Riders seek to be strong, fit and flexible to help them ride better. Janice was strong, fit and flexible and she still could not understand how to ride dressage.

Even as a professional dancer, professor of dance and a Romana's Pilates® instructor, Janice was unable to move out of 1st level for several years. Fitness, flexibility, strength…these were not an issue. The problem: no one could explain to her how to sit the trot and she could not get her horse truly on the bit. As a dancer, Janice knew how to listen to an instructor and take correction, as this is the dancer’s training. She rode with extremely qualified dressage instructor’s including USDF Gold Medallists, long-listed Olympic riders and many famous clinicians. However, as one clinician said to her when she was having trouble, "Well, you just don't have harmony yet."

It was in the summer of 2001 that Janice got rather frustrated with the whole sport. Being as physically capable as she was, she could’t believe that she could not learn how to ride. She decided to investigate what she could do with her knowledge of the body to figure out what was going wrong with her riding. Little by little she discovered what she needed to do to sit the trot. Her horse dropped onto the bit and began to swing. But not only that, she discovered she could halt her horse with her abs and get the horse to trot off using her seat. She could bring her horse out of a canter by using her abs and back the horse up with the same. This was a huge revelation. However, if it took her this long to understand how to use her body to ride, what about riders who continue in dressage lesson after dressage lesson without her level of body knowledge? How were they ever going to figure this out?

It was this revelation that inspired her to write her book. Dressage teachers tell riders what to do, but are not truly equipped to give the “how” to do it (read the "Philosophy" page to understand Janice's thoughts on this). Janice wanted to give riders the "how" and the results of her explorations became the book “Pilates for the Dressage Rider” which was published in 2006 by Half Halt Press.

Since then, Janice has continued her research, and in clinic after clinic, riders are finding that Janice's method of teaching is extremely effective in solving their riding issues. Dressage teachers have found that Janice has given words to concepts they have been trying to teach their students, and as Australian trainer Dianne George said, "Got your book and absolutely love it. It has been very beneficial to my students and to myself. It has really made them realize how important the inner core is to riding, and because of that, their posture is improving all the time."

Purchase the Book and companion DVD

From Half Halt Press