Working With a Strong but Willing Mare

“The walk feels quite good so that is when I will go to the trot. If I feel that she gets a bit resistant, I will go back to the walk.

“It’s all about learning.”

“Can you see when I take the left rein? I’m not just holding it. I play a little bit with it. So taking, giving, taking, playing a little bit with it and giving.”

Listening to the Rider’s Aids

“We are looking for a shortened frame, not just a shortened neck. We want her frame a little shorter from her tail to her ears. A great way to do that is a little lengthening in the canter then bringing her back.”

“You want to hold the half-halt a little bit longer to finish the half-halt. I don’t want to do a little lengthening in canter, give one half-halt, then let go because she wouldn’t get it. You want to really finish the half-halt where you can say, ‘Right here I feel quite comfortable releasing and she stays with me and collected a few strides on her own.’”

“Within the trot, do a few transitions. Start with posting trot. Do a gentle lengthening and allow her to go. For her, you don’t need to push much. Then, sitting trot to bring her back. Even if you get a walk step that is still much better than her running through the bridle.”

“Expect lightness.”

Improving Responsiveness

“When you lengthen the canter, do just about 10-15 meters of lengthening along the rail—no longer. Then, bring her back to a collected canter. Build it up daily to go longer in the lengthening but not faster.”

“For collecting, it is a holding leg—not a pushing forward, driving leg—with support from the seat.”

“When going from trot to halt, see if you can eliminate the walk steps before she halts.”

Watch & Learn on E+

• You can watch Steffen Peters’ entire series on managing a strong mare here on EQUESTRIAN+.
• For additional videos featuring Peters’ top tips and training strategies, click here.
• From short training tips to how-to videos and insider-access to private clinics and lessons, learn more from top dressage experts on EQUESTRIAN+.

About Steffen Peters

Born in Wesel, Germany, Steffen Peters gained a solid dressage foundation in his birth country before moving to San Diego in 1985. He struck out on his own as a trainer in 1991 and become a U.S. citizen in 1992. Peters worked his way to the top level with the support of special horses and sponsors, achieving impressive results. He is a six-time Olympian who earned team silver (2021) and team bronze (1996, 2016) medals. Peters collected team silver (2018), team bronze (2006) and individual bronze (2010) at the FEI World Equestrian Games, team and individual gold at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and the 2009 FEI Dressage World Cup Final title. He and his wife, Shannon, run SPeters Dressage in San Diego, California.

On the other hand, the disadvantage in having a division dedicated to equitation is that success in the division sometimes becomes an end in itself. That attitude is not healthy, in my opinion. If you learn equitation only in hopes of winning the finals and then never ride again, that does a disservice to the whole concept of equitation. To the riders whom I hope the division rewards (and for whom I look when I’m judging), equitation is a means to becoming better—whether their ultimate sport is hunter/jumper, riding cross-country, pleasure riding or something else.

To give you some insight on what a judge is looking for when you ride in an equitation class, I’m first going to explain what I believe are the components for success in the division. Then I’m going to let you look over my shoulder and share my thoughts as I am judging. As I explain how I arrive at placings, I’ll point out how some of the things that affect my scoring will also affect how you might perform in another discipline, such as hunters or jumpers.

The Basic Pieces: Stylish and Effective

The basic elements I look for when I judge an equitation class are exactly the same whether I’m watching riders on the flat or over fences: style and effectiveness in the same rider, in the same round. This combination is elusive: What the judge often sees is a rider who is effective in getting the job done but is not correct in position, style or presentation; or a rider whose style, position and presentation are correct but who isn’t effective.

It’s difficult to attain both of these qualities in the same class on any given day—and even more so because the riders who are trying to do it are so young. As I get older I realize that one of the best things about this sport is that you truly do get better as you get older, and that process continues for a very long time.

So what is the secret to putting both pieces together in the ring? I have a favorite saying for my students: “The best rider isn’t the one who can do the most complicated things; it’s the rider who can do the most simple things the best.” To me, this means that if you want to be the best rider in the ring, you need to really concentrate on these simple things:

• Positioning you feet correctly in the irons
• Having your reins exactly the right length
• Maintaining a consistently straight line from bit to hand to elbow
• Having the exactly correct line from hip to to heel in your leg
• Riding with exactly the right angulation in your leg and the other parts of your body at the different gaits

These details add up to style, by they also contribute to effectiveness, because they’re essential to having proper contact with your horse’s mouth and having just enough pressure to keep your horse in front of your leg.

Adding Fences to the Mix

A rider who is able to put all this together on the flat has made a great beginning; the really good riders are able to do the same thing in the over-fences classes. I see a lot of riders in equitation who are very stylish and effective on the flat but have no feel or pace or jump. Then there are those who have great feeling at the jumps but no feel or pace between the fences.

And some riders who look great on the flat simply don’t have the strength of position, they need for jumps and just fall apart when faced with fences in front of them. Some are very effective seat-of-the-pants riders over the jumps but look terrible on a horse. When I judge an over fences class, I am looking for the rider who can show me she understands the course so well that she jumps it in beautiful form while keeping her leg aids invisible and without the appearance of effort. The horse looks comfortable doing it and flows and looks beautiful.

The skills that enable a rider to produce this kind of round are simple and basic, which is not to say that they’re easy:

• Coordination of aids
• Independent hands and seat
• Invisible aids

The rider who has developed these abilities can say, “OK, here’s the course and I understand it. My position is so strong that my hands, seat and legs will be independent of each other from start to finish. I’m such a good rider that I can completely coordinate my aids, and I’m going to do that so subtly that no one watching will be able to tell what I’m doing.” The other point that contributes to a winning round is pace. As I always tell my hunter riders, the idea is to pick a pace and do the entire course at exactly that pace. Taken all together, these skills are the whole point of the equitation division, and they are what need to be rewarded.

Looking the Part of a Winner

What you wear in an equitation class is both unimportant—and critical. When I say it’s unimportant, I mean you don’t need an expensive or custom-made jacket, breeches or boots to make a good impression. On the other hand, attire is critical because the way you present yourself is one of the ways in which you can demonstrate your respect for the horse, the sport, the show, the judge and yourself. Clean, well-fitted clothing (including a fresh shirt and a clean choker or a nice tie) and shiny, shiny boots and spurs show respect. Conversely, dirty boots, a battered hunt cap, distracting jewelry and—my pet peeve—messy hair do not show respect.

Your job in equitation is to get your horse to do his job, while becoming effortless and invisible on him. The sport is about the horses, and you demonstrate your understanding of that by choosing conservative styles and colors and avoiding bright colors and bling. As a judge my principle is, “If you notice it, it’s probably wrong.” And in particular, if I notice it about you—whose job is to disappear—then it’s really wrong.

The ideal equitation horse is an athletic mover with scope and good looks; most important, though, is his brain. An equitation horse needs to want to keep doing it, no matter what. As I tell my students, “If you don’t have the best horse, you need to work on having the best-trained horse.” So your horse needs to be able to accept and absorb enough training to compensate for what he might lack in scope or beauty. One good thing about the equitation division is that with hard work and good horsemanship (meaning good care, feeding and conditioning), good training and a reasonably good horse, you can be competitive. If I have to choose, I’ll always pick the horse with the best brain and less scope over a gorgeous, scopey horse with the wrong brain.

How It All Fits Together

Now let’s see where all the pieces of equitation come into play when I’m judging a round. First impressions count and the evaluation that starts the moment you step into the ring, and it doesn’t end until you leave.

Details matter! Is your position correct in all the particulars I described earlier? Are you dressed appropriately, with clean clothing and tack? Is your horse—whether fancy or ordinary—beautifully turned out? If this is an over-fences class, is the opening circle just right, too big or too small? I’m processing everything, but what pops out are the things I don’t like. (This goes back to my adage that if you notice it, it’s probably wrong.)

A twisted stirrup leather, too-long reins, an odd bit, a too-short martingale … they’re all details that tend to lower my expectation of the performance I’m about to see. I don’t think in terms of number scores as I’m watching, but I tentatively assign you to one of four categories based on first impression. Those categories have numerical equivalents: poor (60s), inexperienced (70s), pretty good (80s) or fantastic (90s). It’s important to be turned out well, have a good position and present yourself well, because that helps you start out the class with an edge.

Whether you stay at the level I initially assign to you or move up or down, depends on what you do next.

How I Score

Only two things in equitation are scored objectively at present. One is time faults—a point off the score for each second over the time allowed. The other is a rail, which usually lowers the score four points. There’s a reason for this scoring: Both rails and time allowed are tangible aspects of performance that exhibitors, trainers and spectators can see and understand just as the judge can. It’s also worth noting that a time element isn’t normally introduced in equitation classes until the upper levels. As the classes become more advanced, the time tends to get tighter and becomes more of a factor. This is a great example of how equitation prepares you for other divisions. As you progress up through the equitation division, the classes and scoring begin to resemble what you’ll encounter when you’re out of equitation and in the jumper divisions.

The rest of scoring is more subjective and each judge has a personal system, but certain problems that I notice at the in gate alert me to watch for particular errors on course. A major indicator to me for what kind of round to expect is whether your foot is positioned correctly in the stirrup iron, because I think that detail is the basis for having a good leg and therefore a good position. If I notice that your reins are long when you come in, it won’t surprise me that your horse goes around looking very quick or leaves a stride out of the last line. If your reins look short, you’re likely to have a nervous, choky kind of round.

Rubs aren’t a deduction in and of themselves; the rider problems that cause rubs are what lowers a score. If I’m saying to myself, Gee, I think that rider falls back a little in the air, and the horse has a hard rub behind at the next jump, that confirms my impression of her mistake, which gets factored into her overall score. The same factors apply when your hands appear stiff and you have a rub or a rail in front: I penalize the reason for the rub, not the rub itself.

The bottom line is that a flaw in position or technique will have consequences somewhere during the course—and that is true whether the class is equitation, hunters or jumpers.

That’s why good equitation is such a strong foundation for other disciplines. For example, jumping ahead of the horse may cause a rail down in front; an inadequate release can cause a rail to come down either in front or behind. If you get too wrapped up in just one aspect of the course—how you’re landing, getting your lead or nailing the turn—you may get ahead of your horse in the air instead of staying in balance with him, and end up cross-cantering the turn.

I don’t take off X number of points for any of these errors; my scoring is more intuitive. But if you come in looking like you belong in the 80s or 90s, you can end up right down in the 60s if, after riding most of the course beautifully, you whip through the turn and chip at the second-to-last jump (indicating that you didn’t understand the course after all). On the other hand, if you make a less polished first impression and start out in the 70s but proceed to show me that you really understand the course and your horse and know how to put him where he needs to be, you can work your way up into the high 80s.

When the class is over, I’ve done my job as a judge if I reward the rider who—in this particular class—understood the course the best, demonstrated the best riding skills and rode it with the most style and the least apparent effort, and whose horse looked the most comfortable doing it.

The ‘Halo Effect’ When Judging Equitation Classes

At the top levels, a few successful riders perform so well and so consistently over time, it seems as if they come into the ring with a halo effect. They develop “momentum” that gives them an automatic edge when they ride in the ring. As a result, judges who are not confident in their own evaluations may try to build confidence by demonstrating that they know Rider X is really good by placing Rider X high, perhaps overlooking the fact that X found a really deep spot at one jump, while lesser-known Rider Y had a better round.

Creating more confident judges is obviously a goal of the Judge’s Mentor Program. I have my own system for creating a “clean slate” among riders, especially if one is better known than the other. I mentally switch them and imagine that Rider X had Rider Y’s round and vice versa. This way I make sure that I’m picking the rider who had the best ride in that particular class.

About Geoff Teall

As a trainer and coach, Geoff Teall has produced winning horses and riders and numerous major shows and championships, including the Devon Horse Show, the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, the Washington International Horse Show, the USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals and the USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final. He is an “R” judge for both hunters and equitation and a sought-after clinician who travels extensively in North America and Europe. His Montoga, Inc. hunter barn is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is co-founder of the American Hunter Jumper Foundation, which recently merged with the US Hunter Jumper Association, and is the author of Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation: Develop a Winning Style.

In this article, I’ll explain how I warm up on the flat and share two ground-rail exercises to improve your eye to help you see a distance, work on adjustability and get comfortable with adding or leaving out strides.

The Warm-Up

Jumping courses are getting more and more technical, so your horse needs to be as rideable and adjustable as possible, and that starts on the flat. Olympian Lisa Wilcox comes to my farm a few times a week to ride my horses and help my students. Riding is one sport that no matter how long you’ve been doing it, there’s always more to learn. Watching Lisa ride my horses and then discussing how they feel to her helps me improve as a rider. Dressage is an important part of my program as it really strengthens the horses’ muscles and helps prepare them for the jumper ring. For these reasons, my warm-up is focused on dressage basics.

I start with a lot of walking, which is good for the horses—physically and mentally. Walking gets their circulation going and helps loosen up their muscles. Compare it to when you first get out of bed. Most people don’t go straight to exercise; they wake up a bit and stretch before increasing their physical activity. I stretch and supple the horses by bending to the inside, counter bending and doing leg-yields, shoulder-ins and serpentines before moving on to the same exercises at the trot and canter. 

I also do a lot of transitions throughout my warm-up—both between and within the gaits—all while working on the connection by using leg and as little hand as possible to keep the horse’s hind end active and light in the bridle. Your horse needs to be like an accordion, able to open and close his stride very easily without losing his balance or power in the hind end.

This is essential for jumping, too, because a balanced horse with impulsion can jump much more easily, even if he’s not at a perfect distance. Riders tend to struggle with keeping power and impulsion in the hind end when collecting their horses and compressing the stride. They forget to back up their hand with leg and only pull on the reins so their horses run through the bridle and end up on their forehands. Your hand aids should always be as light as possible. 

The hind end is so important—it’s where the power comes from to jump and where the collection comes from for dressage. When your horse is using his hind end correctly, he’ll have more impulsion and his gaits will be more animated. It will feel like he’s in front of your leg and carrying you uphill, not like he’s pulling you along with his front end. 

Preparing for the Ground-Rail Exercises

These two ground-rail exercises are very simple and useful for:

• Learning to see a distance
• Improving rider confidence
• Developing adjustability and rideability
• Getting comfortable with adding and leaving out strides
• Staying connected and keeping a rhythm with even strides
• Practicing straightness and balance
• Determining how to ride a line depending on the distance over the first jump.

For these exercises, you’ll approach in an active canter with the main goal of getting comfortable closing and opening your horse’s stride as quietly as possible. I prefer my students to ride the exercises in almost a full seat, or a three-point position with their legs molded around their horses and their seats in contact with the saddle. You should feel like you’re part of your horse so you can be more sensitive to his back and hind end. A lot of riders tend to focus on the front end because it’s right in front of them, and they make the mistake of thinking the horse is on the bit because his neck is flexed. However, you actually need to feel the animation coming from behind, and you can do that by keeping your legs molded around your horse. 

As you ride over the rails, think of your hands as extensions of the reins. Since it’s only a pole, there’s no need to give a big release. Your hands should simply follow the horse so he can use his topline over the rail while keeping the connection. 

For many riders, ground rails prove to be more challenging than jumps. Horses tend to focus on and study jumps more in order to clear them. But with rails, they don’t pay as close attention, so riders need to use more leg and seat to create impulsion to help their horses correctly navigate the exercise. So, these ground-rail exercises will also help pinpoint any weaknesses you might have to fine-tune your riding.

Exercise 1: Two Ground Rails 

You can set this exercise at any distance, but since they’re rails or cavalletti and not jumps, you don’t need as much room for takeoff and landing. Allow about 12 feet for every stride between the rails or cavalletti, but instead of allowing 6 feet for takeoff and landing (as you would with jumps), allow 1 or 2 feet. For example, if I’m setting a six-stride line with two rails or cavalletti, I’ll make it between 72 to 74 feet. Set the exercise so you can approach it from both directions and alternate directions each time, so your horse works equally on both leads.

In this exercise, you’ll practice riding the normal six strides, next adding a stride for seven strides and then leaving out a stride for five strides. This will help you gauge your horse’s adjustability and get comfortable with adding and leaving out strides while maintaining a connection and hind-end impulsion. Whether you’re doing the normal striding, adding or leaving out a stride, the idea is to stay in the same balance and keep each stride as even as possible, with your horse using his hind end while staying in front of your leg—just like you practiced in the warm-up. 

Start by seeing if you can comfortably canter the two ground rails in six strides by sitting still and keeping an even rhythm and a steady connection. Then, try adding a stride for seven strides by using a little more seat and leg to keep the impulsion while collecting your horse’s stride. Your horse should still be in front of your leg, but his stride should be compressed. If you ask him to add a stride without enough leg, he’ll likely break to the trot.

Next, try leaving out a stride for five strides. For the five, your horse needs a more open stride, but it shouldn’t look or feel significantly different than his stride for the six or seven. Opening the stride doesn’t mean faster. Maintain the same balance and simply lengthen the stride from your horse’s hind end by keeping a light feel of his mouth to keep the connection from leg to hand and an uphill feeling. When you go over the first rail, your horse should feel round and like he is coming up through his back. If he’s flat and running on his front end, he’ll be unbalanced, discombobulated and may get to the rail on a half-stride and either chip or have to reach for the rail.

Keep in mind that how you canter into the line over the first rail will affect how you approach the second rail. For example, if you’re planning to do the normal six strides but you see a very forward distance coming in, your horse is going to land and take you forward with a more open stride. To get the desired six strides, you’ll need to balance and compress him by backing up your hand with your leg and seat inside the line, so he doesn’t break to a trot or lean on your hand. But this shouldn’t be a drastic adjustment. If the opposite happens and you jump into the line a little backwards without enough impulsion, land and gradually ask your horse to open up his stride by keeping a light connection with your hand as you add leg so your horse doesn’t run flat on his front end. 

Exercise 2: Two Ground Rails on a Bending Line

For this exercise, set two ground rails or cavalletti on a bending line. You can set the striding based on the size of your ring or whatever striding you want to work on, but like the first exercise, you only need 1 to 2 feet for takeoff and landing.

In addition to the other benefits mentioned previously, this bending-line exercise will help you learn how to use your track to your advantage in order to add or leave out a stride. You’ll find that you don’t have to worry about getting a perfect distance to make this exercise work. 

As you did in your warm-up and the first exercise, make sure you have a powerful canter and keep an even rhythm and a steady connection. To add a stride in the line, curve the line to give yourself a little more room. To leave out a stride in the line, ride a straighter, more direct track. Look at the rails coming out of your turn, being careful to stay on your track without cutting in or fading out through the turn. Look where you want to go and draw an imaginary line in your mind—whether you want to line up the two rails on a straight, direct line or use more bend on a curved line. If you get there on an imperfect distance, you can move your track toward the inside or outside of the rails to get a better distance and smoother jump. 

Get Creative

Use your imagination to come up with other ground-rail exercises. Think about what’s most difficult for you and your horse, including problems you’re having on course, and apply it to the ground rails. For example, if you’re having trouble coming off a short, left turn, practice that. If your horse is cutting or diving to the inside after a line, exaggerate going straight and then bend him around your leg correctly so he learns to land, balance and go around the turn properly. You can even set up a whole course of ground rails to work on riding smooth courses.  

With these exercises, I try not to make things too complicated. I want riders to get comfortable with keeping an even rhythm and proper balance, collecting their horses and adding a stride, opening up the canter and leaving out a stride and—one of the hardest things—simply sitting still and doing nothing to maintain the desired canter. Remember, when it comes to horses, less is more, and the fewer jumps you can do with your horse, the better for his long-term health and happiness.

For More:

• To watch hands-on training videos with Margie Engle on EQUESTRIAN+, click here. Use code MARGIE15 for 15% off your first month’s subscription.
• For more of her top training tips, click here.
• To listen to our podcast with Engle, click here.

About Margie Engle

Margie Engle has been one of the winningest jumper riders in the U.S. for more than three decades. To date, Margie has won more than 250 grands prix classes, six World Cup qualifiers, more than 75 Nations Cups, a record 10 American Grand Prix Association Rider of the Year titles and was inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 2021. She competed in the 2000 Olympics, won team silver at the 1999 Pan American Games, team gold and individual bronze at the 2003 Pan American Games and team silver at the 2006 World Equestrian Games. Margie and her husband of 30 years, veterinarian Steve Engle, are based at Gladewinds Farm in Wellington, Florida. 

Watch the Horse’s Ears

“I want you to do your warm-up, thinking about exercises that you would already incorporate into your routine. But I want you to time them at the moment that her ears fixate onto something. Like a walk-trot transition or a small circle or a little extra bending or a leg-yield. I want you to do that when both of her ears lock onto something, and I want you to do it with enough intensity that both of her ears switch back to you.”

“Most of the horses who have a tendency to be a little bit looky at something will tell you way before you even realize it. You might be coming around the corner just a little on the far end and that might be the moment her ears focus on this end of the ring.”

“A mistake that I see people make is that they go right toward the scary thing. I’m all for going head on, but I really want you to think if you have her attention enough to put her in that situation and not set her up for failure.”

“The more distracted she is, the more mentally stimulating you have to be.”

Make a Change to Regain the Horse’s Attention

“For her, if the energy feels like we have to trap this anxiousness, then we might go burn off some of it. Not like we are trying to make her tired—we aren’t going to get her tired. But if we can use a little bit to where she is like “okay, I don’t feel like you are trapping this energy that I need to get out.

“Once it starts to feel soft, take that same 20-meter circle two feet toward the new object. And ask yourself if you start to lose the cadence and rhythm that you had at the far end of the ring. Don’t go any further than that point where you lose her attention.”

“Make sure that you breathe and that you encourage that too.”

Get Creative With Directing a Horse’s Movement

“This exercise tests too that if there are any sticky spots where she didn’t respond or didn’t listen.”

“She gets to have a little bit of a break over here right now, and she is willing to stand by the tarp and not be bothered by it.”

“Before when you were trying to go directly towards it and she was stuck, I simply changed it to an exercise to gain control of this shoulder and that shoulder.”

Watch & Learn on E+

• You can watch Monique Potts’ entire series on riding a distracted horse here on EQUESTRIAN+.
• For additional videos featuring Potts’ top tips and training strategies, click here.
• From short training tips to how-to videos and insider-access to private clinics and lessons, learn more from top dressage experts on EQUESTRIAN+.

About Monique Potts

Monique Potts grew up on a small farm in Erie, Colorado, and developed a deep love of horses. She learned from numerous trainers, including Buck Brannaman, who helped her recognize the importance of communication, patience and trust. Potts turned her passion into a career as a trainer, focusing on dressage, horsemanship and cow horse events. She has earned her USDF silver and bronze medals and found much success in the dressage ring.

While indoor and outdoor jumping competitions share similarities, indoor events typically have shorter courses in a smaller space. And after riding outside for most of the year, it can be challenging to adjust navigating a course in a smaller area where you have no time for hesitation while still making your round look smooth and easy.

To prepare for the different challenges indoors can present, it’s important to consistently practice your flatwork, ensuring your horse is on your aids so you can easily make adjustments in the tighter space. It’s also important to prepare for the types of courses you can expect to see.

In her video series on EQUESTRIAN+, Stacia Klein Madden stresses the importance of practicing courses at home that are similar to those seen at past indoors to prepare for the common questions course designers might include at shows. Here, she helps three students practice indoor courses and offers tips that you can apply to you own preparation.

The Practice Course

“Good preparation will give you confidence as we prepare for the indoors. The course we’re practicing today is an adaptation from regionals in Florida, and is a nice, friendly and useful course to practice before we go to Capital Challenge.

“The first time around, I want you to just muddle through it and go from start to finish unless I pull you up because I think there’s a real problem that needs to be addressed. This course is going to be challenging to start off with, but the horses need to go ahead and get their feet wet and then we’ll do it a second time to polish anything we need to work on.

“For every fence on course, you not only have to be thinking about your approach, you also have to think about where you are on the landing side to stay organized and prepared for what’s coming next.

“A lot of championship courses start off with a line, so for this course, we’ll start with the ASPCA wall on the left lead and do a nice, flowing six strides to the green roll-top. Then, you need to get a good riding horse right off the bat and go to the narrow white gate.

“Be prepared that the white gate is going to present a steering issue because it doesn’t have any standards. If you meet the gate a little soft, you can turn inside to the Beacon Hill wall. But if you meet it a little loose and your horse lands right and you need a lead change, take the longer option by going around the Beacon Hill wall.

“Then you really have to use your turn as well as your eyes to ride a nice turn back to the blue plank, which will be a five to a one. It needs to be a little following, so you don’t get to it short. Next, check your reins and make sure your horse is front of your leg and go to the scoop jump; then, put a little shape into the five to the Animal Planet jump and then a four to the green roll-top.

Round Two: Correct Mistakes and Polish Details

“I have the riders repeat the exact same course again. After kind of muddling through it the first time, this gives both the riders and horses something to work on the second time around. You can see here that while doing the course for the second time, this horse really took a breath and started to understand the course and listen to his rider.

“Every rider naturally either over-rides or under-rides. When preparing for the indoors, you have to identify which type of rider you are and always strive to strengthen your weakest link. All three riders here are naturally under-riders, so I have them work on making sure their horses are with them and this first line is a real test of that.

“The most challenging aspect of competing indoors after riding outside for most of the year is the lightning-fast tempo in which you have to make your decisions, while remaining calm and not allowing the course to pile up on you. This is why we spend so much working on using the ends of the ring and your recovery after jumps. The quicker you can recover, the sooner you can start to think about the takeoff for your next fence.

“I like to practice difficult things at home, because we don’t want our horses to be faced with those things for the very first time at a horse show.

“Also, keep in mind that riding is a constant contradiction. We’re always telling our horses to go forward, but to also wait—to come in but stay out. Successfully riding the lines in this course really requires your horse to be pushing off his hind end so he can leave the ground and execute a clean, crisp jump over the fence.”

Reverse the Course

“After mastering the course in one direction, I like to have riders practice reversing it or at least changing the lines in some way so they ride differently. Sometimes when reversing a course, you’ll need to modify an offset oxer, but I tend to set my jumps so everything can be jumped both ways and nothing needs to be changed. When you set your course this way, you easily create two courses in one. If you’re on a green horse, though, you might consider ramp oxers or jumps with ground lines.

“To reverse this course, you’ll start on your right lead with the blue plank and do five strides to the vertical. It’s going to be a little challenging to get through that gap without your horse getting his eye on the wrong fence.

“Riding the course in reverse, the new first line is going to ride more ambitious than it did in the first course, and the last line has the potential to ride a little nicer.

“You can see this rider really using the corner over by the wall to soothe her horse and put him back together. If you really focus on using those corners, you’ll give your horse a chance to take a breath, digest the course and regroup. You can use both corners and the ends of the ring to let your horse drop his head down and realize he’s not in a speed competition.

“So this is typical of how we school and prepare for the indoor competitions. If we don’t end up reversing the course, I might end the day with some sort of test. We might practice the counter-canter, trot jumps, halting or hand galloping.”

For More:

• To watch Stacia Klein Madden’s full video series on schooling indoor equitation courses on EQUESTRIAN+, click here.
• For more top training tips and hands-on video demonstrations with Madden, click here.
• Check out her favorite four exercises for winning equitation rounds here.
• You can listen to our podcast with Madden here.

About Stacia Klein Madden

Known as one of the most successful trainers of young riders in the country, Stacia Klein Madden began her career as a successful Junior, winning the 1987 ASPCA Maclay National Championship and placing in the USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Final and USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals—East. She turned professional in 1988 and started working out of Beacon Hill Show Stables, now located in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Madden also worked for Johnny Barker in North Carolina, before returning to Beacon Hill where she began teaching and developed a passion for working with young riders and matching them with horses. 

In an effort to help those who are insecure about finding their distances, a lot of trainers instruct riders to count their strides. But Hugo-Vidal says this can sometimes backfire, because riders then get fixated on trying to guess when the exact takeoff moment will be—like counting down to blastoff.

Another common problem develops when riders are convinced they’re helping their horses by telling them when to take off, when in fact they really don’t know. Unless you’re a highly skilled and experienced rider, she notes, this can create a lot of confusion for your horse.

If, however, you practice focusing less on the fences and more on your rhythm and track, you’ll find the distances come naturally. In her video series on EQUESTRIAN+, Hugo-Vidal breaks down her circle-over-fences exercise to help change your perception about distances and discover that if you achieve a quality canter, stay on the right track and ensure your horse is balanced between your legs and reins, you don’t have to do anything else. This in itself will allow your horse to find the appropriate distance.

Fences On a Circle: Finding Your Rhythm and Track

“This is a tried-and-true exercise that I’ve used over the years to help riders at all levels. We’re going work over fences on a circle to help you improve your rhythm and track. We’ll start with a ground pole on the inside track and then progress to a vertical on the middle track, and ultimately we’ll finish with the oxer on the outside.

“If you have the right pace and you’re on the right track and your horse is in balance, then the distance to the pole or jump should vary only by inches. If you turn too wide or cut in on the track, that’s going to affect your distance. For example, when Britt, our rider here, turns too early she got a deep distance.

“We start tracking right and go over the ground pole on the inside track. If you’re able to keep your horse balanced on the right pace and track and continue to meet the pole comfortably, then you can advance to doing the same exercise, but going over the vertical on the middle track.

“Britt makes it look easy because she’s relying on her horse’s rhythm and is looking for the track so she can meet the jump right in the center. Now, she opens up the circle even wider to catch the little oxer on the outside track. Because she’s doing it so perfectly, I have her change tracks to get a feel for how that creates a bad distance. Then, I have her go back to her perfect track to ensure she knows what that feels like and because we always want the horse to end on a good note.

“Now, we’ll change directions and do the exercise off the left. Tracking left, Britt’s horse tends to drift off the track more than he does to the right. So, she’s going to need to compensate more going to the left by maintaining that left bend through the turn to keep the track circular to the pole and jumps, opposed to bending him and then going straight. Don’t let him fall in after the pole; you want to maintain that 90-degree angle as much as possible.

“This exercise is a means to an end—the goal is not to replicate a course. You want to follow the round shape and think about matching what you have on the front side of the jump to what you have on the back side.

“Constantly be aware of your canter. Is it active enough? Is your horse in front of your leg? As you approach the oxer, I don’t want to see a change in pace at all. Stay on the rhythm and seek the center of the jump.”

Common Mistakes: Falling Behind and Jumping Ahead

“Here, I have Britt demonstrate some common mistakes riders make on this exercise. She’s been doing an excellent job of waiting for her horse and working out of the rhythm. Here, she’s going to demonstrate a rhythm that’s not ideal, so she misjudges the distance and gets left behind. This demonstrates why it’s so important to maintain the rhythm with a quality canter while also staying on your track to get the ideal distance.

“The next mistake I have her make is jumping ahead of her horse. Instead of sitting up and waiting for him to leave the ground, she’s going to demonstrate getting ahead of him, which is actually worse than being a little behind. You can see that she was unsure of where her horse was and kind of froze and got ahead of him. Ideally, you don’t want to be ahead or behind; you want to be right with your horse.

“Through this example, Britt is mimicking a rider who gets nervous and is anticipating the jump—and you can clearly see the effect it has on her horse and how he gets quick on the back side. For her horse’s sake, we end by doing it correctly on the ideal rhythm and track, and she waits to allow her horse to jump up to her.”

Focal Points to Adjust Or Maintain the Canter

“As you can see in the video, I’ve put two shamrocks in strategic places on the ground. This is to remind Britt that after she lands from the pole or jump and is heading toward that first shamrock, she needs to determine whether she needs to adjust anything. You want to use this space to determine if your pace is below or above what you need and adjust it as necessary.

“The shamrocks serve as visual reminders to check your canter as you work this exercise. For example, if your horse lands on the wrong lead or the distance you got to the jump caused him to land a little quick on the back side or he’s a little slow and trots—or if anything else goes wrong on the back side—once you see that shamrock, you need to repair your canter.

“In this exercise you’re basically working on straight lines off the circle, but the concept will easily carry over to your course work. For instance, when you’re coming off a line and are approaching the end of the ring, you need to be asking yourself what you need to do to adjust or maintain your canter in order to get a good distance to your next fence. You have to train yourself to use that space to make corrections. If you can do it before you get to the end of ring, all the better, but if not, absolutely use the short end to regain your ideal rhythm at the canter. If it helps, try to find a focal point or marker in the show ring to serve as a reminder, so you don’t get lost.”

For More:

• To watch Holly Hugo-Vidal’s full series on riding fences on a circle, click here.
• For more top tips and hands-on training tips from her on EQUESTRIAN+, click here.
• Read more with Hugo-Vidal on Practical Horseman here.

About Holly Hugo-Vidal

Based out of Scott and Nancy Boggio’s Arbor Hill Farm in Canton, Georgia, Holly Hugo-Vidal maintains a busy schedule with her junior and adult riders as well as giving clinics and judging. With her former husband, Victor Hugo-Vidal, she ran the successful show barn, Cedar Lodge Farm, in Stamford, Connecticut, learning from his ability to help anyone with a desire to accomplish his or her goals. Her next mentor was show jumper Rodney Jenkins, who provided her with lessons in reading horses and creating in them a desire to please. She is the author of the book Build Confidence Over Fences!

In this video from her series on EQUESTRIAN+, Olympic dressage rider Kasey Perry-Glass helps a rider and her OTTB at training level work on helping him better use his hind end while maintaining balance, steady contact and an even tempo. After tuning up some basic aids, Perry-Glass also helps the pair improve their work at the trot and canter by addressing some common issues that sometimes arise specifically with Thoroughbreds.

Whether you’re just starting out in dressage, are working your way up the levels or could use some advice on your eventing dressage work, we hope these tips help set you and your OTTB for success.

Honing Your OTTB’s Dressage Fundamentals

“A lot of riders with Thoroughbreds who are built a little downhill tend to ride really forward, but that can often push their horses too far off their hind ends. So focus on keeping a consistent tempo with him so it’s more manageable for him to control his hind end.

“As you’re walking on a circle, take up a little bit of your outside rein to slow down his shoulders while also adding inside leg if he wants to cross behind. That way, you can adjust the speed of his front legs with your outside rein contact. This will help give him the idea of correlating your inside leg to his hind end.

“It’s really important to do lots of direction changes to practice keeping the contact the same on both sides. When he feels a bit stiff, try to push him with your inside leg and maintain that steady contact. Even if he pushes up against your hand, just say, ‘Nope, you’re going to stay here for a second.’ Then focus more on his hind end so he can settle into your hand.

“I love how you’re keeping your inside rein because a lot of people drop it too much. You have to use that inside rein to help guide him into a forward turn. Otherwise, he’ll feel a little blocked. Keep thinking forward, but push a little bit to see if you can maintain a few steps in that collection.

“Try and break through that tension he’s already giving you just to test him. If it’s going to be too much and overwhelm him, you don’t want to push it that far. But play around to see if it helps him learn to engage and bend his ribcage to the right.

“In the beginning, it’s going to feel a bit messy, but eventually you’ll be able to clean it up. Right now, you’re just focusing on finding that little bit of connection in the hind end. You can even make a fish tail of it when changing directions—anything to be creative while also getting his end moving more.

At the Trot: Lateral Work for Leg Desensitization with OTTBs

“The moment you feel a reaction like when he actually wants to bend a little bit toward the right, that’s when you should start changing direction, because it looks like he tends to be a little more hollow on the left and stiff on the right. So we need connect on the left rein.

“As you connect on the left rein, think about using your right leg to push him left and maintain a small connection on the right rein to help support your right leg. And this is going to be hard for him because he’s still trying to figure out where all his body parts are moving.

“He’ll probably want to go faster because it’s harder for him, but he doesn’t need to go any faster. So just wait it out until you feel that moment of give and that’s where you want him.

“Eventually, you want him to get desensitized to your leg, so you can encourage him with leg contact without him running away. Sometimes with Thoroughbreds they can get a little bit tense and tight when trying to understand this, especially after being racehorses. Your leg ultimately must be an aid to put his body in the proper position and not a cue to go guns blazing.

“Now, he’s become less sensitive to your leg, so you can actually think about putting your leg on with him feeling so electric. With more forward Thoroughbreds any type of lateral work you can do to get him used to your leg being on is really useful. And it also reiterates your hands, so you feel like you have a solid connection. At the trot, it’s the same idea—just feeling like your inside leg pushes him over and out of the circle.”

At the Canter: Work Through the Kinks with Your OTTB

“As you ask for the canter, keep your leg and seat down and stay connected on the right side. Keep him on a circle for the canter and be prepared that he’s probably going to try and break because this is physically hard for him as he’s building up these new muscles.

“Keep your outside rein super steady and your hands soft, and if he comes up like that, just push him back into your hand and continue to work through it. Then, give on the inside rein for just a moment. I know it feels really wonky, but it’s almost like you need to keep him cantering while you set his body up into the correct position.

“Even when he wants to get a little fussy, use that encouraging leg, but don’t change your hands. You can maintain a little bit of pressure just to have that connection, but you have to have that bit of leg and eventually he’ll start to drop down.

“These small things are great to work on to get him more aware of where his hind end is because ultimately as you’re doing all these serpentines and changes of direction, you want to be able to engage and push him over and into the bit versus having him hollow out against the bit.

“All of this can feel like super tedious stuff and people feel like they’re not progressing at all. But sometimes, especially with Thoroughbreds, even getting them to move their hind ends from the halt through light pressure is a big win because you can always build from there. When your guy wants to get a little high and is doing his racehorse turning stuff, don’t work too much in that moment because you don’t want to get him too worked. Just focus on small reiterations that will lead to long-term progress.”

For More:

• Watch the full episode of Kasey Perry-Glass working with this rider and her OTTB here.
• For more hands-on training videos and interviews with Perry-Glass, click here.
• Click here for thousands more training videos from top dressage riders and trainers on EQUESTRIAN+.
• Learn more about retraining OTTBs for a career in dressage here.

~ Sam C., Oregon

A: Not all horses have the ideal conformation to allow them to travel naturally with the lower head carriage desired in the hunter ring. However, many horses whose conformation produces a high head carriage can be taught to flex and carry themselves rounder in the bridle. Both to appeal to hunter judges in your under-saddle classes and to progress with the rest of your horse’s education, he must learn to go on the bit. Even a horse who wasn’t taught this fundamental lesson early in his career can still learn it. And knowing how to teach horses this lesson is an essential skill for every rider.

Start by going back to square one: getting your horse in front of your leg and finding the corners of his mouth. Spend a lot of time teaching him to accept steady contact between the bit and your hands. First, ask him to walk forward with plenty of impulsion. After that, add just enough leg pressure until he almost trots. Then stop him from trotting by taking a soft feel of both reins to very gently say “no.” This is the light contact you want to feel all the time. Having contact does not mean having a lot of contact, but it also means never having no contact. Even if it’s just half an ounce of pressure, your horse has to learn to accept this feel and never try to throw it away. 

When he is accepting this contact at the walk, repeat the same aids at the trot and then, eventually, the canter. Work through these steps slowly. Always close your legs first, asking him to move forward into the bridle, before closing your fingers on the reins. Remember, as all the great trainers say, the only thing that keeps a horse’s mouth soft is your leg. 

The next step is to ask your horse to flex in his poll and jaw and come on the bit. There are two ways to do that. First, you can ask with a direct rein, along the lines of the squeezing and releasing you described in your question. Second, you can ask with an indirect rein by practicing lateral movements. The simplest of these is the shoulder-fore. 

Teach your hunter horse the shoulder-fore at the walk. Always start by asking him to go forward. Then use your inside leg to move his inside hind leg slightly to the outside. So, for example, if you’re tracking to the left, squeeze your left leg until his left hind leg moves over just enough to step between the tracks of his front legs. Meanwhile, maintain the proper rein length to allow a light contact on both reins with your hands 2 inches above the mane and 4 to 6 inches apart. 

You may not get a reaction from your horse at first. That doesn’t mean you gave the wrong aids. He might need several repetitions to understand the concept. As soon as he does, give him plenty of praise and pats. 

Lateral movement can easily destroy forward impulsion, so ask for only a few steps at a time, then immediately go forward again. Repeat: lateral, forward, lateral, forward. Try this in both directions. Reward him whenever he does it right. 

Gradually, as your horse learns to move away from one of your legs into the opposite rein, he’ll begin to yield more in the bridle. Don’t try to rush the process by seesawing with your hands, moving the bit right and left in his mouth. This ruins the good contact you’re working so hard to establish. The movement in your hands—and the rocking motion of your horse’s nose—also detracts from the beautiful picture you’re trying to create for the judge. A light, steady contact will help you achieve your main goal in the hunter under-saddle classes: to show off your horse’s movement, cadence and rhythm—as well as a pleasant head carriage—in all three gaits.

About Jamie Mann

Jamie Mann and her mother bought her earliest mounts for around $500 each on the Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico. Primarily self-taught, she says, “I grew up reading Gordon Wright’s book, Learning to Ride, Hunt, and Show. It was my bible.” At 17, she rode a 3-year-old appendix Quarter Horse in the Maclay Finals. She then worked at an A-circuit East Coast stable for 10 years. During that time, she co-trained the 1981 ASPCA Maclay champion, Lisa Castellucci, and competed Lisa’s legendary show hunter Touch the Sun (featured in our October 2015 issue). Also a successful grand prix jumper, Jamie won a World Cup qualifier in 1981 and was an alternate for the USET in 1982. She then started a training business, Atlantis Farm, with her mother in California and coached Richard Spooner to a win in the 1988 USET Show Jumping Talent Search Finals–West. Now based in Senoia, Georgia, Jamie is welcoming new clients.

For More Hunter Training Tips:

• For more top training tips for the hunter ring, click here.
• You can find hands-on training videos and live demonstrations from top hunter riders and trainers on EQUESTRIAN+ here.

This article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of Practical Horseman.

“Furst Yogi is a 7-year-old, 17.2-hand gelding who is a mellow and happy horse, but he needs to stay engaged behind while under saddle. I am his trainer, and he is confirmed at Third Level and schooling Prix St. Georges.”

My first impression after seeing this photo was: What a great picture catching this colorful and powerful moment! It’s one of those pictures you would hang inside your barn to advertise your training. Furst Yogi is trotting with engaged hind legs, good lift of the shoulders and nice self-carriage. He looks like he’s concentrating, his mouth is closed (with the curb bit at the correct angle) and he looks like he’s in a nice frame. 

Amber is sitting with an engaged, stable core and correct leg position. She looks focused and is concentrating in the direction where she and Furst Yogi are headed in the arena. While her hands are a little high and her shoulders are very slightly behind the balance line, it’s important to remember that a photo is simply one moment in a series of movement.

If Amber needed a bit more engagement and self-carriage from her horse, she may have moved her body for one step into this position and then returned to lower her hands and bring her shoulders over her hips. But the picture cannot show the next step. Also, riding a big horse that makes you look small is always a challenge. But Amber is collecting such a big horse with lightness and makes it look easy.

 Stretching Up With The Upper Body

This picture is a good example that correct training does not need strength but balance and quick coordination paired with knowledge and understanding. For the horse, correct timing of the aids is more important than how strongly they are applied. To encourage Furst Yogi to move with more activity from the hind legs, Amber is sitting with her seat bones forward and under her hip joints with her pelvis in a driving position. To avoid compressing her lower back by “tucking in” her seat, she needs to stretch up in her body at the same time. Here, she’s stretched up a bit more with the front side of her body, or frontline, but ideally, she would stretch up through her back, or backline, in the same way. 

To help with this concept of stretching up in the body, imagine the position of your shoulders when riding up or down a steep hill. Riding downhill you will lean slightly back, while your shoulders will come forward going uphill. When asking a horse for a more uphill movement and frame, the rider should not position her shoulders slightly back as if she was riding downhill for an extended period of time. Pushing with the seat and pelvis forward must be followed immediately by rebalancing the chest and upper body forward above the hips.

Another visualization for stretching up in the body is to imagine closing a zipper. You need to hold the base of the zipper down firmly with one hand while the other hand pulls the zipper up. Amber is stretching up very nicely with her frontline. She has connection down into the saddle, and you can imagine her pulling a zipper up over her sternum and chest. This gives her a nice, upright position, but it needs to be balanced by a second zipper stretching over her backline.

I would advise Amber to visualize the second zipper starting at her sacrum (the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine) that needs to be pulled up over the back of her neck and head. The balance between the two zippers will give her the necessary core stability and balance to encourage Furst Yogi to move with more cadence and self-carriage in an uphill frame.

A Giving, Following Hand

Amber is lifting her hands to help carry the weight of the bits and make sure they are not pulling down on the horse’s poll. I prefer a slightly higher, lighter hand position rather than a lower, heavier hand position. But too high of a hand position will break the line from the elbow to the rein to the horse’s mouth and should not be held for a long period of time. If held too long or too strongly, the horse will bend more in the neck and come behind the vertical. Furst Yogi’s nice neck position shows that he’s not being pulled up to self-carriage; he just got a little reminder in this moment. 

A brief lift of the hands can do wonders, but it needs to be followed by lowering the hands with a tendency to push them forward. To make sure that forward giving enhances self-carriage, try standing in riding position in front of a wall with your knuckles touching the wall. Pushing gently forward against the wall will engage your abdominal muscles and lengthen your spine in the lower back with the hips opening forward. This is why every half-halt is only complete when we get to the “giving” moment, where we actually control the horse using our seat. 

Another helpful mental image for Amber: She should imagine lowering her hands forward while also sending her arms along the reins underneath her horse’s mouth as if her hands are scooping under the mouth to help him lift and carry his neck. This forward scooping visualization helps riders keep their balance more forward and avoid leaning back with their shoulders.

I am sure Amber will enjoy training this impressive and willing horse further into Prix St. Georges and beyond, and I hope she can find value in these training tips.

About Susanne von Dietze

Susanne von Dietze is a leader in equestrian biomechanics. A physiotherapist, licensed Trainer A instructor and judge for dressage and show jumping, she gives lectures and seminars throughout the world, including at the prestigious German Riding Academy in Warendorf. She is a native of Germany and now lives with her husband and three children in Israel, where she competes at the international level. She is the author of two books on the biomechanics of riding: Balance in Movement and Rider and Horse, Back to Back. 

Watch training videos with Susanne von Dietze on EQUESTRIAN+.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Practical Horseman.

Here’s why: Our national and international competition committees are continually raising the technical requirements of our sport, and our elite riders keep raising their proficiency. Part of their proficiency is based on the number of hours they spend daily in the saddle—most of which are sponsored. They are getting paid to practice. At the same time, the rising cost of riding and training makes it more and more difficult for you to develop your talents and perfect your skills.

Although it’s generally accepted that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to reach elite levels of performance, the sad fact of the matter is that if you’re able to ride one horse a day, five days a week, it will take you a long time to log that 10,000 hours. Instead, you are going to spend a lot of your time hanging over the arena fence watching other riders while wishing you could be out there competing and improving.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that, as Yogi says, you can observe a lot just by watching … and thereby improve your riding. There’s a catch, however: You have to make sure that you’re observing and not just watching because there is a difference.

It Begins With Books

If it’s a given that you’ll have to develop the ability to learn by observation, then you must make sure that you’re watching the right things. Let me put it to you in a different way: If you want to develop your skills, you must learn to short-circuit the usual heuristic (learning by trial and error) process historically associated with learning to ride at an elite level.

There are several steps toward developing the ability to observe, to learn and to apply what you have learned. First, it will accelerate your learning process greatly if you have a sound understanding of the technical basis for modern riding. For example, what are the leg and rein aids? Where, when and how are they applied? Even though you may not yet be able to apply what you observe, you need to understand why certain things are happening.

You can find the answers to your questions by endless trial-and-error on your own, by taking extensive and expensive lessons or by reading books on the subject. While you cannot learn to ride solely by reading books about riding, you can certainly take advantage of the advice contained in good books.

Why not videos? Most of the videos I’ve seen are excellent, but most assume prior knowledge on the viewer’s part, which means you need to turn the pages in a book before you turn to videos as an aid to learning. Once you understand what is good and bad, video is an excellent learning tool. It enables you to watch the same exercise or competition again and again, using slow-motion and stop-action functions to analyze each step or stride of the horse and each action of the rider.

If the video is about a high-level show-jumping competition, and a horse has a knockdown or refusal, watch it again and again, trying to observe what happened to cause the mistake. When you watch videos of your own riding, avoid the temptation to concentrate on the winning performances; instead, watch your errors endlessly. The next time you ride, make sure you can prevent that mistake from happening.

Learning to Observe

One of the best things I ever learned from former U.S. show-jumping coach Bert de Némethy was to analyze what caused a mistake and to recognize when in a series of actions the mistake occurred. I was standing behind Bert one day, watching as usual, and a horse jumping a schooling course knocked down the front rail of a square oxer.

“So, Jimmy, where did the knockdown occur?” I immediately answered, “At the square oxer.” Bert replied, “No, it happened three fences before that, at the triple bar. The rider did not rebalance his horse after the big spread, and he was too much on his forehand to jump the oxer clean.”

At that moment, I understood that it was possible to observe far more than I had previously realized. My observational powers started to develop, and I no longer had to make a mistake in order to learn from it.

If you are one of those people who must learn everything yourself, all I can say is “good luck.” It is a positive attribute to learn from your mistakes, but you should not insist on making every mistake yourself because there are too many possibilities for error as we learn to ride. When you read a book, watch a video or observe a good rider, you are learning from someone who has already made innumerable mistakes. Profit from their experiences!

Before we get down to specifics, we need to discuss how to observe. When you first start to watch for the purpose of instruction rather than enjoyment, everything is a blur. The horse and rider have a knockdown or a refusal or a dressage movement goes badly wrong, and you are left to ask yourself, “What happened?” What happened is that you tried to see everything at once—and consequently ended up not seeing much of anything.

Instead, practice at first watching one particular part of the whole system. For example, concentrate on watching a horse’s left hock for several moments while you ignore the rest of the dressage test. Chances are that you will, for instance, notice a loss of regularity in the hind legs just before the horse comes above the bit.

Next, watch one front foot and try to determine how it and the opposite hind foot work together, and what happens when they are not harmonious. If you isolate various parts of the horse’s body and concentrate your observations on each aspect alone, you will eventually be able to “see” the whole body of the horse and understand how each part interacts to produce the performance you are watching.

Then, the next time you train your horse in dressage, you might feel the irregularity of his hind legs and know he is about to come above the bridle. This time, however, you will improve his engagement to keep him on the bit rather than pull on the reins in an attempt to “keep his head down.” You learned this valuable lesson without going through the hours of instruction that would have otherwise been necessary.

Education Through Observation

If you are unable to compete, go to an event as a spectator and sit on the rail of the warm-up arena. Devote 10 minutes to observing each horse’s eyes as he approaches an obstacle, ignoring the rest of the horse’s body. Try to feel what the horse sees and when he decides how he is going to meet the fence. Most horses make their decision long before the average rider “sees her stride,” which explains why coaches who insist that riders keep the rhythm in the final approach are successful. A horse traveling in rhythm is in balance, and balanced horses jump to the best of their abilities.

When does a horse jump well? Does he jump well when he is brought to the fence on the bit, just as in dressage? Or is he better when he has the plane of his face at roughly a 45-degree angle to the ground as he approaches? I think you can find the answer, but you have to observe carefully, not just watch.

When you watch cross-country, make sure to observe riders over both a combination and a single “fly” fence designed to be jumped at a high rate of speed. Again, concentrate on one thing at a time. Try to decide the correct place for the necessary speed change before the combination and the correct approach speed. At the fly fence, watch the riders’ actions in the approach. Do they sit down or do they sit back, and why? Which works better?

In all of these instances, make sure you imagine yourself in the saddle and mentally rehearse your actions based on your observations. I think this technique of observing explains in part why a skilled rider can get on a totally strange horse and immediately ride the horse better than his usual rider. The skilled rider has been watching—observing—hundreds of horses like the one she just got on, and she is mentally prepared to ride it.

We cannot spend all our time in the saddle, but we can observe carefully while grounded so as to be ready when the chance to ride presents itself.

For more with Jim Wofford, click here.