Popular riding clinician and motivational speaker Jane Savoie (www.janesavoie.com) was the Reserve Rider for the US Dressage Team at the 1992 Olympic Games, coached at the Olympic Games in 1996, 2000, and 2004, and is the author of a number of bestselling books and DVDs. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the publication of CENTERED RIDING, she shared her memories of how the book impacted her career:
“When I heard 2015 marked 30 years since Trafalgar Square Books published Sally Swift’s CENTERED RIDING, I was momentarily stunned. At one time, 1985 didn’t seem so long ago! For me, that was a year of really hard work—learning, training, showing, teaching. I was riding with Robert Dover (our current US dressage technical advisor/chef d’equipe) then, and discovering Grand Prix on my schoolmaster Sacramento while bringing up a young prospect named Evidence. Oh, and I was teaching a ton—on the road two to three weekends every month, doing clinics.
“The ideas brought to life so brilliantly in Sally’s book opened my eyes to the true power of visualization. Those who know me or who have seen me speak or used my online training programs will understand what a HUGE deal this is! I went on to harness a number of visualization techniques that helped not only with my own riding and training, but with my ability to teach others, as well as improve my life in a broader sense (that is, outside of horses). Sally also made me aware of the need to teach riders to examine their own attitudes and positions first—as opposed to immediately blaming the horse—when things go wrong.
“It was a full seven years after CENTERED RIDING came out that Trafalgar published my first book THAT WINNING FEELING!, which presented my approach to training your mind and shaping your attitude in order to achieve what you might not think possible. It was this formula that helped me overcome pretty significant challenges and eventually be named reserve rider on the 1992 Olympic dressage team. When I look back now, I can see how Sally’s teachings and CENTERED RIDING played a part in making these significant life events possible.”
Share your own CENTERED RIDING memories and “aha” moments online and tag them #CenteredRiding30! And remember, all CENTERED RIDING books and DVDs are 30% off, the entire month of November.
Trafalgar Square Books, the leading publisher of horse books and DVDs, is a small, privately owned company based on a farm in rural Vermont.