Before You Work Harder This Fall, Recalibrate.
Your horse gets regular bodywork, saddle checks, farrier care and training.
When was the last time the rider had a wheel alignment?
Fall is a natural time to go inward, regroup and reorganize. This six-lesson Feldenkrais® series was designed to help you do exactly that.
Just six 45-minute lessons, taken in order, create a carefully structured rider reset.
Riders at every level have benefited from this kind of work — from Olympians and national-team riders to adult amateurs rebuilding confidence, coordination and ease.
Fall Wheel Alignment
October Special: $299
Regularly $379
$299
A foundational reboot for the rider
Riders at every level have benefited from this exact work — from Olympians and national-team riders to adult amateurs rebuilding confidence, coordination and ease.
A foundational reboot for the rider
This material is carefully thought out to emulate working with Dave one-on-one, using a deliberate progression rather than isolated exercises.
✓ A 360° approach designed to leave you feeling better, riding better, and overall moving and looking better
✓ Become more symmetrical, balanced and supple, with greater ease doing what you want on both sides
✓ Foundational work that addresses the rider as a whole — not just individual body parts
✓ The material works with your nervous system in a chronological way: functional, developmental and evolutionary
✓ This unique sequencing is what helps fuel the reset
This is not another exercise course.
It is a carefully constructed process designed to help your nervous system discover better options for movement — and bring those options back to your horse.
A course unlike any previous DTM program.
Even the world's elite riders continue to work on their seat.
This self-work is for self-care, self-improvement but also for their craft - to be able to better feel, supple and train their horses.
They know this work is crucial, exciting and rewarding - which is why Dave works with some of the best riders on both sides of the Atlantic.
More on this particular course:
Whether we call it a "wheel alignment', "reboot", "recalibration" or even a "rider-makeover" - these specific DTM Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement® lessons will do just that and more.
Sometimes our bodies seem to work against us, and unless something changes, these struggles don’t just go away — often they intensify, stealing away the pleasure of your ride, and disrupting the harmonious connection with your horse.
Whether you're a professional or amateur, we call have dreams and goals including better performance while meeting classical objectives such as better biomechanics and more harmony and enhanced communication with our horses. This course will help you achieve those dreams and goals.
Our curriculum for this rider make-over is below, but first imagine this… your movements flowing effortlessly, a super seat, totally in sync with your horse. Your body feels capable, strong, natural, and gracefully while happily absorbing the concussive forces of each stride. You're not just reaching your performance goals — you're exceeding them.
You've unlocked a new level of riding, one that not only feels good but also looks spectacular! Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't have to be.
Lesson 1:
Improvement toe to head. Yes toes! 🦶
We will begin this series and illuminate your toes in your mind's eye, providing better support, comfort, stability and "inexplicable" improvement and changes from the ground up. Your feet and everything above will function better.
From a top GP rider after doing this same, privately online just last week: "My hips feel super, I'm sitting much better and I'm riding so much better. So great! It helped so much I can't even describe! You know Feldenkrais, not describable."
Lesson 2:
We will clarify and improve the functional movements of your legs🦵
Both as a biped human, and as a seated rider. Continuing to improve your system from the ground up! We will of course incorporate other parts of the body such as hips, and we expect to improve function, comfort, suppleness and springiness throughout the system. You will find smoother, more effective yet more subtle leg aids while riding.
Lesson 3:
Part of our foundational work is developmental. baby 🍼
We go back to being a toddler, recalibrating and rebooting by doing genius lessons designed by Dr. Feldenkrais that explore rounding the spine in order to find upright posture effortlessly — exuding confidence in and out of the saddle. Endure longer riding sessions without any discomfort or fatigue — Say goodbye to back and hip pain.
Lesson 4:
We incorporate what we have learned 🧠💪 and move on to leveling level our seat-bones and leveling our shoulders, like a measuring scale, working with our shoulders, sternum, ribs, shoulder blades, spine and how they relate to each other, to find self-carriage and better function. We will do a lesson to better understanding how to find symmetry and easily rectify common seat faults in yourself, and if you are a trainer, in your students. A flat stool and mirror will be required for this lesson.
Lesson 5:
Now from a place of supple legs and hips as well as level seat bones and shoulders, we will work on improving even contact, ✊and turning aids using, by refining our senses 🦻👁👄👃.
REQUIRED TOOLS FOR THESE 6 CLASSES:
- Mat or carpet space (larger the better)
- Foam gardening pad or book for under your head
- A flat stool that is a comfortable height for you to sit on
- A long mirror
Lesson 6:
We will finish up this 360 degree 🌎 improvement with easy to repeat seat polishing tools. Tools that you can easily repeat before a lesson or show or to improve a specific goal. For your chest/shoulder blades, spine, head/neck carriage and finally returning to your toes for an elite rider's finishing touch.
OPTIONAL for final class:
- Miracle Balls, Franklin Balls, Disc Shaped Balance Pad or Balimo Stool
Why Feldenkrais Is Different
The nervous system can learn. It can reorganize. And when you give it the right information, a better solution can sometimes appear spontaneously — without forcing it.
This is where the Feldenkrais Method becomes so extraordinary.
I sometimes think of the brain as needing its own kind of language — almost a programming language — if we want to interrupt an old pattern and give the system a chance to reorganize.
Simply telling yourself, “Sit straighter,” “relax your hip,” or “stop gripping” often does not work.
Your nervous system needs different information.
Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais spent decades exploring how movement, sensation, attention, variation, and learning could be combined in a very precise way to give the brain that information.
That is the genius of the Method.
You are not trying to force your body into a new shape.
You are giving your nervous system the conditions it needs to discover a better option for itself.
And when that happens, change can feel almost surprising.
A hip suddenly moves more freely.
Your pelvis organizes itself differently.
Your back feels longer.
Your leg drops more naturally.
Your balance becomes easier.
And very often the rider says something like:
“I wasn’t trying to do that. It just happened.”
Exactly.
That spontaneous change is one of the things that makes this work so fascinating.
I formally studied the Feldenkrais Method for four years to become a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, and I have spent years applying these principles specifically to riders — from adult amateurs struggling with fear, stiffness, asymmetry, or long-established habits, to some of the world’s most accomplished riders.
That Feldenkrais training is combined with more than 30 years in the horse world, Grand Prix experience in both dressage and jumping, German Trainer A certification, an International Trainer III passport, and a lifelong interest in biomechanics and the art of teaching riders.
That combination matters.
It allows me to translate the Feldenkrais Method specifically into the language and demands of riding — your seat, balance, coordination, suppleness, feel, posture, and ultimately your ability to communicate with and train your horse.
What I am bringing you in Fall Wheel Alignment is not simply a collection of stretches or exercises.
It is a carefully constructed learning process.
There is a science and an art to the sequencing: what movement you explore first, what information comes next, where attention is directed, how variations are introduced, and how one part of the body begins to reorganize in relationship to another.
And here is perhaps the best part:
The participant does not have to work hard for any of this.
In fact, trying too hard can get in the way.
The movements are usually gentle, slow, comfortable, and surprisingly simple.
That simplicity is part of the genius.
You create the right conditions.
You give the nervous system better information.
And then you allow learning to happen.
You begin to recognize your own movement patterns — not so that you can criticize, correct, or “fix” yourself, but so that your nervous system can discover more choices.
And those new choices can translate into:
✓ Better symmetry and balance
✓ Greater suppleness and coordination
✓ More freedom and comfort in your movement
✓ Easier movement on both sides
✓ A more organized, adaptable seat
✓ Greater sensitivity and feel for your horse
I have seen riders make changes this way that they had been trying to accomplish for years through correction, effort, strength, stretching, and more lessons.
Not because those things are bad.
But because this is addressing the problem from a completely different direction.
Instead of trying harder to correct the old pattern, we give your nervous system the information it needs to discover another one.
That is what I want to help you experience in Fall Wheel Alignment.
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Meet Dave: Your Trusted Instructor on the Path to Masterful Riding
Dave, a lifelong equestrian 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®.
With years in the horse world, each endeavor he took has been an incredible learning experience. Dave understands your challenges and dreams like no one else.
His passion? Sharing this transformative method with riders across the globe.
Whether you're battling discomfort or aiming for the next level of performance, he's dedicated to helping you achieve your dressage goals and transform your riding experience.
