+44 7437 226040

regina@rideintohealth.com

Developed by Sally Swift, Centered Riding is a teaching method rooted in the Classical Principles of riding. It emphasizes body awareness, balance, and harmony between horse and rider, enhancing connection and understanding across all riding disciplines.

Rather than being a separate style or discipline, Centered Riding serves as a versatile tool for improving performance. By focusing on the anatomy, biomechanics, and movement of both horse and rider, it helps identify and replace old habits with more effective techniques. This allows for freer, more balanced movement and a deeper partnership between horse and rider. emphasizes body awareness, balance, and harmony between horse and rider, enhancing connection and understanding across all riding disciplines.

Regina Staples

Centered Riding® Level IV Apprentice

Have you ever felt frustrated or disheartened because your rides aren't as harmonious as you'd hoped?
Do you long to feel more confident and capable in the saddle, truly in sync with your horse?
Do you dream of a deeper connection with your horse but feel unsure of how to achieve it?
Do you sometimes feel like you and your horse aren't quite understanding each other?
Are you sensing that something might be missing, leaving you feeling like you're just going through the motions of riding?

Centered Riding can help YOU!

Centered Riding emphasizes understanding your own body and its communication with your horse. By focusing on balance, alignment, and mindful movements, you’ll develop a stronger partnership built on trust and mutual understanding, deepening your connection naturally.

Centered Riding provides tools to improve your posture, balance, and awareness in the saddle, allowing you to move in harmony with your horse. This not only enhances your horse’s performance but also reduces frustration and brings joy back to riding.

Through simple yet powerful techniques, Centered Riding helps you find your center—physically and mentally. This builds confidence, stability, and an ability to ride with ease, creating a more unified experience with your horse.

Centered Riding teaches you to communicate clearly through your body and energy. By improving your awareness of how your movements affect your horse, you’ll develop a shared “language,” making your rides more fluid and intuitive.

Centered Riding isn’t just about improving your skills; it’s about nurturing the partnership between you and your horse so you can ride with purpose, harmony, and joy.

What are the Centered Riding Basics?

Soft eyes - Encourage visual and physical awareness, better peripheral vision, and improved “feel.”
Breathing - Using the diaphragm and breathing correctly for better posture, relaxation, and energy.
Balance or Building Blocks - Aligns the riders body for improved balance, straightness, and ease of movement.
Centering - Using the center of balance, movement and control, located deep in the body, gives quiet strength, harmony and power, as in the oriental martial arts.

These principles, combined with a clear intent for effective control, direction, & use of aids, and grounding for stability and balance, encourage freedom of movement, build confidence, enhance harmony between horse and rider, and assist in addressing various challenges.

Illustration credit Susan E. Harris

You will learn to:

use images in your mind to help move your body
ride your bones
release tension, mental & physical
create "feel" in your own body
find rhythm so you can move with your horse & aid when your horse can hear you

Centered Riding

Open Centered Riding Clinics

Usually 2-3 days in length

Open to riders of all levels and disciplines

Usually includes both un-mounted awareness lessons and mounted Centered Riding lessons

Taught only by Centered Riding Level III and Level IV Clinicians

May focus on a particular riding discipline such as jumping, dressage or western

Interested in co-hosting a clinic

2025 Open Centered Riding Group Lesson Series

Monthly Series held at Alder Lake Farm

Open to riders of all levels and disciplines

Includes a short un-mounted awareness lesson followed by a mounted Centered Riding group lesson

Limited rider spots available

Un-mounted auditor participation for series

Dates to be announced soon!

How I came to know Centered Riding...

Hello, I'm Regina Staples. My riding journey began in the jumping arena, but life took an unexpected turn after a severe riding injury. Told I should never ride again, I did what any horse-crazy person would do—I switched disciplines and took up dressage. What I didn’t anticipate was the struggle I’d face. Despite years of experience, I couldn’t sit the trot without returning from lessons exhausted, disheartened, and even with bloody knees. I was left questioning everything I thought I knew about riding.

Faced with both physical and mental challenges, I was forced to reevaluate my approach to riding and teaching. That’s when I discovered Sally Swift’s Centered Riding through the incredible Susan Harris, a Senior Level IV Centered Riding Instructor, she was one of Sally's original apprentices. Susan graciously agreed to teach a Centered Riding Clinic for me and my students, and that event became the turning point in my journey.

From that moment, Centered Riding transformed not only my skills but my entire outlook on riding. The education that my body limitations where effecting my horses in a negative way, impacted me greatly. I had to do better now, not just for myself but for EVERY horse I rode!!! I’ve since progressed through the program, earning the title of Level IV Apprentice, continuing to work toward becoming a teacher's teacher, a Level IV. One of the highlights of my career was completing my initial instructor course in Vermont and meeting Sally Swift herself.

Centered Riding has become an integral part of my life, influencing how I ride, teach, and navigate the world. It’s not something you learn once and leave behind. Each time you revisit the fundamentals, you uncover new layers of understanding, awareness, and connection.

Today, I teach Open Centered Riding clinics to riders of all levels and disciplines. My goal is to empower riders by helping them develop a deeper awareness of their bodies and movements. By guiding you to discover your own sense of balance and harmony, I aim to equip you with tools that you can carry into your independent riding and daily life. Centered Riding is not just a technique—it’s a lifelong exploration of growth, confidence, and partnership with your horse.

For more information about the Centered Riding Organisation

www.centeredriding.org

Photo credits: Maki Tsuchiya & Toshi Aoshiba