LOWER LEG TRAINER DIPLOMA
A structured, anatomy-based online training for equestrian professionals who want to teach lower leg position with clarity and confidence. Five modules covering knee anatomy, foot and ankle mechanics, bone dynamics, movement sequences, and mounted application.
Lower Leg Trainer Diploma: At a Glance
- On-demand Educator Portal lifetime access
- Trainer Certification on completion
- Trainer License teach TYS clinics professionally
- TYS Trainer Forum community access
- Ball Training Workshop Series, included bonus
Not sure where to start? Book a free 30-minute call with Alysen
About This Training
Over the course of this 3-month online mentorship, you'll delve into our unique core principles - anatomical education, embodied function, and imagery - designed specifically for equestrian trainers.
This program goes beyond theory; it's not just a lecture series or generic movement training. You'll engage in an interactive format, addressing your unique challenges as a trainer and integrating practical solutions that enhance your coaching.
Upon completing this training, you'll gain a fresh, advanced perspective on rider biomechanics and movement, fully equipped with practical tools to immediately apply in your coaching sessions. You'll master mind-body exercises and imagery techniques that can be seamlessly integrated into both ground and mounted work, revolutionizing your lesson plans and delivering the results you've been striving to achieve with your riders.
Discover how to effectively utilize tools like Balls and Bands, alongside scientifically-backed principles, to amplify their benefits in your training sessions.
Join the ranks of our graduates who call this cutting-edge, innovative course the best investment they've made in their professional development as trainers.
REGISTER NOW →You've been saying it for years. They still haven't fixed it.
You know the correction. Your riders know the correction. "Heels down. Leg still. Stop letting that lower leg swing."
And then the next lesson starts, and everything is exactly the same.
The ankle, foot, knee, and the structures connecting them create a chain of movement and compensation that is nearly impossible to correct with verbal instruction alone. When a rider grips with the knee, the lower leg swings back. When the ankle stiffens, the heel comes up.
Being told what to do and being able to feel it are two entirely different things.
And meanwhile, your horse is responding to all of it. An unstable lower leg sends constant noise through the leg aid, and the horse cannot easily distinguish between accidental contact and an intentional signal.
The lower leg is not just a position problem. It is a communication problem.
The most-repeated correction in equestrian instruction, across every discipline
What becomes available when you understand the lower leg from the inside
You see the source, not just the symptom
Instead of seeing a "bad heel position," you know whether the pattern is starting at the ankle, the knee tracking, or a compensation from higher up.
Your riders feel the correction, not just hear it
You offer a specific image. Your rider's ankle softens. Their leg drops and settles because their nervous system has a new map to work from.
Your horse receives cleaner, quieter aids
A settled lower leg communicates with intentional contact, not background noise. Clearer leg aids mean a more responsive, calmer horse.
Why verbal correction alone can't create the change you're looking for
The rider's nervous system controls movement through an internal model: a map of what each part of the body feels like, where it is in space, and how it moves. When that map is incomplete, the body reverts to familiar patterns regardless of what the rider intends.
This is why a rider can know exactly what "heels down" means and still be unable to produce it on demand. The instruction is clear. The internal map has not changed.
The map drives the movement
The brain's internal picture of the lower leg determines how the leg actually moves in the saddle, not willpower, not effort. The map.
Imagery updates the map
Anatomically specific mental imagery, applied to real movement in the saddle, changes the brain's model through experience. This is what verbal instruction cannot do.
A better map creates lasting change
When the internal map is more accurate, the movement becomes more functional, and it stays that way, because the change happened at the neurological level.
Dynamic Neuro-cognitive Imagery
DNI, The TYS MethodologyEvidence-based: Supported by published research with the University of Gloucestershire & Hartpury University.
Format
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Online Virtual Training
Training education video portal “Train your Seat Online”
Webinars are interactive and hosted via Zoom
Instructor
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Alysen Starko-Bowes
Founder, Train Your Seat
Next Cohort
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[DATES TO BE CONFIRMED]
Enrollment opens soon. Join the waitlist to be notified first.
Investment
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$1997
Payment plans available.
MEET YOUR MENTOR
ALYSEN STARKO-BOWES
Alysen is the founder of Train Your Seat Equestrian Training & Rider Biomechanics
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Alysen's connection to horses began in her childhood on her grandparents' farm. She attended the University of Alberta in Canada for a BA in Psychology. After university, she dove deeply into the combination of psychology with movement and the body. Studying under some of the top leaders in the field of mind-body movement. She served as a faculty member for an imagery based systematic method for movement and postural retraining.
With extensive training in kinesiology, biomechanics, mental imagery, and somatics, she has been dedicated to working with equestrians for over 11 years.
In 2018, Alysen was invited to develop the equestrian branch for a prominent movement education program, which later led to the creation of Train Your Seat Equestrian Training; designed to fully acknowledge and encompass the unique interaction between horse and rider.
At the heart of Train Your Seat's philosophy is an understanding of the dynamic between horse and rider. This horse-and-rider-centric approach allows for a holistic training method that optimizes communication and enhances movement efficiency. This methodology prioritizes the welfare of both partners, ensuring a harmonious and effective partnership.
One enrollment. A complete professional toolkit.
30+ Hours Live Training
Live Zoom sessions with Alysen, not pre-recorded lectures. Real-time interaction, embodied practice, and direct input as you go. Every session is also recorded.
On-Demand Educator Portal
Every session lives in your personal portal for lifetime access. Return to any module, replay any exercise, build your teaching practice on your own schedule.
100+ Page Trainer Manual
A professionally produced manual covering the anatomy, imagery, and embodied function of the rider's lower leg. A teaching resource you will return to for years.
Individually Assigned Mentor
Your own TYS-certified mentor, a specific person who knows your progress, your goals, and your teaching context throughout the diploma.
Trainer Certification
A formal certificate confirming your completion, shareable with clients, displayable professionally, and usable as verifiable continuing education.
Trainer License + Community
Your license to teach official TYS Lower Leg workshops and clinics professionally. Plus lifetime access to the TYS Trainer Forum.
Ball Training Workshop Series
The hands-on companion to your diploma. Practical exercises using balls and bands to build feel, coordination, and body-awareness, both dismounted and mounted, so the anatomy you learn becomes something your riders can sense and use immediately.
Module Overview
Each module builds a complete, embodied understanding of the rider's lower leg, from foundational anatomy to practical teaching application.
Module 1Bone Dynamics & Alignment
Position starts in the bone. How bone structure and alignment govern the movement patterns trainers most often try to correct.
Module 2The Knee: 3D Function, Patella & Ligaments
The three-dimensional movement of the knee, the menisci, the patella, and the ligaments behind common grip and bracing patterns.
Module 3The Foot & Ankle, Talocrural Joint
The bones, joints, and soft tissue of the foot and ankle, and how they shape the rider's stirrup connection and heel depth.
Module 4Muscles, Fascia & Imagery
Muscular and fascial anatomy of the lower leg, tension patterns and habitual holding, with imagery sequences to create felt release.
Module 5Teaching Application
How to bring the Lower Leg methodology into your lessons and clinics: assessing riders, sequencing exercises, adapting tools across disciplines.
+ MoreMore Content Inside
Additional modules and materials are included inside your Educator Portal. Ask about the full curriculum on your discovery call.
Designed for working equestrian coaches, in every discipline
- You are an active trainer, coach, or instructor in any discipline: dressage, jumping, Western, eventing, endurance, or recreational
- You have been giving the same lower leg correction for years and want to understand the root cause
- You hold an existing coaching credential and want a specialist qualification in rider biomechanics
- You are curious about imagery and embodied anatomy as teaching tools, even with no formal background
- You want a structured, mentored learning experience, not a passive video course
- You are a rider who also teaches and want to deepen your understanding of lower leg function
- You are looking for a passive, pre-recorded course with no live interaction or mentorship
- You are a rider seeking personal improvement only, with no interest in applying tools professionally
- You want a short, low-commitment introduction; attend a workshop or book a discovery call first
- You expect change to happen at an intellectual level only; this program requires embodied movement work
What changes in your teaching practice
The correction that never quite lands
You watch your rider's lower leg swing, grip, or creep up, and you give the correction you always give. "Heels down." "Leg still." "Stop gripping with your knee." Your rider tries. For a moment, things look better. Within a few strides, the pattern is back.
You know something is happening in the body you cannot quite name or reach. You feel like you only have half the picture.
You see it differently, and your riders feel it
You know whether the pattern is starting at the ankle, the knee tracking, or a compensation from higher up. You offer the specific image. Their leg drops and settles, not through effort, but because their nervous system has a new map to work from.
Your horse feels the difference: cleaner leg contact, clearer aids, less background noise through the stirrup.
What working coaches say
This course will fundamentally change the way you ride and the way you coach others. The knowledge and the experience of feeling the change in your own body as you apply what you have learned by either working with the simulator yourself of coaching others through the process will set you apart from other trainers in the market. It is worth the investment in both time and money.
I have attended many online courses in different topics. This one with Alysen Starko-Bowes at Train Your Seat Equestrian is really world class. For me, this is much better than going to a course in person. Having the opportunity to re-watch the webinars several times is fantastic. And thanks to all my classmates who shared all their wisdom during the course. Hope to meet you next course!
Practical learning through experience, movement, anatomy and biomechanics has made all the difference for me. Both personally and in working with clients. Results come so much faster!
Train Your Seat connects beautifully to the knowledge I already had, so I can weave it effortlessly into my lessons and even in horse coaching sessions. For me, it’s a great foundation and it gives immediate visible and tangible results.
Frequently asked questions
Is this right for my discipline? I teach Western, jumping, endurance, or dressage.
+Who is this program for?
+Is this program fully online?
+Do I need prior anatomy knowledge to enroll?
+What happens after I complete the diploma?
+Will I keep access to the content after I finish?
+Is the Ball Training really included?
+What can I teach after completing this diploma?
+What if I have questions during the program?
+Is this too theoretical? I need something I can use in lessons from day one.
+The Lower Leg Trainer Diploma
What this investment delivers
This is not a module list you work through alone. It is a structured, mentored, live education built specifically around one area of the rider's body, delivered with 30+ hours of direct time with Alysen, your own assigned mentor, a comprehensive manual, and a commercial Trainer License when you graduate.
Compare this with the cost of a multi-day in-person clinic, with no mentorship, no manual, no certification, and no license to teach. The diploma is a meaningfully different category of professional investment.
Not sure where to start?
Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Alysen. She will help you determine whether the Lower Leg diploma is the right starting point for your goals, your client base, and your timeline. No pressure, no pitch.
Book Your Free Discovery Call
Your riders already know the correction. Now help them feel it.
You already know what to say. This diploma gives you something more powerful: the tools to help your riders actually experience the change, in their body, in their saddle, in a way that holds. And the horses they are riding will feel the difference.
The lower leg is where riders feel most stuck and where trainers feel most limited, and I believe that gap exists because we have been working at the level of instruction when the change needs to happen at the level of felt experience. Your riders' horses are waiting for a cleaner, quieter, more intentional leg. This diploma is how you get there.
Alysen Starko-Bowes Founder, Train Your SeatAPPLY FOR THE IN-PERSON SHOULDER TRAINING
To protect the quality of the experience, we review every application. Once you submit your application, you will be redirected to book a call with Aly.
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