Tellington TTouch Training™

One Horse - One Human at a Time

When we attend a TTEAM Clinic we arrive with excitement and wonder. The common bond that all of us share and the one that attracts us to Linda’s work, is that we each believe, in our own way, that there must be a better way to be with horses, other animals, the people in our lives and with the world in general.

The knowledge learned from TTEAM work is accumulative. In the beginning, it seems simple and easy. As we continue year after year to learn more of Linda’s shared skills, from clinics, workshops, CD’s, and her books, we begin to see a complete metamorphosis in our approach to riding, training and in many ways, to our interactions with other people as well. At a time of such great need for balance in the world and in our personal lives, by becoming TTEAM trained, we become part of the change.

Linda’s life philosophy is woven like a rich quilt and openly shared at her clinics. During the daily lunch break she shares ideas about thought provoking books and theories that open all of the participants to see that we all have unlimited potential. For most of us, there is a recognition that horses can be our teachers.

At Linda’s five-day clinics, many of us notice a personality pattern expressing itself as we work with our horses—our horses mirror this pattern back to us, many times it appears to be the root of the problem that we seem to be having with our horses, and yet it is a problem that we have in other aspects of our lives, too. The horses keep giving us an opportunity to not only get it right, but to get it better. At a recent workshop, there was a horse that was very pushy with its person. As the days went on, the person revealed how primary people in her life did not treat her with respect either. As she learned techniques to express her boundaries to her horse, she also had an awareness of different ways of being with humans in her daily life.

The work that Linda teaches at her clinics is far beyond horse training. Linda shares with her students the richness of her life journey with humans and with animals that she has finely tuned over the past fifty years. A woman always ahead of her time, she gently and humbly shares her knowledge with everyone present. The attendees at her horse clinics are of varied backgrounds from trainers, competitors, therapists, medical professionals, NARHA instructors, backyard horse owners and anyone with a desire to share with a horse in a more compassionate way. Whatever a person’s knowledge base is, Linda has a way of speaking and sharing examples directly so that they are easily understood and absorbed.

The variety of touches, leading positions, special riding equipment and connected riding techniques offer everyone something new and thought provoking to encourage and stretch skills, from professional trainer to horse lover. A questionnaire was sent to participants from a recent clinic. Christal Bannister, a massage therapist, answered, “I learned to touch a horse (and people) in a new way. I learned how to be soft and effective with the touches. I learned also how to be direct, observe and to give clear signals.”

TTEAM work offers us possibilities of dealing with our horses in an entirely different way. The depth of Linda’s work supports humans in continuing to unravel the myth of domination and ignorance in our relationship with our equine partners. When attending a five-day workshop, it is truly joyful to see horses and humans develop new ways of interacting together. In western civilization where horse ownership, racing, showing and winning have guided most peoples training background, it is so refreshing and important that we now have a choice.

Because of work like Linda’s TTEAM, we have an opportunity to see, to learn, to try and to succeed in improving the lives of our horses and at the same time improving our lives as we see that compassion, listening, honoring and thought out techniques are available to everyone. An attendee at a recent clinic, Kathleen Aspenns wrote, “I really like seeing Linda work with challenging horses---to see what to do when they don’t like the first ten things you try---keep trying something different. Linda’s work in heartfelt—I absolutely love her respect for and her communication with the horses. It inspires me to be a more compassionate person.”

Linda supports each one of her students and helps them to embark on their own journey filled with all of the skills that she can possibly share. TTEAM work is not only about changing the way we deal with horses, it is about changing the way we see, hear, listen and deal with our lives . . . changing the way we are with each other, one horse, one person at a time.

By Wendy Collins
Wendy is the Program Director for a Equine Assisted Therapy Program. She has participated in 8 five-day clinics with TTEAM over the last 12 years. She is an ordained minister in Hailey, Idaho.

Three-day Training Program with Linda Tellington-Jones

In the 1980s, Equus Magazine dubbed Tellington TTouch® Training "The Touch That Teaches" and said participants will learn how to see and embrace their horse as an individual and through observation, patience and TTouch®, find the best ways to assist it in its training.

The second T in TTouch stands for "Trust" and building trust is what we aim for since it is the foundation on which everything else rests. With trust, horses learn to achieve enhanced levels of physical, mental and emotional balance.

Who Should Attend?

• Professionals of every level and from all disciplines, as well as amateurs, can benefit from learning a training philosophy and methodology devoted to working with horses using empathy instead of force - down to the cellular level. Linda's approach focuses on working with horses' minds and intelligence as much as with their body. The same is true of her work with riders.

Why Should You Attend?

• To improve your horse's rideability and performance without stress using holistic and humane groundwork, bodywork and ridden work from the Tellington Method and Tellington TTouch® Training.
• To create a long term training program that will help you develop a horse that is confident, willing, mentally and physically healthy, and capable of meeting your training goals regardless of discipline.
• To enhance, repair or deepen your relationship with your horse through the Tellington twin philosophies of "Change Your Mind & You Can Change Your Horse" and "Change the Posture and Change the Behavior."

What Will You Learn?

• Participants will learn how to identify, soothe and resolve discomfort in horses' bodies using TTouch. With the Tellington special ground exercises called the Playground for Higher Learning®, they will learn how to help horses develop better patience, balance and suppleness as well as increase their confidence and self-reliance. They will find out why, when and how to enhance their horse's performance under saddle with the Promise Wrap©, Liberty Ring©, Balance Rein© and Lindell©, and why, when and how to ride bridleless and more.
• On day one, participating horses and riders will be assessed under saddle to determine which of the TTouches, the Playground for Higher Learning exercises and Tellington riding equipment can be helpful.
• Over the next two days Linda will teach specific TTouches and Tellington techniques appropriate to each horse's situation.
• Participants will be broken into small groups and will practice with the horses under Linda's close supervision and with the help of her experienced team of instructors.
• Participants will also experience TTouch® and the Promise Wraps© for themselves. Linda will share the importance of heart coherence and breath work in achieving internal balance and a closer partnership with horses in and out of the saddle.

What Will You Take Away?

Susan Gibson, publisher of Trail Blazer Magazine, reported that she left Linda's training with the "ability to see her horse with new eyes." Cristiane Pravaz from Quebec wrote after attending the Tellington Training in Hawaii this February; "I tried the Balance Rein with Comrade today for the first time, and I received my first half walk and a lighter trot than ever before, and when we were finished with the session, Comrade moved his head near mine and with his lips, he touched my nose and just turned like you would do to somebody to let her know that you like her and the way she rode this afternoon!!!"

Our hope and the purpose of this training is that participants will take home a different awareness of themselves and new ways to assist their horses.

Three Days Designed to Help High-level Competitors

Linda Tellington-Jones presents her German and Italian training programs in the United States. Classes are designed to help high-level competitors in different disciplines develop more effective partnerships with their horses.

A founding member of the California Dressage Society and Germany's Xenophon, Linda has spent over fifty years in the saddle as a rider, competitor and instructor. She understands the challenges involved in developing a willing, athletic and healthy performance horse able to travel in balance, straightness and lightness over jumps or in a dressage rectangle. Equally, she understands how to help riders identify what is hindering their own performance whether it is asking for a pirouette, improving time over jumps or reducing a horse's anxiety entering a ring. A lifelong teacher, Linda is an effective instructor able to draw from her body of work to offer suggestions that result in immediate improvements.

Linda has worked with equestrian icons such as Reiner Klimke, Klaus Bakenhol, Kyra Kyrklund, and Nicole Uphoff. She has shared tools and techniques with Olympians Annabel Balkenhol, Ingrid Klimke and world-class jumper Michel Robert.

Sessions are limited to fourteen: four rider participants and ten auditors. This unique, three-day training program examines the ways a rider can identify and resolve the physical, emotional and mental challenges they and their horse face while training and competing in Dressage.

Linda will work with the four dressage riders and their horses daily in exercises such as riding without bridle, the Promise Wrap©, the Balance Rein©, TTouch®, and other Tellington training methods. The auditors will have the opportunity to practice demonstrated methods on dressage horses at Ashwin Stable with trainer Joanie Bolton. Each hour-long individual lesson will focus on the specific needs of the horse/rider pair.

Using concepts from her 2013 book Dressage with Mind, Body and Soul, Linda will help all fourteen participants rediscover, deepen, or repair their relationship with their horse. She will explain the importance of heart coherence and breath work as she guides all participants through an introspective program designed to help each person truly see and embrace themselves and their horse as a unique, worthy individual.

Participants will be able to practice what they have learned every day, hands-on, for several hours, with help from Linda and other experienced Practitioners using their own horse or program horses. Whether your horse is FEI or training level, a warmblood or a quarter horse, behind the leg or reactive, this three-day course will give you the same tools high-level riders throughout Europe are embracing enthusiastically. We hope you join us to discover why TTouch and the Tellington Method are thriving and how it can help you meet your goals and enhance the life and health of your performance horse.