Have you ever wished you could download quick, practical advice directly to your brain from Olympians and other top U.S. and international equestrian competitors? You can’t do mental downloads (yet!). But Ridely brings that wisdom directly to you, in a succinct, step-by-step format, via the Ridely PRO app, which is available at a 30% discount for USEF members. And their stable of experts is growing: this week, Ridely is launching a series of videos for equitation, hunters, and jumpers with Stacia Klein Madden of Beacon Hill Show Stables. Madden joins other successful riders and trainers like Lillie Keenan, Katherine Bateson-Chandler, Ariel Grald, and more.

We caught up with Ridely’s U.S. Country Manager, Nicole Graf, to talk about the app, some new features it’s recently added, and how Ridely’s lessons and training programs can help busy equestrians make the most of their time at the barn—and help them keep on track toward their goals.

Let’s be real: it’s hard for busy equestrians to fit regular training into the rest of their lives, let alone make consistent progress toward their equestrian goals. How can Ridely help?

We felt riders needed some structure, so in addition to our massive video library, we’ve developed a step-by-step process that keeps you on track. To me, it’s kind of like when you go to the gym and see all of the equipment; you want to know what to use first, how many reps, and so on, to help you work toward your fitness goal.

Our training process is basically giving you guidance on each step toward your goal. We’ve found that this step-by-step training technique is hugely successful—so much so that even some of our competitors are trying it, which is, after all, the highest form of flattery! You can choose to use a training program with a specific trainer or you can create a training program by grouping certain aspects and exercises from a variety of trainers to help you toward your end goal.

With Ridely, you also can really track your progress, and we’re finding that this really is helping people to achieve better results. We know all successful riders have a plan in mind for their horses. They work backwards from an end goal to set a plan that will help them get to that goal—and successful riders are very cognizant of how important it is to have a goal, big or small. It could be picking up the canter on a young horse. It could be a goal for a specific outcome in a class. But it’s important to have that goal in mind and an idea of what you need to achieve it when you get on your horse.

Our view is that educating a rider is also helping the horse to understand, and a rider has to be clear about what they’re doing and what their goal is in order to help the horse. Our goal is to help every single rider get better, bit by bit, because that also makes life better for the horse.

What role do the Ridely app community groups play?

We have community groups in the app, and those are safe places for people to talk about the training that they’re doing and the training programs that we offer. It’s a very supportive community that’s away from the prying eyes of social media, which sometimes can detract from people’s progress and confidence. Our community offers a building-up process, and alongside our training programs, it really has all been beneficial for Ridely users.

We also have trainers who participate and can answer questions, and we have guest appearances by our celebrity riders and grooms so people can ask them questions. So through the communities you’re getting knowledgeable answers from professional equestrians and grooms, not just random people on Facebook who want to throw their two cents in.

How much training is available and with what kind of trainers? And what does it cost?

We now have more than 400 videos from 65 different trainers on the English version, including 11 Olympians. So we have a wealth of knowledge along with the community groups, and we’ve tried to make this super-affordable for all riders, especially with the USEF discount of 30% off Ridely PRO, this is all costing you $1.35 a week or 19 cents a day.

We also offer a free seven-day trial, so anyone can go experience the app. Then you can sign up for Ridely PRO for a month ($29.99), a year, ($119.99) or for life ($349), and USEF members get that 30% off.

That’s cheaper than any lesson you’d ever get with these pros, and you can watch our videos as many times as you want. You can revisit them. And these are short five- to 10-minute videos that you have the time to fit in your day. They’re to-the-point and can help you solve specific problems.

You can search the library for specific topics, and our algorithms also can suggest videos that can help riders find more resources they might be interested in. We try to help riders along their path to give them the best possible route to success.

What’s new and cool on the app right now?

We recently launched a live-tracker, so if you’re riding alone, your trainer or a family member can know where you’re riding and when you arrive back at the barn, safe

and sound. It’s a great safety feature. And you also can track your own ride.

We’ve also partnered with Ruxbury, a fitness tracker for horses that is part of Global Equestrian Group, to add a heart-rate tracker. Other companies have put these monitors on the girth or around the horse’s stomach, but this actually attaches to the bridle, so you can quickly and easily take it off to switch between horses or when you are done riding. With the Ridely app, you can integrate the Ruxbury montor’s information to create statistics and make sure you’re on track with your training.

This is also helping riders educate themselves on when their horse needs a break and whether they have achieved the fitness they will need at the level they want to perform or compete at. That’s great guidance, and, again, it helps with horse welfare.

But will all of this actually help me find more time to be with my horse?

When people can actually see how they’re progressing and their incremental successes along the way to their goals, it not only encourages them to make that time, but it also helps you create more quality time with your horse.

For example, we found that with features like our digital calendar, which is free in the app, people can track how much time they've been doing certain activities or make them aware of maybe they need to change something up in their riding. Maybe they've spent way too many days in the ring, and now they need to do a little gymnastics or some hacking. Once you have your statistics about how much you've been riding, then it really creates more of a quality time with your horse to have that structure.

It’s also great for people who don’t live in the middle of large equestrian communities or who aren’t in close proximity to a lot of professional trainer in their discipline. Maybe you can’t go to Wellington every year or you are the only jumping rider in a community that’s really into roping. With our step-by-step training, the community groups, and the statistics you can use to track your progress, riders in those situations really feel they are accomplishing goals, even if they’re on their own or have to spend time away from their trainers.

Our users aren’t just talking about the progress they’re making, although they are doing that, as we can see from conversations in the community groups. But they also say they more at one with their horses and feel like they’re learning together with their horses, and that’s really priceless.

Learn more about the Ridely app at ridely.com. USEF members can access their 30% discount code by signing in to their USEF account on usef.org and visiting our MemberPerks page.