Welcome to Helen Bell Equestrian

Helen Bell British Eventing Accredited Riding Coach and Centre10 Advanced Coach is based at the home of British Eventing Breckenbrough Horse Trials in North Yorkshire.

Helen is an established name in Eventing having been an International rider herself. She regularly competed at Badminton and Burghley with top ten placings at both events. Drawing on her many years of experience Helen now specialises in Coaching all levels of riders and producing Event horses and ponies . In addition, Helen has sourced, bought, produced and sold on many successful Event horses, Show Jumpers, Hunters, all-rounders, FEI ponies and Pony Club ponies abroad and at home. 

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Nicola Wilson
Cross Country Course
"We often go cross country schooling with our younger horses to Breckenbrough. The going is always amazing with a huge variety of fences and combinations from 80-Novice. You can build your horses confidence whilst having fun."
Nicola Wilson, Olympian
Find out more about Breckenbrough's XC Course
Nicola Wilson
E Hobson
Helen Bell BE Coach Centre10 Adv Psychology - Coaching
"Helen understands the psychology of both horse and rider, which enables her to give long term confidence to the partnership."
Ellen Hobson
Find out more about training with Helen Bell BECC
E Hobson
K Greenwood - Camps
Camps at Breckenbrough
"Camp honestly changed my whole way of thinking about my riding. Not only was it the best fun I've ever had with my group of friends but, I learnt more than I ever thought was possible over two days."
Kassie Greenwood
Find out about Camps at Breckenbrough
K Greenwood - Camps
B Dale - Horse Sales
Horse purchasing service
"Helen's wealth of experience and contacts assisted in sourcing several ponies and horses that have proven to be “the perfect partners."
Beverley Dale
Find out how Helen can help with your next horse purchase
B Dale - Horse Sales

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Helen Bell Equestrian

4 days ago

Helen Bell Equestrian
NEW ARTICLE!!! Christopher Bartle! I don't care what your discipline is, you'll learn SO MUCH from the world's best coach. First article below...and there's more to come! www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2023/12/christopher-bartle-genius-this-is-a-truly-amazing-article/ ... See MoreSee Less

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Helen Bell Equestrian

6 days ago

Helen Bell Equestrian
Always a good readWhen training the basic responses, to improve your horse's way of going, or to resolve behaviour issues, we humans are often a bit over-ambitious about progress, and we hamper progress in a variety of ways.One way is to neglect to train ALL the basic responses to at least rhythm level in one non-challenging training location (eg, a home arena or level paddock).Then we take the horse to a very different or challenging environment ..... and the wheels fall off! When you next train in the original location, the basic responses may well have deteriorated there too. Oops!I've seen it twice this week, and it seems to be more common in very confused and tense horses. How to avoid making the wheels fall off?Well, horses are "context specific learners". What you train them in location A, doesn't always transfer well to location Z, because the context is too dissimilar for the training to stick. Also, if Z is a very stimulating environment (show, hunting, etc) then the environment becomes more salient than the cues - you've 'lost' your horse's focus.To overcome/avoid this, first train all the basic responses in-hand, as well as under saddle, to at least rhythm level, in ONE non-challenging environment. Take a couple of weeks over this.Then, change to a minimally different location. Say, right next to the arena, or paddock. Test and repair all of those responses again. No need to do 3 sets of 3 repetitions if the horse is error free for each response. However, for the responses he makes an error in, re-install the correct response using 3 x 3 sets of repetitions. Take a session or two over this.This is like going from A to B, not to Z. Repeat the whole process in a very similar/close location - A, B, C - are you getting the idea?This way students 'deepen' the trained responses in one context, before they begin to generalise them in minimally different contexts. For optimal results, to nurture your progress so far, to avoid stressing yourself and your horse, as well as for greater safety (ES #1 training principle), gradually (gradually!), generalise the trained responses to different environments, like working through the alphabet.This is similar for other specific things - loading, water jumps, etc. Deepen, then generalise, for best results. ... See MoreSee Less

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