Trainers Speak Out On Why Lunging Works

"Erica has been a benefit to our training program in several ways over the years. We first got onto the lunging program which was a huge hit for our adult amateur clientele -- very popular in addition to being very helpful to our riders moving up to warmbloods from smaller moving horses.

When I was training in Europe, Erica was the perfect stand-in trainer for me: she had a working knowledge of the students and their needs, and delivered correct lessons, keeping everyone progressing rather than treading water while I was away. It was so nice to come home to students who SAT BETTER!! I also appreciate that she can do temp work and I don't worry about what my students are learning while I'm away: she is correct and consistent."

-Joan Bolton
Dressage Professional, Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Erica has been a student of mine and I've had the opportunity to see her grow and become a true professional with special skills in the area of lunging for seat and position.

As a professional who specializes in this complex area of riding biomechanics myself, I can attest that Erica's approach works for both the novice and the experienced rider who needs to sort out riding problems. When I teach, I regularly improve my students' positions, but still I notice big changes with her work.

Most of my clients at American Sporthorse get lunged with Erica weekly to improve their positions and I notice the steady improvement!"

Alexsandra "Sandy" Howard
American Sporthorse
Watsonville, California
Dressage Professional,
past USET member; "S" Judge,
USDF "L" Faculty Member,
APTI Founder & Board Member

"I have been a professional rider and trainer for 15 years before riding with Erica. Since working with Erica, I have learned (and still learning) new ways of becoming more harmonious with my horses. I connect with my horses in a whole new way.

I also have my students (ranging in levels from Training to Grand Prix) ride with Erica. The better they are riding, the more smoothly the training of the horse/rider team progresses.

I highly recommend working with Erica."

Aaron Wilson
USDF Gold, Silver, Bronze Medalist, FEI Trainer and Competitor

"I love my riding sessions with Erica! Why?"

"First, it is about the love of the horse: you really sense it in Erica and it is beautiful. It is never about "ego", hers, mine, or anyone else's.

Then there is the learning experience: lots of learning, mostly about the seat, her specialty. One benefits from her years of training with a great many instructors, from her excellent attention to details and from her patient and articulate instruction: firm, consistent, logical, and focused, yet not causing tension and apprehension.

The results: increased understanding and harmony, increased confidence and fun for both horse and the rider. And in my case, as I try to help others as well in their relationship with their horses, tools to help the better.

Really, I love my riding lessons with Erica and am certain you will too!"

Colette Deschenes
Riding Professional, Aromas, California
(Riding since 1969 in France, teaching in the US since 1985)

"I was amazed at how much straighter I sat after just a single session with Erica. She has exercises that are tremendously effective for developing a deep and secure and proactive seat. Try it and you'll wonder why you didn't try it sooner! This is worth the time to squeeze into your program!!!"

Anne Howard, PT
American Sporthorse

"Prior to my lunge lessons with Erica, my horses and I had experienced over two years of frustration with my riding and instruction. I was depressed, my horses unhappy, and my instructors almost as frustrated as I. The only sense of direction I had was backward-downward.

Five sessions with Erica increased my body awareness to such a degree that I was not only enabled to take instruction where I could not before, but also to feel and correct position position errors on my own so each ride now improved upon the last. Before Erica, my rides had degenerated into one inadvertent clashing of aids after another, with my aids cruelly escalating as my horses became increasingly confused, and therefore dull and resistant.

Now with each ride, my aids seem to become lighter and lighter as I flow from adjustment to readjustment my communications with my horse becoming more and more precise, and both of us growing in confidence in ourselves and one another.

Prior to Erica, much of the instruction I received left me feeling simultaneously inadequate and insulted. ("Keep your hands still!" I would hear and "Sit in the center of your horse!!" all the while wondering if anyone really thought that I was deliberately jerking my arms or sitting off center.) Erica completely understands that position faults and technical errors are rarely, if ever, deliberate, but the result of counterproductive muscle memories (or in other words Bad Habits) that are so ingrained that many of us cannot even feel them as we are doing them.

Most instructors can see and identify such faults, but Erica's gift lies in enabling riders to feel them for themselves and correct them as they ride. She accomplishes this by analyzing and teaching riders to understand their weaknesses and strengths into manageable component parts, and then providing new exercises and developing new muscle memories to combat the undesirable ones and open up entire new worlds of horsemanship.

Riding on the lunge and with Erica's guidance, riders can focus upon the feel of new ways of using their muscles and just as significantly feel the effects of different positions and muscular actions on the movements and attitudes of the horse.

With Erica's help, one rider can learn to relax her hypersensitive horse into a dream of elegant responsiveness with the lightening of her thighs; while another learns to energize her stiff sluggish horse by the use of her abdominal muscles. Trying to sit the huge impulsive trot goes from frustration to exhilaration, there is no doubt about it the direction of riding and training definitely goes as it should: forwards and upwards."

Marianne Wagner
Greensville, NC

"Erica has the technique and the talent to isolate the most important position fault, and then she has the ability to introduce exercises to the rider that will correct that fault. Erica has the ability to help riders get through a plateau in their riding and move on to better things!

Erica regularly comes to clinic at our ranch and it has been a big help to my students."

Kris Schlatter
Instructor/Trainer
Proud Horse Stables
Redlands, CA
909-748-6877