“Shaping young minds, one dodecahedron at a time”
No one advertises that they teach badly. No one ever claims that their work is “unclassical.” And almost every teacher with any sense of the language can declare in glowing phrases the depth of their devotion to their students and the well being of their horses.
So, aside from the prose, what do you get from Bill? First of all, his students LEARN and they SUCCEED. If your goals are competition-oriented, the Woods’ have brought students all the way from Training Level to Grand Prix and on many weekends have riders showing all around the Southeast. Since Bill is a USEF judge, that perspective helps bring out in his riders the elements that make for show ring success, both in pure dressage and in the dressage phase of eventing. In his lessons, you can always expect a mix of practical, down-to-earth technique coupled with enough philosophy to put it in a meaningful context.
If you just want to understand your horse better and make him go more comfortably and athletically, Bill can help you there as well. He strives to create “thinking riders” who can make tactical training judgments and learn to be independent, not just riders who can do the exercises by rote.
In either case, while Bill is a task master, he wants you to retain a sense of balance and proportion about your riding and how it fits into your life. “If it isn’t any fun, then you must be doing it wrong,” is an approach he takes to heart and applies in his teaching and riding.
Phone numbers:
Office complex, stables, and residences: 352 368-5814, but you might as well forget it since no one ever answers.
Bill’s cell: 352 208-7394 (You’ve got a pretty good shot with this one)
For a link to a youtube video of a typical lesson from Bill, click here. This was unrehearsed, unsolicited, and originally posted without our knowledge but it’s pretty decent (we think) and representative of what a lower level rider might hear from him.
Here’s Bill working with a much more advanced rider: FEI trainer Gail Redinger in Sandpoint, Idaho. Gail is on Mitras, her Trakehner gelding who was competing at PSG/I-1 when this session was held in July of 2009. The subject is Improving the Balance and Collection through lateral work and transitions. Click for the link.
For more of Bill teaching Gail on Mitras, click here. Topic: canter pirouettes.
Four new videos (posted May 22) from Feb 2010 of Gail and Mitras’s continued training. In the interim they had won the Regional 6 Championships at I-1 Freestyle and Reserve Champion at I-1 Open.
More on Pirouettes Part 1
More on Pirouettes Part 2
More on Pirouettes Part 3
Piaffe Plus
Explaining the Rules to Rubi
Rubi’s Canter Conundrum
On a much different note, click here for Bill’s video primer for spouses: Dressage for Husbands.
Check out the “Students”page
to find out more about, you guessed it, Bill’s students.