I have been riding horses for 20 years. I have taught riders in Russia and now I live and teach in Canada. I focus on the rider's seat and its influence on the horse. I have a master's degree in biology and I have studied the anatomy and biomechanics of horse and rider. Being in North America for 10 years, I have worked with instructors who emphasize correct seat before they ask students to perform more challenging tasks. I use the same approach in my teaching. This gives my students a chance to shift attention onto developing their feel, and learning how to listen to a horse instead of ordering him around. It lays a foundation for a beautiful partnership and trust between horse and rider.

Since I have started riding, I have felt that I'm missing something. I was good, but not good enough. Being naturally athletic, I have learned how to stay on a horse and influence him to some extend. However, I saw how some riders were much better than me, no matter what horse they rode. What did they have that I didn't?

When I moved to the US, I had an opportunity to become a working student for a wonderful dressage instructor, Frances Carbonnel, who teaches in Castle Rock, Colorado. She is one of a very few, who focuses their attention on the rider before asking something from the horse. Some of the things she was teaching me, such as correct rising trot, were new and felt weird. Everything she told me about how to ride a horse was true even though I couldn't understand all of it then. With her help, I have prepared and showed a 4-year old Oldenburg stallion at Training level and we've gotten a 68% and 72% in our first show.

I have moved to Canada in 2000 and now I live in Alberta about 160 km from Edmonton. Even though I'm quite away from the dressage community, I have my own barn and I keep my own horse as I've always wanted. I don't have enough opportunity to take lessons. That encourages me to explore, study, attend seminars and clinics, and listen to my horse. Discovering Mary Wanless' work and attending a seminar that featured one of her students Sandy Howards from California was a major breakthrough for me. All the pieces that I have tried to put together, all of a sudden, started coming together on their own and slowly the path of logical riding and training began to emerge. I do not show right now, however, my exploration of correct riding, especially in dressage is no less intense. I take lessons from a very talented instructor and dressage rider, Sharon Merkel-Beattie, from St. Albert. The more I understand how riding works, the more fun it is to take lessons and see horses I ride become better and better.

I teach students of different ages and skill levels, on horses of different breeds and abilities. Principles of riding are the same, implications may vary depending on the rider and the horse. All my riders show improvement. First, they learn how to keep their own balance and not to disturb the horse. Second, they begin to influence their mount without compromising the balance (either theirs or horse's). It is amazing to see how horses react when riders stop pulling on the reins, keep up with the horse and become light and balanced. Horses start to look bigger, they move with more energy and spring in their step. Even the expression on their faces changes.

The riding concepts, such as feel, timing, thoroughness, keeping your horse on the seat, riding from back to front etc., make so much more sense now. Now I can see the big picture, all important pieces are in place, only details are different. I'm not saying I know everything or can do anything, far from that. Now I can understand my riding mistakes and see how much depends on me. If things do not work for whatever reason, I usually find that I am the problem. Over and over again, I see that my horse couldn't execute my request because either I was out of balance, or I didn't ask correctly, or I couldn't see that he was out of balance and and so on and so on...