Services
Here is everything you need to know about our lessons: what we teach, lesson formats, who our students are and more!
Our curriculum
It is quite important to know what we teach, but even more important is how we teach it! Watch the video to find out.
Our curriculum goes from zero to high levels of disciplines such as dressage, colt starting, liberty, gentling, trail riding, cooperative care and more.
Beginner students start from leading and husbandry, and once they know how to keep themselves safe, they start dynamic lunging, liberty and riding.
Students with previous horse experience might jump in at different stages of our curriculum, depending on the pre-requisites of each class. This is all valid for both human and equine students.
Our Students
Horses
We love to support horses through their learning stages! Elizabeth specializes in physical training and rehabilitation. The horses who find her usually need to learn how to carry themselves more efficiently for a healthier and stronger body. Giorgia specializes in emotional resilience and connection. The horses who usually find her have a hard time connecting with their human, they can be spooky, emotional or sensitive about everyday husbandry tasks.
Adults
We work with adult students from all experience levels, disciplines, and interests, but the goal for our teaching is always the same: to help our students learn how to better support horses through connection and partnership.
Many adult students are thoughtful and heart-felt first-time horse owners. Some are long-time dressage enthusiasts looking for a different or better way to dance with horses. Some adults are just trying to fulfill a childhood dream!
Teens
Our teenage students love to engage with horses in different contexts and disciplines, such as dressage, jumping, liberty, tricks and trail rides. Our teenage students also find depth in the pure relationship with their equine partner/s. Horses can make us laugh, protect us, communicate strong emotions, carry us, connect or disconnect with us. Interacting with them gives us lessons for life, especially valuable in complex times such as adolescence.
Children
Children come to Hatha Equus to meet horses as holistic beings, sometimes for the first time. They learn to stay safe around these beatiful, mighty…and quite flighty beings. They learn the basics of “horse whispering” from the very beginning, through foundational horse handling, liberty and riding. These foundations are necessary, whatever horse-related path they might choose in the future: be it competing in a specific discipline, adopting a horse for personal pleasure, gentling a wild mustang or becoming a trainer.
Families
We love to set the space for our students to come and enjoy horses…as a family! The limits of team work are endless, when you work with horses! Families come to us to enjoy each other and their horse partner/s in a common learning space, in which everyone has a say and everyone contributes to the fun.
Respect ad Enthusiasm
“These trainers are amazing. I have been a student for the last 2 years and I cannot state enough how much Elizabeth helped me grow.
Their holistic and gentle approach goes way beyond just a simple horse lesson. You learn how to respect your horse and ask him/her permission to create a relationship, which is based on respect and enthusiasm instead of fear and submission.
Highly, highly recommended!”
empowered
Lesson Formats
Intensive Programs
Throughout our curriculum, you will encounter topics that are best learned with a certain momentum, accountability and consistent group of participants. This is why we offer intensives for all ages and levels! Our main intensives are New Students Orientation, Intro to Positive Reinforcement, The Equine Yogi and Cooperative Care…though we keep piloting new programs, so stay tuned!
Self-Farriering Intensive
In this dynamite program, you will learn the steps that have lead the previously wild mustang Sombra to “conquer the internet” last fall, by self-positioning for the farrier at liberty and cueing them to start and stop.
New Student Orientation
If you are new to Hatha Equus, whether you are new to horses, or you have previous horse experience, this is your “entry” program with us!
Permission and Resiliency with Positive Reinforcement
Picking feet, tacking up, vet visits, de-worming, fly spray, carrying a rider…can you imagine your horse willingly “inviting” any of the above as a welcome activity? This is our goal in this intensive! And it all starts from permission.
Introduction to Positive Reinforcement Intensive
FocusIn this intensive, we focus on giving you the basic tools to communicate with horses in a Positive Reinforcement (R+) framework. Theory-wise, we will go over the mindset and practices of R+. In the arena, we will work on establishing a few basic behaviors with...
Private Lessons
Our favorite lessons are group ones, since they are longer, and they offer many more direct AND indirect learning opportunities than 1:1s!
Sometimes, however, we need one on one support and undivided attention from an instructor to delve into deep concepts. So if for whatever reason some of our horse-owning or horse-leasing students wish to have a horse-training oriented private lesson, they are welcome to let us know and we’ll be glad to hear their thoughts! At this time we will, however, be redirecting everyone else to group lessons.
Elizabeth can support intermediate or advanced horse-training, physical imbalances/asymmetries in horses and students, correct riding positions, and more. Giorgia focuses on helping student and horse unpack deep communication, connection and trust, as well as…well…fun, play and movement at liberty!
Group Lessons
Some of the most powerful growing moments are best shared with friends! There is much we can learn by watching and supporting others as they experience new challenges and successes.
All group lessons are organized by age and experience level.
Click here to get more details on specific lesson types!
Yogical Dressage
Yogical Dressage! Yogical Dressage combines the approaches of Classical Dressage AND Equine Yoga (which is a combination of Dressage and Natural Horsemanship)! In our opinion, Classical Dressage, and Equine Yoga are really quite the same thing...historical...
Child Beginner Horsemanship Classes
Our Focus We think of our horsemanship classes as the place for all-round horse-related learning. That's where we teach the skills and the knowledge to train and care for horses. Week by week, we rotate among different horsemanship frameworks — such as natural...
Tots and Parents Classes
The ProgramThis is a fun class for parent and child to work as a team, as they gain an understanding of how horses can become our friends for life! Our goal is for our toddler students to learn the foundations of safety, care and communication with horses, and for our...
highlight of my week
"I took a very long (15+ years) break from horseback riding from middle school on because the push to compete wasn't what I loved about horses and I felt stuck. Meeting Elizabeth was serendipitous and has been life changing for me. Her approach to horses and their humans is what I didn't know I was waiting for. Her kindness, warmth, and compassion, married with her expertise and skillful teaching make my lesson with her the highlight of my week. (I wish I could have lessons everyday!)
She teaches you how to think and problem solve instead of memorizing one correct way of doing things. And she focuses on the health (mental and physical), balance, and happiness of the horse and draws many parallels to yoga that now seem so obvious but never did before (as the best ideas are)! My connection and partnership with horses is so much stronger now than ever before.
Learning from her is my happy place 🙂 Growing up, lessons included a lot of yelling and shame; you will never feel anything but supported by Elizabeth as you grow. Her bright smile and exclamations of joyful encouragement have helped me reach places I never knew I could.
And all of that's just about me. My horse partner absolutely adores Elizabeth and is an incredibly strong, calm, balanced, happy dude who loves to practice yoga and strut his stuff thanks to her!"