Education is my passion. BHS qualified, I have coached riders for almost 30 years and during that time I have worked in Higher Education. Now, I bring that experience to coaching riders of all abilities, ages disciplines and aspirations full time, either at our yard just off the motorway at Stirling in our 60m x 30m Martin Collins arena with a full set of Jump 4 Joy arena cross country and showjumps, or travelling to you.
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Below are some client coaching testimonials and I would be delighted to discuss how I might help and support you.
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Joanne Fairbrother, BHSAI
Tel: 07808 938827
Email: avonmill@gmaii.com
Joanne has been teaching my daughter Millie Boo with fantastic results. My daughter has cerebral palsy and bilateral hearing loss but Joanne has adapted lessons to fit Millie’s capabilities. Joanne is patient, experienced, fantastic at communicating and intuitively knows how to get my daughter working well and pushing her within her limits. Millie has a love of Para Dressage and Joanne has spent time working on corners, active walk and trot, suppleness, shape and bend. Joanne always sets “homework” to work on in between lessons which are built around my daughter’s objectives and goals. Joanne’s experience and love of dressage shines through in lessons. As my daughter is deaf Joanne spends extra time explaining what Millie expects from a lesson, what they will be working on and makes sure Millie understands her instructions at every turn. Millie loves her lessons and we can see visible improvements after every lesson. Millie and I would 100% recommend Joanne.
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Steven Smith
After having a bit of a slump with my riding due to time, family commitments, generally feeling I just could not do it all anymore and going back to just hacking, I was speaking to Joanne - who I've known for 30 years and who gave me lessons when i was a livery with her - and she understood how hard it is as Joanne has first hand experience of trying to juggle horses, family and work. I've been getting lessons from Joanne in her new beautiful arena and now I'm feeling confident relaxed and my homebred horse Thunder and I are improving all the time. Joanne is great and very relaxed even when uour horse has a wee frisky day and everything is adjusted to suit what's required there and then. I'm also learning lots of new exercises to take home and continue progressing our lateral work. I can not recommend Joanne highly enough, I'm very lucky to have Joanne and her amazing facilities 5mins up the road. I'm also taking a huge step with Joannes encouragement and belief in us and going to do some dressage over the winter - a huge step for a 40plus mum who hasn't been to a competition in over 10years. I'm excited and can't wait to continue with our journey.
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Victoria Brown
I really recommend Joanne as a riding coach. I have been taking regular lessons with her for the past two years now, and she has completely transformed my riding from my posture to the partnership with my horse. My horse can be quite challenging as she can be very spooky in an outdoor school and Joanne has adapted every single lesson to my horse’s behaviour so the lesson can be as beneficial as possible, and we have made so much progress together. Joanne is very knowledgeable and always give great guidance during the lesson; she also truly cares about horses and coaching as she will always give you tips on exercises to ride on your own and give advice even outside lessons.
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Sophie Cecillon
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I first brought my mare to Avonmill on livery at the beginning of 2019. Since then, Joanne has been a mentor, coach and more importantly a friend, who has always ensured the well-being of both myself and my mare are at the forefront of her teaching. I had previously evented to BE Intermediate until my horse had a serious tendon injury. Joanne spent countless hours assisting me in the careful rehabilitation of her leg, which enabled us to continue to event successfully in the years to come. Joanne brings a wealth of experience across a variety of disciplines and brings warmth, encouragement and a sense of camaraderie to every session. I’d highly recommend Joanne's teachng!
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Elise Rae
Having not come from a horsey upbringing I have spent many years trying to find my horsey support village. I have worked at some fantastic yards and trained with some brilliant instructors. And Jo is definitely one of the best!
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I met Joanne several years ago and was lucky enough that she helped me find a wonderful mare to restore my confidence after having a baby. Finding the right horse was part of the journey but the support over and advice she gave me over the years following has been invaluable. Even now two horses later she is still here with me encouraging me with wonderful insight and horsemanship along the way.
As a keen amateur I would stress that word! With a busy full time job, family and horse, time is always precious. Looking for someone who understands that dynamic when teaching you with your horse is very important! Especially if like me you aren’t from a horsey family and are still the “pony mad child” from the riding school at heart. Joanne helped me dream big and it wasn’t long before my little mare was jumping double clear round BE events and having great days out.
I first started having lessons with Jo to improve our show jumping which has always been my weak spot - aren’t all eventers a shade of green when show jumping?? But somehow she has made it so much simpler for me and dare I say it enjoyable. I have even been photographed smiling in the ring! What I liked most is the emphasis on getting the basics right. There was no being told to go and jump a huge fence. There was a systematic approach to get horse and rider working together and in a correct manner. Working on our aids and understanding how to use them so when we actually added the fences things were much easier! Which in turn brought on my confidence in my ability dividends.
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The warm up in particular is daunting when show jumping. I had always largely competed alone so this added to my nerves in the warm up and stopped me progressing. But when Jo offered to help me in the warm up I couldn’t believe the difference. I’m calm and she helps me keep to a plan and be in the right mind set to go in and do our best. With her help I successfully stepped up to BE 100 which I really never dreamed possible.
I felt I was able to go home and use the exercises and replicate them. The manner in which Jo had explained them meant the work was transferable for me to work on myself as I understood the process. Which is so common for amateurs I think that often while riding when being taught we ride well but when we go home and haven’t quite absorbed what tools we were to use. Therefore we can’t build or recreate what we did in the lessons. With Jo’s approach I always feel ready to use what I’ve done and look forward to the next lesson like turning over the next page of a book. I also find I don’t feel afraid to drop a message after to discuss what we have done or ask her to explain further. There are no silly questions just a lovely supportive great coach who can understand how different adults learn and adapt her approach
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To anyone looking for support to go out and compete I’d highly recommend Jo. A kind and attentive coach and general all round wonderful person who is genuinely interested in helping you improve and never forgets whatever crazy big goal you’d like to set! And will help you achieve it!
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Kerry Donoghue
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