SCHOOLMASTER HORSE RIDING LESSONS & CLASSICAL DRESSAGE IN WEST SUSSEX, SURREY & HAMPSHIRE
45-minute session with 15-minute post-analysis | £95
Our BHS-approved schoolmaster lessons are private sessions on Natasha Olivant’s Spanish Schoolmasters, designed for adults and teenagers to refine feel, balance, timing, and coordination. These lessons give you the opportunity to experience correct classical dressage aids on a trained horse in a safe, structured environment. They are ideal for building confidence, improving posture and core strength, and understanding how subtle changes in your body influence a well-trained horse.
Based at Trotton in West Sussex, these dressage sessions help you refine your seat, develop lighter aids, and improve timing and coordination. The horses are schooled through kind, ethical training and respond to clarity rather than force. For many riders, this is the first time correct contact, straightness, and softness become obvious and repeatable. Our structured approach mirrors the best practices of top equestrian centres, focusing on rider feel, balance, and progressive improvement.
Please note: Before riding a live schoolmaster, all new riders must complete an introductory session on the mechanical horse. This is an important safety and suitability step, and it ensures you get the most from your schoolmaster experience. The mechanical horse lesson allows Natasha to assess your position, balance, coordination, and rider competency in a controlled setting. It also provides a precise way to correct habits and improve alignment before you apply those changes on a live horse.
For your safety and our horses’ wellbeing, there is a weight limit, similar to the policies at respected riding schools. All sessions comply with BHS standards and are fully insured.
BENEFITS OF SCHOOLMASTER TUITION
WHY RIDE A SCHOOLMASTER HORSE?
A schoolmaster horse already understands the classical aids, so you can refine your riding without second-guessing if a mistake came from the horse or the rider. The horse’s reliable responses help you develop confidence, timing, straightness, and balance more quickly.
With Natasha’s guidance, you’ll discover how small changes in your body affect the horse’s way of going.
These sessions offer one of the fastest ways to improve feel and understand correct riding. They are an excellent reset for riders who feel stuck or tense and provide a calm structure with a well-schooled partner so you can focus on your own development without pressure.
DEVELOP RIDER FEEL, BALANCE & CONNECTION
Sessions focus on helping you recognise correct movement. Riding a schoolmaster provides refined feedback through rhythm, balance, and softness, helping you build an independent seat and lighter aids while improving posture and core stability. Natasha bridges knowledge and feeling so you understand what you are aiming for and how to achieve it.
You’ll work on basics like rhythm, contact, transitions, straightness, and lateral work, and advanced riders may explore flying changes, piaffe, passage, and Spanish Walk. The emphasis remains on lightness, clarity, and kindness.
Lessons are carefully adapted to each rider’s goals, confidence, and biomechanics, ensuring a supportive, structured session that produces lasting progress.
BOOK A SCHOOLMASTER LESSON
Schoolmaster sessions are available by appointment on Natasha’s horses in Trotton, West Sussex. Each lesson consists of a 45‑minute ride plus a 15‑minute debrief so you understand what changed and what to focus on next.
These lessons are ideal for refining your seat and aids, building confidence on a well-schooled partner, and experiencing correct rhythm, softness, and balance in classical dressage. Natasha tailors each session to your level and physical needs with calm, clear coaching and a supportive structure.
An introductory mechanical horse session is required for all new riders to assess balance, coordination, and rider competency. This ensures safety and allows Natasha to shape the schoolmaster session around your position, balance, and coordination. A weight limit applies for the well-being of our horses.
BHS ACCREDITED
INSTRUCTOR
NATASHA OLIVANT
Natasha Olivant is a highly experienced equestrienne and BHS-accredited coach with over 20 years of teaching experience. She is known for calm, precise coaching that improves rider performance while supporting the horse’s way of going, using a blend of Classical Dressage, rider biomechanics, and equine behaviour.
Natasha teaches using a blend of classical dressage, rider biomechanics, and Spanish horsemanship. Lessons are tailored to your goals, from returning to the saddle, rebuilding confidence, correcting asymmetry, or progressing to advanced movements. Her calm, clear instruction and immediate feedback create a supportive environment that lets you feel the difference straight away.
If you are looking for dressage trainers in Sussex or want dressage coaching in West Sussex that prioritises feel, correctness, and ethical training, schoolmaster tuition is a powerful way to learn.
RIDING LESSON TESTIMONIALS
Clients choose our schoolmaster programme for its one‑to‑one attention, BHS accreditation, and evidence‑based approach to classical dressage. Our horses are trained to respond to subtle aids, giving you immediate feedback on feel and timing.
Lessons take place in a calm, safe setting in West Sussex, and our mechanical horse sessions prepare you to ride with confidence. We welcome riders aged 13+ and provide a structured, progressive path for developing classical skills.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
SERVICE AREA
West Sussex and surrounding counties
Natasha offers mobile riding instruction at your own yard or preferred location, travelling frequently to areas including Chichester, Petworth, Petersfield, Haslemere, Liss, Midhurst, and Guildford, as well as rural parts of the South Downs.
Centrally based in Charlton, West Sussex, Natasha covers a 10-mile local area without travel charge. A mileage-based fee applies beyond this, ensuring flexible access to classical riding tuition and confidence-building instruction wherever you’re located.
BOOKING POLICY
All bookings are handled directly via email and arranged to suit your availability. Lessons are offered Monday through Saturday, and your timeslot is tailored to the pace and progress that suits you and your horse best.
All new clients must fill out a rider registration form. Every new rider begins with an initial assessment on the mechanical horse, allowing Natasha to build a bespoke training plan aligned with your experience, goals, and horse’s needs.
Hat hire is not provided — riders must bring their own fitted safety equipment.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Cancellations made with less than 48 hours’ notice are non-refundable due to limited lesson availability.
With more notice, your session may be rebooked within six months of the original date.
As this is an outdoor and all-weather activity, lessons continue in rain or shine unless conditions are deemed unsafe.
Please ensure your location has a safe, suitable surface for ridden work to go ahead.
