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The Eckart Meyners Instructor Training Program offers riding instructors of all levels and disciplines vital tools to enhance their effectiveness. Based on established educational and teaching theories, the EMITP also adds a dynamic focus on the physiology and movement of the rider. Integrated through a mind/body approach, the EMITP gives instructors the skills required to create independent and feeling students, resulting in success for everyone involved.
There are several unique pieces to Mr. Meyners’ work, which make it especially beneficial to riding instructors. First, his program offers very practical, easy to implement methods to create an effective seat. These methods involve more than simply having the “correct” position; the focus is on the rider’s ability for balance in motion, which Mr. Meyners considers to be the most important ingredient in successful riding. Second is his belief that the roles of mind and body must be connected and balanced together in order for a dialogue with the horse to occur. This belief is evident in many of his practical exercises for the rider. Third, he has developed a teaching methodology that includes how to teach motion and feel. Using this methodology results in the development of the correct muscle memory necessary for riding.
Eckart Meyners’ methods offer instructors vital tools that enhance their results as instructors by teaching them to be both educators and motion mediators. Meyners’ methods and exercises are practical and easy to implement as a part of a regular lesson program. Through the use of “task lessons” and simple exercises performed on and off the horse, riders will feel immediate improvement in their own and their horses’ performance, while training muscle memory for long-term proper form and function. Meyners’ program teaches instructors how to integrate feel and motion to teach more effectively with a faster response time and longer lasting results. Behind the apparent simplicity of Meyners’ methodology and exercises are years of research and integration; the EMITP makes this knowledge accessible and applicable to every interested instructor.
This program involves both gaining knowledge and processing the knowledge through practical application. While it has a foundation in current instructor education programs in Germany, the EMITP has been specifically adapted for US instructors and the US riding community. In Germany all instructors have mastered and been tested in their technical riding skills and have a university education. Because of this, every instructor has a background in education and in technical riding skills. In the US we have no such established system. Anyone may teach whether or not they are qualified. We do have several organizations that have developed instructor-training programs, and each one has their own requirements specific to their purpose. Unique to the EMITP is the focus on methodology to teach muscle memory and “feel” through motion abilities.
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