Hilka Querl

About me

I have over 20 years of coaching experience. As a freelance coach, I have mostly been working for riding schools, coaching riding school clients and leisure riders in flat work, jumping and horse care.  Having spent years training with a classical dressage trainer, the focus in my coaching has been flatwork and the horse’s correct way of going.  My passion is horse welfare, and I have been working as an equine manual therapist since 2016.  I am a certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist, Masterson Method Practitioner and a Quad X Strength & Conditioning coach for horses.

I primarily coach beginners to advanced riders (in a riding school context), specialising in preparing clients for the BHS Stage 1 and Stage 2 assessments and I am also a Ride Safe trainer. I also specialise in strength and conditioning training for horses including groundwork. My main strengths as a coach are helping riders improve the communication with their horse with a horse centric approach. I am also passionate about teaching the correct way of going and ensuring that both horse and rider have a good experience in my lessons.  I am also good at teaching nervous riders and coaching clients to develop an understanding of what the horse is communicating at any given time, what feedback the horse is giving and to work with the horse (as opposed to treating horses like ‘sports equipment’).  One of the main reasons I enjoy coaching is passing on my passion for horses, horse welfare and riding to my clients.

I provide an excellent client service through advice and support between sessions as well as setting suitable goals. My coaching philosophy is based first and foremost on the communication between horse and rider, secondly, it’s confidence and enjoyment and I also work on rider position and biomechanics (both horse and rider). My approach to horse training is best described as ‘there is no ‘one size fits all’ so it’s very much specific to the horse/rider combination and circumstances but always ensuring that the horse has ‘a voice’.  Then it is about patience and working to the horse’s ‘timeline’ rather than the rider’s.

My rates start from £65 for 45mins private, and I'm willing to travel up to 20miles from my location.