Mary Wanless - Ride With Your Mind
Episodes
The Magical Connection Between Rider And Horse
01 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Explaining The Magical Connection for horse lovers everywhere.
Ep. 80 Not knowing, curiosity and sleep
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 79 Ways of knowing
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 78 How change happens
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 77 Stance, state, sense, signal, see, stop
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How do you show up to sessions with your horse? And how do you manage your stance and state when you get there?Explore how to ma...
Ep. 76 Does your energy flow or leak?
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!This picture illustrates one of the many images that this podcast refers to. Energy, a vital but abstract concept, is best illus...
Ep. 75 The contagion of (dis)regulation
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback! Does the regulated rider or handler regulate the disregulated horse, or does the disregulated horse disregulate the regulated ...
Ep. 74 Beyond fight, flight, or freeze
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!In this episode, I return to the nervous system — and to Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory, which reshapes our old picture of...
Ep. 73 Deep dive into hollow backs
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Back to Rider Biomechanics! I’ll uncover the effective alternatives to growing tall.The majority of women are hollow-backed, w...
Ep. 72 Mind the gap or embrace the gain?
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!This episode is about how our perspective shapes our experience.So often, we measure ourselves against where we wish we were, li...
Ep 71. Bringing out the best in you and your horse!
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Do you want to bring out the best in you and your horse? I certainly do. In this episode, we’re diving into what it takes to ...
Ep. 70 What does it take to become a skilled rider?
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I tell the story of a rider with phenomenal talent in another area of life, and ask, how did this affect her riding, and how wou...
Ep. 69 C curves, S shapes, and uneven seat bones
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The rider with rebars that connect diagonally through her can use these to pattern her horse in shoulder in, suggesting to him h...
Ep. 68 Reinforcing bars!
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!‘Rebars’ are the dull red metal uprights you see sticking up within the frames used on building sites when pouring concrete ...
Ep. 67 Top down or bottom up?
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Most riders can organize their body much better from the top down, or from the pelvis out, than they can from the bottom up. Th...
Ep. 66 How I misdiagnosed two riders, and learnt the folly of my ways from a set of toe separators!
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I did the ‘boards as blades’ exercise with a young rider I know well, and discovered that it was difficult for her to get he...
Ep. 65 Breakfast buffets, bananas, flying buttresses and amoebas - an unlikely set of ideas?
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I contrast the story of a very unassuming rider, who has been a long term and dedicated learner within the RYWM system, with a m...
Ep. 64 Shoring up your structure in all dimensions - clarifying the boards from back to front, and top to bottom.
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Most people are, in effect, falling off one side of the horse, whilst pushing their torso towards his midline on the other side....
Ep. 63 Is your body a soggy distorted bundle, or can you transmit force?
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The idea of ‘positive tension’ is very new in the horse world, but I am no longer the lone voice crying in the wilderness! ...
Ep. 62 Geometry - whether sacred or not
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!One of the biggest over-views of the work I do would be to consider it the re-discovery and re-creation of the ideal shapes our ...
Ep. 61 I'm back!
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I'm back after a long break from podcasts! I'm sharing the stories of three riders who were all very different types ...
Ep. 60 The last and final one!
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!We do two more exercises, as I encourage you to realise the immense value of the off-horse exercises that are part of my approac...
Ep. 59 Back to basics - as we begin to wrap this up!
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I was right all of those years ago when I thought there was something my teachers weren’t telling me! But this is innate in th...
Ep. 58 - Rotation or shear? And from ‘bus’ to ‘bend’.
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!We have talked about asymmetry patterns being rotational, but it can be more helpful - and with some riders more accurate - to t...
Ep. 57 The story of Sarah
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!One of my pupils broke her upper arm in a fall, and damaged her wrist and elbow. After surgery and recuperation she returned to ...
Ep. 56 ‘One side on/one side off’ is the existential state of humans on horses…
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Many riders spend their life stuck in ‘one side on/one side off’. Others ‘ping-pong’ between right on/left off and left ...
Ep. 55 Good sides and bad sides
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Most people have a strength differential between their two boards, and don’t address this well - so as the weaker one becomes ...
Ep. 54 Both boards on!
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I love the analogy of ‘both boards on’ being like two people both fighting to sit on the same bar stool, but neither one mus...
Ep.53 What do Ice skaters and clock faces show us about how to turn horses?
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!On a circle, an ice skater pushes off one foot and glides on the other as her body makes a dancer’s arabesque. She faces her t...
Ep. 52 Slingshot!
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 51 - Spiralling muscles, rotating pelvises, and ‘seat feet’.
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Hopefully the stretch from last time leaves you feeling that you can fill out your concave side and rotate it forward, making it...
Ep. 50 - Snug thighs, stirrup leathers, and a profoundly effective stretch for your concave side.
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!It is a challenge to create an equally snug and symmetrical ‘A frame’ with your thighs, and it’s important to ride with yo...
Ep. 49 Seat bones, feet, and compass points.
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Some experiments with seat bones - how they do and don’t move - helps to get the clarity about your underneath that then makes...
Ep 48. Pulling on the inside rein…
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Riders pull on the inside rein again and again, even though they know they shouldn’t, and often they feel helpless about doing...
Ep. 47 The turnings aids - a rampant example of deletion, distortion and generalisation.
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Whilst some people seem to be blissfully ignorant of the difference between riding in each direction, others are tortured by the...
Ep. 46 The shape of the horse’s neck, and the ‘footprints in the sand’.
08 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Some horses have long flat necks, some have much sorter and more upright (lama) necks, but in all horses the neck vertebrae make...
Ep. 45 Can the hind legs of the horse push the front third up?
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback! ‘Kick the front of the horse up’ is a traditional idea that I have rarely seen work well in practice. Following the work o...
Ep. 44 And now that you have your black belt…
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I recently enjoyed working with a small woman who was a relatively inexperienced rider with a black belt in karate. The parallel...
Ep. 43 - The Half Halt & Collection
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 42 - The learning process
07 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The learning process, which progressively builds a pyramid out of lots of (initially) disconnected body parts and corrections do...
Ep. 41 The 3 thirds of the horse
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The biomechanics term ‘hydraulic amplification’ describes how the muscles get ‘pumped up’ in collection. WE want a half-...
Ep. 40 What the half halt isn’t.
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!It isn’t riding in ‘mistake prevention mode’ and keeping the horse’s head down by whatever means. But it is the ‘human...
Ep. 39 Half-halts: the riding enigma
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Half halts are an emergent property of good biomechanics. The rider. needs firstly to realise that she needs to intervene to ‘...
Ep. 38 The tennis ball game.
10 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Let’s imagine that you and I stand opposite each other and play a game of catch with a tennis ball, allowing it to bounce once...
Ep. 37 Rising Trot - The ‘gold dust’ skill
03 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I have been accused of terminal rising trot - but time invested here is so worthwhile - it’s the ‘gold dust’ skill. I of...
Ep. 36 Rising trot in depth.
20 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!We use a full length mirror to get really forensic about rising trot mechanism, showing you how to differentiate movement in you...
Ep. 35 Some strategies for ‘What if’s?’, difficult emotions, and rising trot mechanism.
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I suggest some metaphorical MRs to reduce the ‘sting’ of your less-than-stellar rides. Realise too that thinking ‘What if?...
Ep. 34 The deep dive - let’s do it! DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST WHILST DRIVING YOUR CAR OR OPERATING MACHINERY
07 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How neurons that fire together wire together, in both real and imagined practice. We do mental rehearsals of personal bests, ask...
Ep. 33 On mental rehearsal experiments, and how MR is best led by passion, but can become torture.
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Research on mental rehearsal has encompassed dart throwing, piano playing, and many other skills, often reporting improvements i...
Ep. 32 On mental rehearsal experiments, and how MR is best led by passion, but can become torture.
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Research on mental rehearsal has encompassed dart throwing, piano playing, and many other skills, often reporting improvements i...
Ep. 31 On how to get the best from your teacher, and mental rehearsal
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!When pupils are ‘going through the motions’ of getting the horse to go, teachers tend to ‘go through the motions’ as wel...
Ep. 30 On the challenges of teaching authority, boundaries, and self belief.
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!In riding, negative expectations so often become the reality (as in ‘I hope we don’t stop at the ditch!…’). When things ...
Ep. 29 On stuffing, intention, and giving leg aids consciously.
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Most riders give repeated leg aids that actually train the horse to be dead to their leg. If you have to kick to get each step o...
Ep. 28 - On toolkits, tantrums and leg aids
18 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Trainers will always be prejudiced against the toolkits they don’t understand, can’t be bothered with, or do so brilliantly ...
Ep. 27 More on the Zero toolkit, overshadowing, and the transition from ground work to riding.
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How proponents of the 3 toolkits interact like the proverbial 3 blind men with the elephant. More on the Zero toolkit, overshado...
Ep. 26 On ‘the map is not the territory’
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!On ‘the map is not the territory’, even though riders and trainers the world over act as if it is - and go so far as to ‘e...
Ep. 25 - The pitfalls of buying a new horse
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!So much of riding is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You get run away with from the moment you decide you’re being run away with…...
Ep. 24 Why do some people learn and improve much faster than others?
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The patterns in the pupil’s body are part of this, and we have both the ‘foetal crouch’ and the much more common ‘Landau...
Ep. 23 - On risk and reward, and resilience as a rider.
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Imagine yourself as a mouse in a house where there is cheese available on the opposite side of the room to your mouse hole. But ...
Ep. 22 On the comfort zone, stretch zone, panic zone and play zone
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!I learnt many years ago that my observations just before a lesson were a more accurate risk assessment than some riders made bef...
Ep. 21 On struggle, behaviour, identity, and nerves.
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Many riders, epecially those with a fixed mindset struggle on alone, thinking they’re the only one who doesn’t ‘get it’,...
Ep. 20 On the ‘wordscape’, the ‘brainscape’, and the ‘culturescape'
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Elite riders have different ways of dealing with the disconnect between the knowledge they have in language, and the skills they...
Ep. 19 The Wordscape and The Brainscape
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How we get language and feelings to connect.
Ep. 18 On the story of being told to do ‘nothing-something!’, and how to think about the relationship between simplicity and accuracy
28 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The debate between ‘thighs on’ and ‘thighs off’. The coach as a tour guide who needs to be able to describe the journey...
Ep. 17 - Deconstructing the halt to walk transition
21 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!We deconstruct the halt to walk transition, considering the horse who really wants to hollow his back. When the rider keeps her ...
Ep. 16 So how exactly does the rider/horse interaction work?
14 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Skilled riders appear to do so little whilst having a huge effect on the horse’s posture and movement. We add the idea of ‘s...
Ep. 15 Action Goal Thinking
07 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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Ep. 14 On how you might have to give up what you think is control in order to find real control.
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Your instincts can easily lead you astray when riding, wether that’s pushing hard into the stirrups, ‘popping up’, or grow...
Ep. 13 On noticing more about your seat bones and the underneath of the torso-box.
24 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Newton’s third law of motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) affects the relationship between your feet and ...
Ep. 12 In the flow
17 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!What is flow and what difference does it make to elite performance.
Ep. 11 On the voice inside your head!
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How to get rid of the tyranny of the voice inside your head and create for yourself the best internal coach!
Ep. 10 On the thrills and spills of putting words on feelings.
10 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How easy do you find this, and how much have you been encouraged to do this during your training sessions? As you’ll hear, it’...
Ep. 9 On how you cannot not influence, and maps.
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The best ever story about stirrup length, and how in other sports, it’s all about angles. You cannot not influence your horse ...
Ep. 8 On stirrup length and posture stools
03 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!How is your weight distributed on your horse’s back? If it is concentrated into the area where he would hollow his back, you c...
Ep. 7 On noticing mode, trying mode and tune out.
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!The brain is like a manual camera lens, and all of us have to learn how to ‘tune’ our brain into a state of clear focus. As ...
Ep. 6 On Unconscious Incompetence
25 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!New students commonly begin by telling me what’s wrong with them, and what they know they SHOULD be doing. Their problem reall...
Ep. 5 On finding ‘weird’…
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!Did the lessons you’ve taken, the lecture/demos you’ve attended, and the DVDs and webinars you’ve watched actually make a ...
Ep. 4 On "More!", and the question "More what?"
18 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!'More!', and muscle tone (alias 'stuffing') which men have 35% more of than women. The 80/20 of how much of ...
Ep. 3 On noseblowing, and core strength
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback! On noseblowing, spacehoppers (hippity-hops), and forces that act either from the back to the front or from the front to the ba...
Ep. 2 What does waterskiing have to do with riding?
11 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback!What does waterskiing have to do with riding? Much more than it ought to! How Mary stopped that horse from jogging but took many...
Ep. 1 How it all began
11 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Send us your feedback! Mary's background story, from begging for riding lessons as a child, to riding schools and riding whilst at university st...