Accredited Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist, Counsellor, NLP Confidence Coach, Instructor, Horse Trainer & Competitor.
Amanda specialises with horse riders, combining her extensive hypnotherapy, coaching and NLP skills with her unique understanding of the difficulties faced by riders and those working with horses. Amanda initially started practicing as a hypnotherapist, counsellor and NLP practitioner in 1996 and has also worked within the NHS and with North Devon Victim Support.
Amanda has been working in the equine industry with top trainers, riders and horses in the UK and abroad for over 40 years. She has been teaching riders for the past 35 years and in the last 25 years has been incorporating Hypnotherapy, NLP and Confidence Coaching.
Amanda has been riding for most of her life and has raced abroad in Pro/Am Races in Singapore, Malaysia and Penang and has represented Singapore in the Asian Horse Trials in Thailand and Singapore. After attending Moat House Equestrian Centre in Kent for her British Horse Society exams, she worked for Olympic rider and trainer, Bertie Hill, backing and training young horses and teaching riders from overseas. Amanda has bred and trained her own horses, including Thoroughbreds, Sports Horses and American Quarter Horses.
She now regularly competes in BD affiliated dressage and show jumping events around the South East England. Amanda has been part of the British Dressage South West Home International Team & Inter Regional Team with her horse Drayford Django (Pedro).
In Amanda’s own words:
“I’ve always had a great love of horses and riding since I was very young and was extremely privileged to have the opportunity to compete and race abroad. Unfortunately, I had a particularly bad fall in my late 20s and spent 3 months in hospital, and unable to walk. After a year in recovery, I attempted to ride again. However, I was astounded that I had gone from a once confident, happy rider, to someone full of anxieties and fears as soon as I thought about getting in the saddle”.
“It left me doubting my own abilities as a rider, knowing that all my riding skills must be there somewhere, but unable to get past the fear. When I did manage to get on a horse, I was obsessed by what the horse was looking at, thinking about, what it might do. That then led on to how was I going to stay on if it wanted to get me off? I knew it was pointless thinking about how to fall off. When I was 17yrs old and taking my racing license, I spent quite a few sessions ‘learning’ different ways to fall from a racehorse. This literally meant throwing yourself off a racehorse cantering around an arena! All this taught me was that in real life, horses move too quickly to predict what to do. No horse moves in the same way and normally it happens to quickly to do what we had practised”.
“I knew I needed help, but at that time, there wasn’t the amount of confidence help and awareness there is now”.
“So, over 20 years ago, I started my journey into psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, NLP training & coaching, which is of course, still ongoing. I came to realise that confidence coaching, and specifically, hypnotherapy, was the best way to regain my riding confidence. I started working on the difficulties I was experiencing, trying out new strategies, reviewing and fine tuning them over the years”.
“The most staggering changes were brought on by using hypnosis. I looked at hypnotherapy CDs, but found none that were produced by a therapist/rider/competitor, and I decided to combine all my therapy training, plus my riding and competition experience to produce recordings in a studio in Instow, Devon. I gave these to a number of riding clients I was working with, and the feedback I had was really good. Putting all these together, I decided to start ‘The Confident Horse Rider’”.
“I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able now to travel around the UK and Southern Ireland delivering training, workshops and lessons to help other riders. It’s something I never thought I would be doing, but it’s a complete privilege and joy to work with such determined riders, who have lost their confidence, but so desperately want to regain it. I’ve made some amazing friends, not only in Europe, but also now in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand with my online coaching services.”
Amanda travels to venues throughout the UK running Confidence Camps, Workshops and Talks. Amanda also runs clinics on a whole range of different activities for riders to improve their confidence whether for flatwork, competing, dressage, show jumping or cross country jumping. Based at Crockstead Equestrian Centre, Sussex, riders are able to bring their horses and enjoy riding retreats with the main focus on improving confidence and/or performance. Facilities include a large indoor arena, outdoor arena, hotel accommodation if required, hacking, x-country course, derby course. Riders of any level, from beginners to professional, and any activities are catered for.
https://www.confidenthorserider.co.uk/home/amanda-kirtland-page#sigProIdc669c30793