting, informative and FUN. Each class brings a new level of self-awareness in the saddle and provides us with tools to ride better – what’s not to like about that!,” proclaimed Dr. Hillary Clayton upon reflecting with her own personal experience. She also said “ I love the DTM focus on the pelvis which research shows is the key to riding success. His lessons will help all of us to reach our full potential in the saddle."
"This method makes total sense. It is based on a solid foundation in German classical riding and uses innovate ideas from the field of neuro-muscular programming, more specifically the Feldenkrais Method. Traditionally, longe lessons and school masters played a large role in teaching a rider about feeling and the correct seat. These days, people don't easily have access to longe lessons or true schoolmasters. This is what makes Dave’s work so great!"
- Cindy Ishoy, Olympic Silver Medalist, World Cup Rider and Canadian Hall of Fame Athlete.
Start Today
Dr. Lauren Dembkoski Adelizi - Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine and Grand Prix dressage rider
"I often recommend this work to patients in my chiropractic practice as a tool to understand where your body is in space and to make cognitive corrections to change how your body moves in space.
Dave is a pioneer in marrying a technique that teaches body awareness to riders.
He is on the cusp of a huge movement that is going to sweep the dressage world, as we better understand how our physical body can be changed through cognitive methods. He has furthered my understanding of the changes that I can make in my body to be a better rider. I strongly recomend that you investigate the Dave Thind Method."
Stephanie Roy Osteopath D.O.
"With Dave, you will experience an incredible feeling of liberation when acute problems that other trainers have either ignored or have simply been unable to fix are dealt with once and for all.
Even problems that you have been trying to fix for years are quickly remedied, with minimal effort! And like magic, your horse who you thought was naturally heavy on the forehand, crooked, laterally stiff or even slightly off, suddenly becomes light, supple, straight and happy.
Cause and effect; Dave has simply become an expert. You will marvel at how big problems have small and easy solutions."
Got Questions?
Is this an exercise program?
How Does the Feldenkrais Method® Work?
Is this program only for advanced riders?
How will this course help me improve my riding skills?
I'm not suffering from any major pain or stiffness, is this course for me?
Christoph Hess on Horse Welfare Using DTM
German Master Christoph Hess, who is retired from his long-held position as Head of Education and Training at the German Equestrian Federation F.N., says of training horses,
“The most important part of the training of a horse is the training of the rider's position. No rider is able to train a horse properly when they have not trained their seat. The rider has to learn to find the right position in the saddle; balanced and relaxed - and to be honest this is very difficult.”
“Dave is an expert on schooling riders. He is brilliant in teaching the correct rider’s position in a friendly and positive way and his students have good positions in the saddle - he himself also! I suggest that many of us should use the opportunity to train with Dave. Dave‘s training will make you happy and especially your horses happy. A smooth sitting rider who is swinging into the horses’ movements is a horseman/horsewoman. This is important for the welfare of the horse. The better the rider’s position the happier the horse - and Dave helps his clients achieve good positions,” continued Hess who is a current F.N. Educational Ambassador.
