Tanja Mitton
Sport / Training
Tanja Mitton was born in Germany and began her riding career at the age of 10 in a riding school. Falling in love with horses and show jumping, Tanja decided that she would follow her passion by becoming a full time rider and groom. This led her to work in a number of competition stables, one of them being at Alwin Schockemöhle in Mühlen.
She then decided that it was time to add more credentials to her name and so she became a trained equine vet nurse as well. At the age of 24 Tanja moved to England to work with an equine physiotherapist before dedicating more time to training and competing jumping horses. When she arrived in Australia in 1995 she became an EA qualified coach and a NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Coach. From there on she focused her training more on the riders riding position and mindset coaching.
Tanja has since travelled around Australia and Europe, teaching riders of all ages and disciplines.
Some of her more memorable moments were:
– working with the EA High Performance Dressage and Para Squad in the lead up to Rio Olympic Games
– being invited to the Australian Institute of Sport to present a lecture to a group of level 3 coaches
– running coaches workshops
– writing her books “7 steps to the mindset of an equestrian champion” and “It takes two to tango”
– being involved with EQUITANA since 2010 as an educator
Tanja is passionate about helping riders overcome their anxieties and their limiting beliefs, while helping them to be more confident and positive.
“I find that often the issues that riders are dealing with are not always horse related. A lot of issues stem from their general life and just transfer to the horses.
Because the mind and body are so connected with each other, when the mind becomes limited it also limits our body.”
Tanja addresses breathing in many of her sessions as our breath will always reflect how we feel.
Visit Tanja Mitton at the following sessions
Details
Friday November 15th
EQUITANA Classroom (Royal Block)
If you believe it, you can ride it!
So many riders struggle with the belief that they are good enough or worthy enough or anything enough. No matter how hard we train, how dedicated we are or how much money we spend, ultimately it comes back to how much you believe that you can achieve your goals.
So many riders fail. Not because they are not good enough, but because their mind lets them down when things get tough. I am all about helping riders develop a solid, positive mindset and to do that we first have to overcome the things that hold us back. If you believe it, you can ride it!
Being able to have solid tools will help to go from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can.’
Details
Saturday November 16th
Stallion Rail Demo Arena, OTT Pavilion
Rider Position Demo – Position is more than just sitting on the horse
Rider position is not just about sitting straight and keeping your hands still. There is a lot more to it.
The rider is the load that the horse carries and our job is to be the best and easiest load possible, one that does not interfere or hinder our horses to do what we are asking of them.
I look at the riders position from a biomechanical aspect but also from a horses perspective. Horses are so sensitive that they can feel a fly landing on their body, which means that they can feel every muscle movement and every positional shift. Often in our aim to manoeuvre horses, we also hinder them.
I want to demonstrate to you the most common ways how riders hinder and interfere with their horses movements and show you ways of how you can correct that. When horses are able to move freely and easily they will become more willing.
