Ride Right

If there a 95% chance your horse is going to be weak at something, what are the chances of riding that thing helpfully? Am I stuck in neutral by being practiced at theory. For lots of us well meaning riders, striving to ride well in the kindest way there’s an incentive to check, are we riding against our horses as we ride “correctly”? This is usually where I get the ride for fun argument, for me, the opposite of productive riding isn't " fun" riding it's unproductive riding. I find fun in trying to be better. Repeating though the question, if there’s a chance my horse is struggling and going to need to explore getting it wrong, and my way to ride it right purely based off theory, is that helpful to my horse in that moment? 

Learning your horse isn’t always easy, I was of the era where everything was desperately trying to change and tidy up. Less time for messy equestrianism and lots of ‘ look to the rider first” As a concept I applaud it but mostly it trained myself and lots of us to stop looking at the horse and blaming ourselves for everything. Theres a difference between ‘looking to the horse for the problem and looking at the horse” How my horses managed over the years is a constant question I have for myself and I thank my guardian angel all the time for the coaches I had at least to drag me out of that rut. 

  

So many of us have been trained to look at the horse in their mind or on the page and not the horse we actually have, never the worst thing if you have the right checks and balances. If like most people you’ve found yourself a horse and have limited resources, only examining theory leaves a lot of potential gaps in the application. Applying ideas and plans with not much regard for how the horse is truly receiving the signals. It doesn’t leave much space for tweaking the learning to make it ultimately accessible to your horse. Endlessly repeating a theory that’s not fully received by a horse leads to one thing, confusion. 

When I teach and ride a movement, I try think what specifically about it might be helping the horse? When I introduce a movement I ask what might the horse need help with, then what signals would apply to give that help. Thats an entirely different conversation from the design of the movement. 

In all honesty I've shed the “ look to the rider” approach for the most part and lean on the look at your horse, check what they needs now, and then now and now. Do the main things you need to do to be a better positioned rider but don’t stop exploring how my horse gains confidence from the application.