Riding lessons

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced rider, the goal is to help each pair progress with confidence, serenity, and shared enjoyment, for elegant, respectful, and always harmonious riding.

The lessons offered by Léa Forge stand out for their deeply respectful approach to the horse, always placing the animal’s well-being at the heart of progress.

Each session is built around personalized objectives, defined in collaboration with the rider, to help the horse-rider partnership evolve in accordance with the tradition of classical riding.

Léa favors harmonious riding, based on attentive listening, gentleness, and mutual understanding.
Her teaching is inspired by the principles of the French riding tradition, which values lightness, subtle aids, and the constant search for natural balance between horse and rider.

Demanding and committed, Léa encourages you to step out of your comfort zone, push your limits, and achieve lasting progress.
She supports you with rigor and kindness, taking into account the abilities and rhythm of each horse, to reveal the full potential of the partnership.

Riding lessons in pictures

  • Long-rein horse entering the arena with its rider, ready for a lesson
  • Rider and horse performing shoulder-in at the trot
  • Rider and horse softly executing piaffe
  • Young Lusitano mare working in hand in shoulder-in with her owner during the lesson
  • Young rider and her pony in lesson with the coach, seeking balance in the canter pirouette
  • Coach giving instructions to the young rider and her pony
  • Pony and young rider at a competition
  • Pony at competition, with its young rider of the day and the coach
  • Pony at the awards ceremony, surrounded by young riders
  • Rider, Lusitano horse, and coach working on piaffe
  • Coach speaks into an earpiece, horse focused
  • The rider studies piaffe with her horse
  • The rider and his horse practice piaffe
  • Rider working in hand under the supervision of the coach
  • Coach working in hand with long reins
  • Rider with her Lusitano horse performing lateral movement, mountain view in Corsica
  • Rider seen from behind with her Lusitano horse, lateral movement, Corsican mountains in the background

Partner locations

Testimonials

  • Back in 2018, I was lucky to train at Valença Academy in Portugal for an intensive week. Léa was my coach for most of my individual ridden lessons (2 per day) on Valenca schoolmasters. I found Léa very approachable, with great humour and a good plan to help me achieve the utmost out of my intensive week. I came home to New Zealand with rafts of great exercises to take to my own horses and clients. During the week I was able to also observe Léa riding, working horses in hand and with long reins. She is a gifted coach and trainer as well as now a personal friend.

    Author: Julie Malcom

    Location: New Zealand

  • I first met Lea back in 2015 and was immediately struck by her depth of knowledge and genuine passion for classical riding and dressage. Since then, she has been an incredible mentor—both during our sessions here in Dubai and when I had the chance to train with her in Lisbon in 2016. Her ability to communicate the subtle nuances of the discipline, while always being patient and encouraging, has made a lasting impact on my riding. She brings a rare combination of technical excellence, classical philosophy, and heartfelt dedication to her students. I’m truly grateful for everything she’s shared with me over the years and am excited to see her launch her own platform—it’s something the equestrian community will greatly benefit from.

    Author: Mohamed Hussein

    Location: Dubaï

  • During my training stay in Portugal from November 2023 to March 2024, I had the privilege of taking regular riding lessons with Lea in Azambuja. I brought three horses with me from Switzerland—each with very different personalities and needs—and Lea supported all of them in an incredible way. She always found the right approach for every challenge, offering a variety of solutions tailored to each horse and situation. My Hispano-Arabian, Said, absolutely loved going to lessons with Lea. She has a unique gift for inspiring not only her students but also the horses themselves for classical riding. Thanks to Lea’s guidance and dedication, we were able to improve so much that we ultimately represented Switzerland at the Working Equitation European Championships—and closed the 2024 season as the second-best pair in the country. I am deeply grateful for everything I learned with Lea and can wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone looking to develop in harmony with their horse.

    Author: Julia Thut

    Location: Portugal / Swiss

  • J'ai rencontré Léa il y a 4 ans, je venais d'acheter mon cheval. J'avais, je le dis volontiers, peur de lui. Avec Léa, je savais que j'aurais l'opportunité de me faire enseigner l'équitation en laquelle je crois depuis petite. La belle équitation. Aujourd'hui je commence à danser avec mon cheval, à pieds ou sur son dos. Léa n'est pas cavalière, elle est écuyère, et une extraordinaire femme de cheval.

    Author: Alix

    Location: France

  • Together with my daughter, Antonia, we got to know Léa at the CELG in 2011. During the riding lesson, she was very quick and attentive to small mistakes and sensitively explained the meaning of the lessons and corrected them very purposefully. Léa's high level of training was easy to recognize. It was only later that I learned that Léa had come to Luis Valenca's riding center via a station with the Olympic rider and her husband, the classical riding master Michel Henriquet. I have been involved with classical riding for a long time and knew the names of the great students of Nuno Oliveira. My daughter made great progress with Leá's lessons. Often more after two weeks than in months at home. In the years that followed, I took riding lessons myself and, thanks to Lea's patient and individual help, learned to work in hand and on the long reins. Thanks to what I learned in this way, I was able to work Icelanders myself in Germany and improve them considerably. In the meantime, Léa had completed a Stewart training course and only stands for the complete all-round view. Dressage sport, classical horsemanship. I can only recommend Léa's expertise, who, with her training background, has long been confidently going her own way and doing an outstanding job.

    Author: Lars

    Location: Hamburg

  • I’ve trained with Lea since 2016 and love her sympathetic yet thorough lessons. I started with side saddle lessons on my dressage school master, and together we trained him to inter 1 the same level in the side saddle with tempis and pirouettes. Lea is very much about creating harmony and helping make the horse strong and straight through self carriage and awareness of the shoulders and quarters and this is something I take with me when schooling my show-jumpers. We’ve also worked together in hand, helping the horse to gain trust and understanding of moves without the added complication of the rider. I’d absolutely recommend working with Lea.

    Author: Sophia Alexandra

    Location: Dubaï

  • Si je devais parler de Léa, je parlerai de cette petite voix au creux de l'oreille. Cette voix qui vous accompagne, vous rassure. Toujours le bon mot au bon moment. Cette voix qui vous porte, vous fait avancer, grandir, qui vous manque dès qu'elle s'arrête mais qui reste toujours dans un coin de la tête et que l'on espère retrouver très vite.

    Author: Véronique

    Location: France

  • Léa a du savoir-faire, de l'exigence et de la patience. Sa grande expérience de la belle équitation de tradition et son regard juste et affûté lui permettent d'accompagner le couple cavalier/cheval vers ses objectifs, y compris vers les mouvements de haute école, exécutés dans le respect des capacités de chacun.

    Author: Anne-Logen

    Location: France