The Bombproof Riding System

Do you want to learn the secrets to riding a horse through the most explosive spooks, to be able to control your mount effortlessly while your attention is spread across the field and your hands busy with your weapon or your shield (or your cellphone or water bottle), to be able to ride sustainably and functionally, for hours, even when exhausted?

Do you want to just be able to ride through the park without fear of getting ejected if your horse bolts or comes to a complete and sudden stop because of equine caprice?

Do you want to know what to do if you fall off and how to do it, regardless of your age, body history, or level of athleticism, to minimize your risk of injury?

The Bombproof Riding System is a functional riding system for real-life riding, based on physics and body mechanics, that works as well in the most extreme scenarios as it does riding in your indoor arena. It’s the system we have taught to several riders preparing for endurance races—including the Mongol Derby and the Gaucho Derby—and all our graduates have finished their races.

Non-toxic Environment

We’re respectful and courteous to the riders and horses. Instruction is based on confidence building and encouragement—not because we’re being soft, but because it gets results. Horses and riders perform better and more safely when everyone feels good about what they’re doing. No yelling. No insults. No abuse—just meeting you where you are and moving you forward at a reasonable pace.

It’s Not for Show

The Bombproof Riding System is a functional system based on natural movement and sound biomechanics. We do what works, based on evidence and results, not antiquated dogmas or tribal signifiers. This is not a show barn—the only judges here are physics and biomechanics.

Riding curriculum includes how to safely mount and dismount—even on a horse that won’t stand for you—the different ways and reasons you can ride astride, with and without stirrups; how to use your hands effectively, politely, and without compromising your riding position; and how and why to transition between, or maintain, gaits, without bouncing and losing your secure position on the horse.

Fall School

Although we believe that falling doesn’t have to be inevitable, it does sometimes happen. Integral to the Bombproof Riding System, we teach a realistic, accessible, safe way to fall that covers appropriate responses to the most likely fall scenarios. By the end of level 1 Fall School, you will confidently fall off a real, moving horse onto realistic footing, without any injury or pain. Some people need Fall School in case they fall, but most people need it so that they won’t worry about falling and can focus on their riding. In other words, learning to fall off a real horse onto real ground makes you less likely to fall off.

Rider Intensives

Do you want to level up your riding in one weekend?

Have you been stuck, after riding for years, listening to everybody say the same thing, knowing you’re not riding at your fullest confidence and fulfillment? Do you have a special event (like a derby) coming up you need to upskill for? Are you too far from Central Ohio for weekly lessons but want to experience the physics- and biomechanics based system taught by national-level instructors here?

Come for a rider intensive.

While many programs discuss in detail what the horse should do and how the rider should get the horse to do it, there is rarely as much attention given to what the rider should do, and how the rider should do it. Trainers and riders hope for their horses to be “bombproof”—that is, to be able to perform without being distracted by fear—yet the rider rarely develops this ability in herself. 

The Rider Intensive gives riders specific, practical, sensible exercises and advice that make them immediately more confident and in better command of their own bodies in a way that immediately makes them better riders. After all, one cannot expect to get precision and confidence out of a horse if one lacks precision and confidence in oneself. 

Riders will learn: 

1) how to access posture unique to riding that will allow more effective motion, as well as being more sustainable—to optimize each ride, and extend their riding careers;

2) how posture relates to rein aids;

3) the causes of falling and how to minimize injury in case of a fall, and by extension lessen their fear of falling;

4) how to maximize stability for safety and effective riding using the stirrups;

5) how to maximize stability for safety and effective riding without stirrups;

6) how to position themselves for balance and stability in their deep seat;

7) how to position themselves for balance and stability in their light seat for galloping and jumping.

We take the powerful tools we’ve taught to our Mongolian Derby finalists and make them available to any rider who wants to be more confident and comfortable.

Here is what some of our students have said: 

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard “shoulders back” “sit deep” “hands low” but with these guys I was shown not only how to do those things properly, but why they’re important. 

In three days I learned how my position can influence my comfort, safety, balance, and endurance—and those techniques have already paid off. 

After learning how to stack my body more efficiently, I rode 75 miles this weekend with no shoulder or back pain, which is basically unheard of. 

I’m so grateful to have these tools that I can bring out on trail and I’ll for sure be making use of them in Mongolia!

—Gabrielle

“Essentially, I was the center of a game called ‘How Many Ways can we knock Krista off a saddle.’ I say saddle cause I rode countless fun horses, one mini, the Mighty Bucky, stationary saddle stands, and “Woody” the Equisizer! In just two days (along with some ibuprofen) I drastically changed my position in the saddle and feel 💯 times more prepared for Mongolia’s terrain and semi-wild horses. I also am I now hyper aware of my body and all those ligaments, muscles, tendons that give us the ability to ride and STAY ON! Oh, let’s add in tumbling and falling class! This was terrifying for me, I mean, who willingly falls off a perfectly good horse!?  

I encourage ANYONE who wants to ride better, who wants to feel safer in the saddle, and us crazy people who are racing in Mongolia and/or Gaucho derbies to reach out and get on their schedule asap!”

—Krista

This experience has been life changing. 

You gave me permission to use my body.

I have learned more about stirrups in the last 36 hrs then I have in the last 30 years.

—Cassie 

—30 years! At $100 a lesson, once a week, that’s $156,000! Think how much money she could have saved if she had taken our class earlier—and how much more she would have enjoyed riding that whole time.

Her case is not unusual, either. Students frequently say they learned more in 3 days with us than they had in the past 20 years of their riding—they say it more often than not, if they have been riding that long.

You don’t have to wait 20 years to get confident in the saddle. If you have, it’s overdue.

The time is now.

Ready to get started?

Contact me to book a private lesson, 2- or 3-day Rider Intensive, or check out my upcoming events.