Ridewell Trainwell

Ridewell Trainwell Ridewell Trainwell® with Julie Malcolm helping riders and horses to confidence, self carriage, enjoyment and skill.

Utilising rider and horse biomechanics, equine learning theory, dressage patterns and classical ridden and in-hand training.

Reflecting on a fantastic week of riding and training at Valença Classical Riding as Jen and I cruise up the Douro River...
04/06/2026

Reflecting on a fantastic week of riding and training at Valença Classical Riding as Jen and I cruise up the Douro River.

I finished up my week with a lovely passage tour on my favourite Xá, after managing to master some decent full pirouettes without him taking over 🤣🤣!

Big thank you to all the team at Valenca Classical Riding. The new on-site accommodation is superb, so along with the wonderful horses and trainers it makes it very hard to leave!

Xa and Sangau were my ridden teachers over the weekend and Quo Vadis and Gitano for ground work. In the ground work we p...
01/06/2026

Xa and Sangau were my ridden teachers over the weekend and Quo Vadis and Gitano for ground work.

In the ground work we played with Quo Vadis on the lunge at one end of the arena and Gitano at the other in-hand with the double bridle. QV is a stunning mover, he was very fresh in the work to start with when lunged free but soon settled in. I got to lunge him first on the left rein while Jen worked with Gitano.
The in hand work involved one of my favourite patterns setting up four cones in a square within a square which is framed by the arena walls on three sides. This provides great guidelines to help keep the circles from being squricles or getting too small close to the cones. We worked on circles, haunches out (horse hind legs go to the circle points) and shoulder out (human goes to the circle points) and smoothly changing between quadrants and exercises. It's challenging for both horse and handler! In the double we used both reins for the hand at the bit and just the bridoon rein for the hand holding the rein coming over the neck and holding the whip.

Cones also featured in many of our ridden exercises to help guide the way, whether it was doing zig zags or guiding us in on the half pass to the centre line then straight and maybe throwing in a half or full pirouette. I wonder what the queen of cones will dream up for us today 🤔 🤣

Our afternoon group lesson was super fun as we had Debbie join us in our organised chaos!

Most of the screen grabs today are from videos sent via messenger so excuse the poor quality.

Such a treat to spend the afternoon/evening visiting Goncalo Linhas and Nara França at Quinta do Palhão yesterday. Jen s...
31/05/2026

Such a treat to spend the afternoon/evening visiting Goncalo Linhas and Nara França at Quinta do Palhão yesterday. Jen sums it up perfectly in her post!

30/05/2026

Using the piaffe to help bring the hind legs more under in the canter.
Canter, walk piaffe, canter.
My teachers: Xá and Sofia Valença

I thought Jezzie was the most beautiful horse in all the world, but Zangau may have a slight edge! I got to ride this ma...
30/05/2026

I thought Jezzie was the most beautiful horse in all the world, but Zangau may have a slight edge! I got to ride this magnificent horse today 🤩🤩 and my old faithful Xa.

This stunning tall, young lusitano was our study/demo horse today as we delved into lunging horses as an integral part o...
29/05/2026

This stunning tall, young lusitano was our study/demo horse today as we delved into lunging horses as an integral part of their training and development.
Sofia was our guide in the demo/discussion and here I've asked her to provide height scale/comparison for this handsome horse

The queen of cones aka Sofia Valença, Valença Classical Riding keeps setting us new patterns to keep herself amused at ...
29/05/2026

The queen of cones aka Sofia Valença, Valença Classical Riding keeps setting us new patterns to keep herself amused at our expense! The horses are complicit in her treachery as they do their best to knock them over and get out of the intended exercise or otherwise make us look like fools (or both!)🤣🤣

But seriously what good exercises they are, whether in hand or ridden and especially for pirouette preparation in walk/canter. Here Jen and I have a small diamond of cones at each end of the arena where we have to ride a circle keeping the same distance away from the cones then ride travers, keeping that same circle line with the forelegs and haunches towards the cones, without knocking them over.

Luckily we have chief cones collector Fritz to fetch them in at the end of the lesson

My first lesson was on Xá this morning. He gave me quite a hard time in both the walk and canter pirouettes, especially ...
29/05/2026

My first lesson was on Xá this morning. He gave me quite a hard time in both the walk and canter pirouettes, especially to the left to begin with - because if he turns fast, it's over with (in his mind at least). Of course my left hand grab wanted to take over too and I had to have a stern talking to it and find a better balance to convince Xa we could be partners. I also had to watch out that my outside rein wasnt doing too much in the turn. It was good learning.
At the end we approached passage and piaffe and he was not convinced about passage today -usually our strong point together, but he tried super hard in piaffe and eventually said he supposed he could passage too 🤣🤣

It was super lovely to have Léa Forge along

This morning I had a fabulous lesson with Inês on Distinto. I had to be mindful of my left hand and really try to keep m...
28/05/2026

This morning I had a fabulous lesson with Inês on Distinto.
I had to be mindful of my left hand and really try to keep my hands, up, forward and as a pair.
In the canter half passes and half pirouettes I had to be ready to apply my inside leg to catch him if he went too fast with the shoulders and to help him keep straight on the centreline. The difference in balance when I could help him in the moment and not let my hands try to do the job was clear to see.
I love these screen grabs. It's as if we were breathing, blinking and thinking together. He is a fun horse to play with.

Some of the horses we are working with.
28/05/2026

Some of the horses we are working with.

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