Melinda Macaulay
Lifestyle
Mel was born a crazy horse girl, she lived and breathed horses and finally her non-horsey parents relented and purchased her first horse when she was 10yrs old. During her teenage years, she regularly rode the neighbourhood’s ‘naughty’ ponies, which started her journey of connecting and collecting often unwanted and misunderstood equines. Mel joined her sister in the show ring, together competing their team of horses and ponies.
Professionally, Mel became a health and fitness coach, working with athletes to improve their performance, rehabilitating injured workers in workplace wellness programs, and has assisted literally thousands of clients through lifestyle changes to improve their health and fitness goals. Within the health and fitness industry, Mel has been an aerobic instructor, weightloss consultant, personal trainer, gym owner, and coached and accredited other personal trainers. As an athlete, Mel understands what it takes to train, compete and perform at a high level, having won a National Championship and 4th in the World 24hr Solo Mountain Biking Championships.
Mel has Mitochondrial Disease, a degenerative condition that has left her with vision in only one eye amongst other issues. Exercise and staying healthy is an important part of her life, as is her passion for riding horses. Mel found her body changed along with her vision, so she began utilising her skills in exercise and program design to improve her own strength, stability and balance for riding. With almost 25 years experience of adapting exercise programming to individuals needs, Mel has a passion for equestrian bio-mechanics and now enjoys working with equestrians to improve their postural foundation to become stronger, stable and more confident riders. She believes that whilst most of us are not naturally talented riders, there is nothing stopping us from improving the body we do have! Mel’s biggest enjoyment comes from inspiring others to be the best rider the can be.
Visit Melinda Macaulay at the following sessions
Details
Thursday November 10th
10:00 am to 10:45 am
Off The Track Boulevard Arena
Exercises to improve your riding
For most of us who love horse riding, we are not genetically designed to have the perfect equitation seat, however that does not mean we can not improve what we do have!
During this interactive session, discover your personal posture and how your strengths, weaknesses, imbalances and asymmetries affects both your horse and you as a rider. Learn simple effective techniques you can do quickly from the comfort of your home to improve your balance, stability, strength, body awareness and coordination which are suitable for riders of all ages and abilities. Create a strong stable seat so you can improve your riding and transform your horse.
Details
Friday November 11th
1:00 pm to 1:45 pm
Godolphin Lifetime Care Theatrette
Mobility for mature riders
More and more adults are returning to the saddle after many years of not riding, or are fulfilling a childhood dream of learning to ride.
Let’s face it, we don’t bounce or bend like we used to – and we are more conscious of potential injuries. During this interactive session, learn simple, time efficient and practical stretches and exercises you can easily do from home with little to no equipment. Discover how you can improve your riding strength, stability, flexibility, body awareness, co-ordination and riding posture enabling you to enjoy riding for many years to come.
