Merindah Thomson

Merindah Thomson is an EA Level 2 Jumping Specialist Coach, EA Level 2 Dressage Specialist Coach, Coach Educator, National Jumping Steward and Level 1 National Jumping Course Designer based in Tasmania.

Her experience spans Pony Club, EA competitive pathways, coach education, and adaptive coaching environments. She was involved with Riding for the Disabled from a young age and now also works with riders under the NDIS framework.

Through Thomson Classical Jumping, Merindah delivers in-person coaching, clinics, coach education and online programs centred on classical foundations, ethical training, clear rider understanding and measurable skill development.

She is particularly passionate about helping riders and coaches make better use of limited equipment, think more clearly about what they are training, and build horses that are confident, capable and enjoyable to ride. Her work is grounded in welfare, practicality and the belief that good coaching should create long-term results for both horse and rider.

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Session Details

Strong jump coaching is not about endlessly changing exercises, fiddling with distances, or setting jumps and hoping they fix the problem. Good coaches learn to see more than the jump in front of them. They learn to use lines, distances, turns and simple equipment placement to ask better questions, build rider confidence and create real progress.

When coaches understand how course design principles influence rhythm, balance, decision-making and canter quality, they can use even a small number of poles or fences to create exercises with real purpose. Instead of lessons becoming a collection of random efforts, they become logical, progressive and genuinely useful for both horse and rider.

This session is for coaches who want to get more from every pole and fence they put out. By thinking as both educator and course designer, coaches can move beyond isolated exercises and constant rearranging, and instead build setups that reveal what is actually going on in the canter, the turn, the rider’s choices and the horse’s balance.
Using practical examples, this session will show how accurate measuring, thoughtful placement and good exercise design can turn a simple setup into a powerful coaching tool. Coaches will see how one exercise can be used to develop straightness, adjustability, rider understanding, confidence and readiness for competition questions — without needing bigger fences, endless equipment, or gimmicks.

While the focus is on jump coaching, the same principles are highly relevant for dressage coaches and riders. Balance, rhythm, stride length and rider position can all be tested and assessed through thoughtful polework, with the same setup adapted for non-jumpers using poles on the ground.

The focus is not on making things look impressive. It is on making them work. Coaches will leave with a sharper eye, a more useful framework for planning lessons, and practical ideas they can apply straight away to help riders become more capable, more confident and more independent.