By Jessica Jo Tate
The Team Tate Academy has been a dream come true. I’ve always thought about doing an Academy because my mentor of 30+ years told me that what America was missing was a place to create like minded horsemen & women.
Charles de Kunffy grew up in Budapest, Hungary and had his immense talent developed early on by attending the national riding academy. His life would never be the same. Horses basically saved his life. You can read about his plight in his book “Escape from Tyranny” and see for yourself. I think I can say for a lot of us, horses have saved our lives too, maybe not in that same exact way, but definitely in some way!
We were slowly making plans (meeting with builders, expanding our office and lodging, etc) for developing an Academy out of our beautiful farm in South Carolina, and then the Corona virus hit.
Life, as we all know it, has changed. We knew we had a choice to either sit around waiting for things to get back to “normal” or we adjust, adapt and get moving! Thanks to my wonderful (very smart and computer friendly) partner in crime, Catherine Respess, we went into the world of online learning! I asked my husband, Richard Malmgren, to pick up his phone and start videotaping because I wanted to create something to bring us all together through horses!
Team Tate Academy
What has always been a popular piece of my clinics (when I would get on their horse with the mic on and explain what I’m feeling, doing, seeking) I decided why not start with educational videos to explain some of the basic exercises and show the HOWS, WHYS, WHATS, and the WHENS.
HOW: how to do the exercise, where to apply the aids, how to sit in order to guide the horse into the correct answer.
WHY: why is this important?! Why do my aids have to be applied here? Why will he respond that way? Why is this step the first step and what why does it lead into that second step?
WHATS: What is the point? The goal? What is the purpose? What does this exercise help? What’s the big deal if I allow this to be wrong? What does that lead to?
WHENS: When in the horse’s life should I do this? When do I use my half half, my leg, my seat?! When in the daily work should I do this?
There are so many questions we need answers to, and during this unprecedented time, most of us will have to learn at home, or in limited schedules with trainers/clinicians. What we want to do is help! Our intent is not to replace your home trainer, no way! We understand how important that person is to the improvement to your riding and to your horse, BUT we want to help fill in the gaps that may arise when you are home alone, when we can’t remember the 100 questions we have in our heads during the short amount of time we see our trainer for our lesson, for the moments between lessons, to show an elegant example of the goals, to promote thoughtful riding, and above all else to inspire everyone that when you ride the horse, you can train him too!
When You Know Better, You Do Better
Methodology is so important for the success of our training progress. Without a clear path of understanding, we can easily go down the wrong road of pressure, confusion and stress! Especially now! What we are striving to create is a like minded, horse loving group of people who want to learn about the science of riding, Classical principles passed down to me by my numerous wonderful teachers, and how they are not only responsible for the training of the horse they are sitting on, but that they are capable!! We have had incredibly positive feedback from the 350+ members already, but we wanted to open it one more time this summer to let more students in, as we are all up in the air with the world events right now. The one thing you don’t have to be worried about when joining the academy is, “Will I be able to advance my horse, will his training suffer, will I lose my riding passions?” No, you won’t! Not with this program! Satisfaction guaranteed!
Meet JJ
What you will receive: At the Working Student level, one weekly video of usually me riding with a mic and explaining WHAT I’m doing, WHY I’m doing, WHEN I apply the aids, and HOW you can do it too! Along with the video, you get a PDF that will help you understand the lesson better, a place where you can ask questions that I answer personally, and a bi- monthly study group to discuss videos and thoughts! It’s like a book club with no reading! Yes! When you join the next tier, the Apprentice level you will also get a monthly lecture on important topics like the aiding system, or concepts about building the horse up the levels. When you sign up at the Trainer level, you will also receive a lesson from me either via zoom or sending your video in for commentary. It’s been an amazing journey so far! We sure hope you check it out!
Join and Learn at TeamTateAcademy.com
Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate is a U.S. Dressage Federation (USDF) bronze, silver, and gold medalist. She represented the United States in the 2007 FEI World Breeding Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Verden, Germany. Tate was also a World Cup finalist and was long-listed for the World Equestrian Games in 2006. She is on the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) Developing Riders List. Recent notable wins include Dressage at Devon World Cup Grand Prix in September 2018 and the Global Dressage Festival CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle in February of 2020.
JJ's latest project is TeamTateAcademy.com a platform providing world-class dressage lessons and more right at your fingertips.
Learn more by visiting TeamTateAcademy.com and register for an informative webinar being held 17 - 24 August 2020. Or Join Us on Facebook.