Listen With EquiTeam – Details, episodes & analysis

When Caeleigh Kean posted on her social media about a recent success, the start of the post caught our eye.

Equiteam’s Liz Daniels chats to Caeleigh Kean about winning a sash, being crowned champions, and why she feels that good things don’t happen to people like her.

Like many people, Caeleigh wasn’t in a position to buy a ready-made horse, so instead she invested in a nice youngster to produce herself. Six years later and after a lot of blood, sweat, tears, logistical struggles, and battles with her health, Caeleigh is now loving every moment she spends with the horse of her dreams.

Liz Daniels chats to International Italian Event Rider Daniel Bizzarro about his journey from Italy to England, and his desire to share his knowledge by making it widely accessible.

Growing up on the outskirts of Turin, Italy, Dan began his riding journey aged nine.
A few years later he was given his first taste of Eventing as a Young Rider and his desire to follow his passion was lit.

In 2011, Dan left his home with his cat, horse and dog, and found himself working for a season with William Fox Pitt where he learned an incredible amount about riding, horse care and yard management.

Dan is passionate about sharing his information to help riders of all levels and regularly shares information on his social platforms and through an app that he has recently developed.

If you want to find out more about Dan you can find him on the following channels:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dbeventing 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danbizzarro 

Website: https://www.dbeventing.co.uk 

App: https://www.danbizzarromethod.com 

On this week’s episode, EquiTeam’s Liz Daniels and Lou Gillings chat about the importance of running your own race, in your own time, and how external factors can influence your pool of resistance.

The duo take a look a grasping opportunities and how it is OK to take the pressure off when it comes to your horse, as they remind us all that it should be fun.

This week Liz and Lou discuss EquiTeam’s recent blog ‘Are you letting yourself down?’ which it would be fair to say caused quite a reaction from some of our readers.

Whilst we can recognise that a better title may have been something like “Are you getting the most from your lessons?’ the fact remains that if we are tired, this impacts our riding and therefore what we get out of our lessons. If you can’t breathe properly because you’re not fit enough, your brain can’t function, your muscles get tired quickly and you and your horse will suffer as a result.

The irony is we all put so much into our horses who want for nothing, but how often do we really invest time and energy to look after ourselves.

The bottom line is you get out what you put in and we want to encourage, support and if needed, push people in the right direction, so whilst the title was perhaps a bit punchy, the topic needed to be shared.

If you are super busy and want some quick and effective workouts to build your fitness levels then come and join us at www.equiteam.co.uk

Today’s episode sees Lou Gillings getting her own back and putting Liz Daniels firmly in the hot seat. If you have listened to our recent ‘Coaching Uncovered’ series you will already know a bit about ‘Liz the Coach’, but in this podcast Lou gets to ask more about what makes Liz tick, who inspires her and who she would most like to have dinner with. Lou also finds out that after enjoying her time grooming (and partying) a little too much, Liz headed back to school, and came out of university with a First in Journalism… not just a pretty face and a non-stop talker!

But as well as the fun Liz also shares what her hopes and dreams are for EquiTeam and how we can support the wider equestrian community, so if some of what she has to say resonates with you then head over to our website to find out more about EquiTeam and our online educational platform for horse riders of all levels. We would love to welcome you inside the membership!

In this episode we meet Lou Gillings, also known as Loubird and one third of the Equiteam partnership. Liz and Lou talk all things Equiteam and share more about how their confidence camps started and the ethos behind their success.

Liz also puts Lou on the spot with some quick fire questions around who inspires her the most and who she would like to have dinner with! Richard Branson, Sir David Attenborough and Bradley Cooper were mentioned!

If you would like to access some of the downloads and videos mentioned in this episode, you can join us here at www.equiteam.co.uk/register/equiteam/ 

We all know that horse rider is a high risk sport or hobbie but do we all know what to do if we or one of our friends has an accident? Would you remove their hat?

In this episode Liz Daniels chats to Nisha from Medi-K First Aid Training Cooperative to find out what we can all do to make sure we know how to deal with a medical emergency. Whilst many riders may worry about spinal injuries Liz and Nisha share some stats about head injuries which are the most common injury within the equestrian community. If you would like to make sure you are prepared as possible you can find out about Medi-K’s First Aid training here.

Want to give yourself the best chance of jumping a successful course of show jumps? Walking the course properly is a good place to start and in this episode the team from EquiTeam share their top tips on exactly what you need to be doing

How many of us run round the course usually because we are short of time or worse still spend most of the course walk chatting to friends as we go! It’s so important to walk the course through the eyes of our horse and see what they see as they jump round, so be aware of the collecting ring, the Judge's box, spooky water trays and fillers at the side of the ring. Liz Daniels also explains how to accurately stride out your distances in the doubles or for related distances and how the distances you walk may alter how you want to ride the course.

EquiTeam members can access our handy download with all of the distances between fences here and if you aren’t a member and would like to sign up then come and join us

In this episode we meet Natasha Swales who shares her incredible story of a £1 horse called Mary

Known for liking quirky mares Tash purchased Mary, a grey mare with a history of rearing for just £1 four years ago and has been documenting their journey on social media ever since.

Tash tried absolutely everything to break the cycle of Mary’s rearing and it was only months later when she asked Jay Johnson for help that they turned a corner. Now out jumping numerous double clears, Tash and Mary’s journey is such an inspiration and a brilliant example of what hard work, a willingness to learn, love for a quirky mare and a slight stubborn streak can achieve

You can follow Mary and Tash’s journey here:

https://www.facebook.com/she.rides.twd

https://www.instagram.com/she.rides.twd

Want to nail your dressage test but unsure how to warm up properly? Liz Daniels and Liz Somerville share some of their top tips to help you warm up and go into your test feeling prepared and ready to go.

It’s too easy to feel intimidated by a busy warm up or to go in without a plan so in this episode we chat through timings, how to make sure your horse is warmed up properly, relaxed and in front of your leg, and with you both ready to ride the test. Whether you ride through the whole test in the warm-up may depend on your horse but we also share how you can break the test down into the individual movements to make sure you both know what to expect and how important it is to give yourself enough time to run through your test in your head before you go in.