Horse Riding Lessons
Have fun learning how to ride on
experienced school horses in a family orientated,
community atmosphere
Welcome to the school of Equestrian Spirit
Conveniently located 45 minutes from Brisbane CBD and the Gold Coast we are excited to either get you started or help you continue to make your horse dreams a reality! Whether you have never ridden before or you’re an experienced rider wanting to join our show team we have the horse to suit you. We cater to the young, horse crazy children from 8 years old, to adults who have always wanted to ride but never had the opportunity and everything in between.
Learning to ride at a riding school is a great first step in your horse riding and ownership career. We ensure that you are in a safe environment, riding educated school masters who know their job is to look after you! Covering dressage, showjumping, schooling, horsemanship and learning how to read the horses cues and body language we will set you up with confidence whether you’re just starting out, getting back into horses or wanting a tune up with your own horses.
Come on A tour of our facilities and meet the ponies!!
About the team at Equestrian Spirit
Hi! My name is Katie and I’m the head coach and owner of Equestrian Spirit. Starting out at the ripe age of 7 years old I found my burning passion for horses that has only gotten stronger over the last 30 years. I started my teaching and training career 18 years ago at this very equestrian park!
At Equestrian Spirit our mission is to set you up with a solid, connection based training style whereby you learning not only how to ride a horse but also how to communicate with them. In our experience, most riding schools don’t set their students up well to own their own horse, missing the key ingredient of horsemanship: The horses are not mechanical! We teach how to connect with our horses on a soul level, have empathy for the horses experience, develop compassionate leadership skills as well as the core foundations of balance in the saddle in walk, trot, canter, jumping and riding in the open paddock.
As an EA qualified coach, naturopath and buteyko breathing practitioner, you can experience a different lens of working with the horses with breath, nervous system regulation and the subtle art of body language communication in your lessons. So if you’re looking for more from your lessons than how to push buttons (because if that was what we wanted we would ride motorbikes!) check out our options for you to learn about the beautiful art of holistic and connection based riding.
“Riding is the best solution to any problem”
Here’s what we do
Riding isn’t just a sport and a hobby to us. We are utterly, passionately, obsessed with all things horses, horse behaviour and horse riding. One of the big problems we see with the traditional riding school programs is that while the students become very competent riders they don’t get to experience the intricacies of horse behaviour and how to train a horse. This creates a problem for when you’re ready to buy your first horse… That isn’t a perfectly trained school horse, in a controlled environment with the supervisor of a qualified and experienced instructor!!
At Equestrian Spirit we endeavour to show our students how to read and work with sentient beings that are capable of thought and emotion and which are also flight animals to boot! Lets be honest if we didn’t want this component of riding we would ride motorbikes! In addition to our structured riding lessons where our students learn a well established independent seat and how to communicate with our horses in the saddle they also learn how to connect, communicate and work with our horses on the ground.
Our goal is to turn out the next generation of empathic, compassionate equine leaders who baulk at bullying tactics and advocate for the horse. We do this by incorporating a half hour of connection based training on the ground before riding in our group lessons, as well as breath and connection work in the saddle. Our students (once they have enough experience) learn how to engage the horses in work and play without halters, bridles and saddles. Purely through invitation and intention. Our tack, bits and bridles are not what controls the horse, it only provides more clarity while we learn to refine ourselves in balance and communication.