Meeting Goals
As an adult, it’s easy to fall into riding “ruts”. Carol has encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and try new challenges that deepen my ability and build my confidence. I’ve found myself leaving each lesson proud of myself, proud of my horse, and eager to practice what we’ve just learned. Recently, under Carol’s guidance, I took my horse x-country schooling – I picked one goal for the hour: to feel more confident at a fast canter, a faster canter than if we were in the ring. Not only did I exceed my goal, but we also schooled fences that I would have never attempted on my own. My favorite takeaway from that day was something that I will use both in the saddle and in regular adult life – “Fear is just misplaced energy”! Most of all, I appreciate that Carol makes each lesson fun, and helps me build a better and better partnership with my horse.
-Alice Moran, Student
Switching Disciplines
I grew up in the hunter ring and in an effort to make an adulthood switch to eventing, but my unexplained fear of jumping was really getting in the way. I sought out Carol’s expertise hoping her years of experience could help me break through some confidence issues I was having. Carol worked very hard on Day One to make sure I came out of the lesson with a positive, confidence-boosting experience – and I did. Since then I’ve begun every lesson with a “daily goal” and parted every session with Carol feeling self-assured, proud, and accomplished. Most importantly, however, I feel Carol is helping me re-learn how to ride – how to be a more effective, less restrictive rider, in turn giving my mare a more comfortable ride and the best shot at success. I’m feeling better and better about myself as a rider, and my mare’s capabilities the more I ride with Carol – I look forward to every lesson!”
-Melissa Iozzo
Young Riders
Carol has taught me and my two daughters for over twenty years! She started my two girls on their very first pony and helped them achieve their equestrian dreams all the way through high school, guiding Kelly and her horse Ben through second level dressage and a musical freestyle and Annie and her eventing horse Ruby to a spot on Area 1’s 2015 Young Rider team! She has been their teacher and mentor, their coach at events and shows, and their biggest cheerleader.
Carol’s students receive the very best riding instruction, from beginner to advanced levels of dressage and eventing. Carol deeply cares about both the horse and the rider so her students also learn horse management, safe riding, and the importance of the partnership between the horse and the rider, no matter what the skill level. She adapts her teaching style readily to kids and adults, competitors and pleasure riders, and beginning to advanced riding ability. She can do it all!!
-Gwen Ortmeyer
Training for Eventing
Carol has been my trainer for over 25 years and during this time we have started and trained several horses to successfully event. Not only has Carol helped me to train my horses, but she has also taught me how to develop a true understanding and partnership with my horses, which is so important for an upper-level event horse. She has always taken my horses under her wing and treated them as if they were her own, looking after their well-being and making sure I was doing things properly.
Carol’s style is to make sure students understand what is being communicated so that they know what to do when facing a challenging or new situation again. 99% of the time the horse is right and the rider is wrong, so she teaches her students to be more aware of their body, aids, and what they are or are not doing that is causing the horse to react. Minute changes in position or fitting can make a huge difference, and Carol has the eye and skill to properly communicate this clearly to students.
I had been riding since early childhood, but it wasn’t until I started to work with Carol that I developed the understanding and skills to properly train and ride.
I look back over the years and realize that it is due to Carol’s correct and positive guidance that I have had such success with my horses and now have the confidence and knowledge to yet again start a young horse. Thank you, Carol!
-Irene Given, 3 Phase Event Competitor
Upper-Level Eventing
The first horse I ever evented was Carol Mayo’s former upper-level horse. Harry was incredible. He knew his job and took such good care of me. I learned so much from Carol and Harry that went way beyond just riding. I am forever thankful to Carol for all the skills she gave me and that I still use today, and also for sharing her very special horse with me. I would not be where I am today without either of them.
-Jessie Shull
Hunting
Carol Mayo has been my riding instructor for four years. I was an inexperienced rider when I began and I am extremely satisfied with the training that she has given me. She knows horses and she knows how to teach. I began jumping in fox hunts during my third year of lessons and now jump regularly. I highly recommend her to anyone who wants to how to become a competent rider.
-Phil Bauman
A Life of Learning
It was 1978 when I traveled to England and went to train as a horse professional at Moat House Equestrian Centre In Benenden, Kent. Carol was one of my instructors there and by far one of the best trainers! My professional career as a riding instructor and trainer took place in California but I have traveled here many years for her spot-on coaching. I have had the pleasure of her instruction throughout my decades and I am a better rider for the attention she has given to me and my various horse charges.
In 2011 I returned to Massachusetts and I have been riding once again under her tutelage.
She has a true eye for position, the rider’s needs, and the horse’s training considerations. She really drilled into me the importance of seat and feeling the horse’s movement beneath me. Her sense of humor and depth of concern has always prevailed and inspired my confidence. What I love most is she asks what I would like to work on at the beginning, develops the lesson on this, and gives me the step-by-step process to create this for myself in my daily riding experiences. There is always feedback and room for growth!
-Diane Whitney, B.H.S.A.I. Instructor