Up Close and Personal: Ann Montgomery—The Mindful Rider

Sit Down with a Cuppa and Get to Know Ann

It's time to sit down and get to know one of our regular coaches that visist the Canberra region and a big favourite here at Lagoballo.

When it comes to creating harmony between horse and rider, few coaches bring the depth of insight and intuition that Ann Montgomery does. Known as The Mindful Rider, Ann blends biomechanics, emotional awareness, and mindfulness to help riders achieve clarity, confidence, and connection.

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Q1: Ann, what inspired you to develop The Mindful Rider approach?

“I was actually looking for a name for my business, and I didn’t want it to be just “Ann Montgomery”. I’d been thinking for weeks and weeks and it suddenly came to me when I was flying home from New Zealand. Everything I do is mindful. It is the whole picture–it’s everything–it’s the whole picture of how the rider, moves, thinks and acts. It’s also the way the horse moves, thinks and acts. It is a rounded way of coaching or working with horses. It’s not just one element, it’s so many. It’s the way in which you work with your own horse’s body and your own body and mind. It’s mindful in so many ways. I realise that that is what I do. I am mindful with everything I do with horses. That is how The Mindful Rider was chosen.”

Q2: You talk a lot about emotional awareness. Why is that so important?

"Emotional awareness involves everything. If you don’t have awareness of your own emotions and if you can’t regulate yourself, you will find it very hard to work with horses. It ricochets or ripples out from you to everything around you. And so if you walk into a room and you are in a dark mood, it will walk into the room with you. You can’t hide it. It is the awareness of emotion either within yourself or within the animal. For instance, if we go into a lesson and we’re a little excited as we are going to start the lesson, it can actually trigger the horse as it feels the high energy of excitement from the coach and the student and sometimes we have to say “Whoa, stop, let’s not worry about that, and lets just get grounded and centred and start the lesson.” If you come in you just had a really shitty day, the emotions that you’ve had in that day if they come into the arena with you, they will affect the way your work session goes. And the day that you’ve had where it continues to go in a downwards spiral or you can choose to ground yourself–to do a moment of deep breathing, and allow the emotions to leave and get into the mindset of working with your horse and leave–leave everything behind."

Q3: How does biomechanics fit into your coaching?

"It’s a massive part of my coaching, and I’ve been following this path of biomechanics for 30 years. First of all, I got very involved in the Ride With Your Mind techniques from Mary Wanless and realised that a lot of coaching was missing the understanding of the biomechanics of the rider. I was just blown away by how, not just positioning the rider’s skeleton over the horse’s skeleton made the difference, it’s about the tone of the body–the way we use the body; the flow of the body. So if we don’t have the correct biomechanics, we’re really making it very difficult for the horse to be able to move in flow and in balance. It was a huge change in my coaching when this knocked on my door and found me. I grabbed this and really got involved in it in a big way.

Ten years ago I decided I needed to know more about the biomechanics of the horse, and I then went into doing dissections with Sharon May-Davis, and every time I walk away and say “OK, that is probably the last one to do, but I end up doing another one” because another question comes into my mind. So, I’m always looking at the way the horse moves, the pattern of alignment, the tone of the muscle, bracing in the body–of horse and rider, and one can create the problem for the other. If a rider is, for instance, very braced in the stirrups as they have understood “get the weight down into the heels” and they are pushing down into the stirrups, I will change that because it has a negative influence on the horse’s back, and on the flow through the partnership. It is a huge part of my coaching and I never know, when I start a lesson, if that is where I am going to start, or whether I am going to start on another part–it depends what is screaming out me the most, when a horse and rider combination comes into the arena."

Q4: What makes your lessons and clinics so unique?

"I don’t watch a lot of other clinics, so I don’t know how other people do it, but I do love a really good connection with my students. I never walk in to a clinic or a lesson situation, letting the person believe that I am such a high authority that they can’t have a conversation with me. So, I always want to feel that I am working with my students and that we can have a conversation about what they believe and what I believe, and that we start to mix that information up and get it blending together. I always give my students the opportunity to talk back to me as I like to have a conversation with them. I don’t want them to sit there quietly having an internal dialogue with themselves that they think something isn’t working for them. I’d rather that they would speak up about it. There is a very open communication in my lessons and it’s piecing it together bit-by-bit, that I often strip it back further, until the horse or the rider truly understands what we are trying to work on.

When I do a clinic, I do videoing of parts of the lesson. Later that day we do video feedback, and the reason I do that is so that the person can really understand what I am seeing and then they can see what happens when I’ve adjusted them, and how it changes the way the horse goes.

Often in some of my lessons, as well, I actually don’t let the rider get on because the horse isn’t ready emotionally, or there is a problem going where we need to work on it on the ground–helping the horse get relaxation and get their body into a better place. If I were to put the rider on, it would give the rider the tick that they got on the horse, but it won’t benefit the horse or the rider. This is part of stripping it back, and if we strip it back further, we can get the horse and rider into a headspace, that possibly the second day you can get on. It’s not always about getting on the horse and flying around the arena, it’s more about noticing the detail; noticing the emotion; having the connection with the horse; all of which are important to me."

Q5: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to riders struggling with connection?

"Connection can cover a lot of aspects. Connection can be: the connection of the emotion between the horse and rider; With that I have to watch how the rider is responding to the horse and are they noticing the little details that the horse is giving them as information, or have they missed that detail. If the horse is not responding in the way the rider wants them to, does the horse actually understand what is required? So this all comes under the umbrella of connection.

Can we start to get an understanding of each other–can the rider speak Equus and can the horse start to understand Human? This is a long journey–it’s a never-ending journey–I’m still on it! I’m still learning Equus. It will always be a never-ending journey.

The other part of connection is the connection of your seat to your horse. How is your connection of your seat connecting to the horse? Is it tight? Is it soft? Is it floppy? Does the horse respond and come up to meet the rider’s seat? Or does the horse drop its back away and try to escape the rider’s seat? That’s another thought in connection for me.

The last thought on connection, is the connection to the horse’s mouth–the contact. Is it with love and care? Is it harsh? Is there an understanding of the mechanics of the horse’s mouth? What is the bit for? So there are so many aspects of connection to be thought about and this is something that I talk about in quite a lot of depth in my lessons, if need be. How are you holding the reins? Are your fingers closed? Are your wrists soft? Is your forearm bulging? What are you doing with your arm? How is your jaw? All these things relate to connection to the horse’s mouth."

Q6: What's something people might not know about you, and how does that significant thing make you feel?

"People may not be aware of that I am an introvert. This seems to be more and more and I love living alone with my animals. Even though I am passionate about my work, coaching, I’m great going into small  groups of people that come to my clinics, but not great in large crowds. I find it totally overwhelming and usually leave early from large, crowded places. I go into withdrawal and shutdown. So even though I am confident in my clinics, I am not confident, at all, mixing with large crowds."

Q7: If you could have one super power, what would it be and why?

"[laughs] I think I already have a lot of super powers, but I would like to hone in my deep communication with horses and animals. This is still a work in progress. I can already feel the emotion, but I am not sure I am getting the right communication back to me in words. Is it my thoughts or theirs? I’d love to heighten this super power."

Q8: What is one person, dead or alive, that you would love to have dinner with and why?

"I've thought about that, and over the years there have been different people. For the moment, it wouldn’t be just dinner as it wouldn’t be long enough! It would have to be a month, maybe a year or more with Belinda Bolsenbroek. I feel her knowledge is superior to anyone else I have ever met. She is also a really beautiful person to talk to. I feel you could never ask her a question and feel stupid for asking it."

Q9: If you could make one major change or influence the equestrian world, what would it be and why?

"Great question! I would like to ask people to be more humble. I hear so many points of view now that it is making me withdraw from Facebook. If somebody puts up a post that is controversial, they are inviting friction to come back at them. There is a lack of human care that is said in the horse world. I’ve gotten to stage where I notice it more. I wish we could be kinder, open and humble to be seeing the points of view of other people, and listen in silence without having the need to jump in. We can all learn from everyone even though it might not be relevant to us–even a micro grain of rice! We need to be kind, be humble and realise everyone is on a journey. My journey has been all over the place to bring me to where I am now.

If we could just give out kindness, compassion and be humble. Other people would do this as well. We would start to give it out, and get it back. It starts with us and then ricochet it out to the horse world."

Q10: As you have had exposure to a wide variety of disciplines (including eventing, racing, Academic, classical, dressage just to name a few), what is your favourite and why?

"I think the classical dressage that I am on now is my favourite. I absolutely love going into the detail, along with the lightness and softness. Always asking myself: how little can I do to get what I really want? To teach that gives me so much joy! This is due to seeing that the horse’s love it. The classical pathway, I am on now, is the thing that I really REALLY love. But all the other things I have done have brought me to this place."

Brea, Ann & Merlot

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Final Thoughts & Insider Info

Ann’s approach is a refreshing reminder that great riding isn’t about domination—it’s about partnership. Through mindfulness, biomechanics, and emotional awareness, she helps riders unlock a deeper, more rewarding relationship with their horses.

Some little fun facts about Ann:

• She was the UK's first ever female horse racing jockey

• Has a beautifully classy English accent

• She loves a good almond croissant (especially one from The Little Sutton Bakehouse)

• Has 2 and half horses (Heidi, Brea and Titch), her dog (Merlot) and a variety of guineafowl at home in the Perth region, Western Australia

📅 Want to experience Ann’s coaching? Check out her upcoming clinics at https://themindfulrider.com.au.

Or come and check out the up-coming clinics here in Canberra!