FEATURE
Transcending limiting beliefs Tanja Mitton is a specialist in rider posture and mindset, writes JANE CAMENS.
“The reason they lose confidence is because they don’t trust themselves,” she says. “They give their power away. There’s an internal dialogue they can’t get out of their head that creates fear. I work with the person to show them that it’s pure illusion.” Tanja was born in Germany where she grew up in a non-horse family. But she always dearly wanted to ride and was eventually allowed to take lessons. “In Germany, almost everyone who rides starts off with classical instruction in
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the riding schools,” she told HorseVibes. That’s the basis of the coaching she brought to Australia 24 years ago when she followed her Aussie husband out here. Tanja competed in Germany both as a young rider as well as in open classes, jumping up to 1.40m. Eventually, needing a job, she moved away from fulltime show jumping to work for three-and-a-half years in an equine hospital. When an opportunity arose to go to England to work with rehabilitating injured horses she jumped at the chance and moved to the UK. That’s where she met event rider Richard Mitton, whom she eventually married. He was in England
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ne of the major areas of Tanja Mitton’s work is helping riders gain or regain confidence. “I look at it as regaining confidence in ourselves,” says the qualified Neuro Linguist Programmer (NLP). Tanja has worked with many people who’ve had bad experiences, and in most cases, she says, it’s due to a lack of confidence.
If a rider is tense, the horse mirrors that tension. The first rung on Tanja’s training scale, the base line of her pyramid, is relaxation.
running eventing comps - as he still does in Australia. These days Tanja, 50, is based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and spends much of her time travelling up and down the Australian east coast holding clinics on rider posture and mindset. Tanja is close to being a legend at the equestrian centre where I ride. Her name is invoked with devotion by her followers. “Remember what Tanja Mitton says about breath,” they say, or about posture, or about lower leg contact. But mainly what it’s about is breath, and the power of the breath to relax your body. By the time you read this Tanja will
