Hey guys! I I struggle with the fact that I just feel mediocre with my riding. I ride 5-6 horses every day and I go to the gym 2x a week and I just STILL feel like I’m behind. Are there any ahaa moments that you feel like sharing or just general tips to becoming a better rider? It can be your equitation, your eye over fences, how to deal with quirky horses, ANYTHING. I just want to listen and learn. I talk to so many people and I have gotten some great instruction but I feel everyone has different experiences and may have different outlooks on things. TYIA!!
A sports psychologist.
There are many equestrian books and articles and podcasts out there, and I’m thinking back to some of Jane Savoie’s books, but these things cannot substitute for a personalized, personal, consistent, and directed approach.
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What are you struggling with in particular?
One thing that I think makes a huge difference is, watch the schooling area. It’s free lessons from anyone you could want.
Riding one horse every day without stirrups is also a good plan.
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What’s your definition of a “great” rider? Are you referring to showing standards (like h/j) or becoming a solid, all around equestrian? By understanding that, it can help lead to some specific suggestions.
In general, for me, what made me the best rider I could become was considering horsemanship as an art that needed to be studied. I believe there’s an intellectual understanding of riding that’s necessary, and much of that takes place off the horse.
Then, riding all sorts of horses helped me, too. And I mean all sorts: the stoppers, the runner awayers, the nasty ponies, the sullen school horses and the hotsy totsy spookers. This bank of experience allowed me to get on an unfamiliar horse, ride it for a few minutes, and think to myself, “I once rode a horse that did this and oh yeah, I remember what worked to fix this issue.”
The pursuit of becoming an accomplished rider is a wonderful journey, regardless of what types of horses or disciplines you choose throughout your life. Have fun and enjoy the experience!
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The book that caused my riding to improve tremendously was “The Way to Perfect Horsemanship” by Udo Burger.
It cleared up several things that I just could not interpret correctly in other advanced riding books.
How did I know that this book was the real deal? ALL my riding horses I owned then and most of the lesson horses I ride now become much better riding horses when I use what I learned in this book. Stuff that had been difficult-to-impossible for me became very easy for me and my riding horse.
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Udo Buerger is for sure a good recommendation!
But I would like to know from the OP why he feels behind… is it regarding horsemanship or riding abilities?
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I think you’ll get better responses if you provide some more details on what you’re struggling with, what discipline you ride, what your goals are, etc. Riding is a tough sport that takes decades to master, it’s totally normal to feel behind at times. It’s pretty common to have periods where it feels like you’ve hit a wall before you make a breakthrough. If you step back and think back to where you were a year or two ago, do you see progress? The answer is probably yes. If it’s honestly no, then it may be time to take a critical look at your program.
One thing to consider is whether you’re really using your rides effectively. If you aren’t going in with a plan and holding yourself accountable for practicing correctly then you won’t see much progress. How many of those rides are lessons? A good instructor should be able to help you with ideas on what to do with the rest of your rides to keep you on track. Something like RideIQ can be really helpful here too. Same goes for the gym - your workouts should have structure and increase in difficulty over time if you want to see results.
Related to the above, set clear, realistic goals for yourself and check in regularly. I like to write out some goals at the beginning of the year, from easily achievable to more aspirational, and then I’ll have smaller goals in mind for each show and as things come up in my training. I’m pretty flexible and the aim isn’t to actually check everything off the list, more to make myself think critically about where I’m at, where I want to go, and what I should be working towards at any given time.
I also listen to a lot of podcasts, especially interviews with top riders and trainers. It’s amazing how much you can learn for free out of the saddle. I almost always come away with an exercise I want to try or a new way of thinking about a problem. I also find it helpful when they talk about mindset - I pick up some good tips but mostly it’s just reassuring to hear that this sport is hard for everyone and even the best of the best aren’t immune to failure and self-doubt. It helps keep things in perspective.
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Try cross training.
Go ask a nice race horse stable if they let you learn to gallop horses and spend several months doing that.
See if a western stable will let you ride with them, any kind, reining is very interesting, so are others, even if what they do is not inherently interesting to you.
A polo barn, saddle-seat, even barrel racing.
Starting colts if you have not yet, spending time in a breeding farm.
Trying something different to what you are doing, different horses and ways of going and riding and training, it all adds to making you better at what you, expands your horizons to what all we do with horses and cross knowledge can give you that edge to your horse learning you are missing now.
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The riders most of us think of as “the great riders” struggle with the same question.
It has less to do with an outside set of objective criteria, and more to do with how you see your riding as part of your life.
IMO question #1 is why do you need to be a ‘great’ rider? What’s wrong with being a good and effective rider? Especially if you can do most of what you aspire to do.
Once you can stick on with a balanced seat, much of what constitutes progress is your growing ability to train, school, trouble shoot, problem solve, and feel what is going on with the horse that needs rebalancing. This is true across all the disciplines but the details vary by what the goal.is. A good rider makes the horses more responsive and better balanced and happier over time.
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You are here, in yellow:
Break down what green looks like to you, thoroughly, and make steps to get there.
Lots of miles on lots of horses.
I was so very frustrated in nuke school because I struggled as a plant operator. There was a local barn that I rode at and while I wasn’t the greatest rider ever, I was a whole lot better at that than I was at operating a reactor. A horse did something and I just reacted to it. One day I realized that I’d been riding on & off for 10+ years; I’d been doing the nuke thing for a year.
When I got back into driving, it was driving a bunch of horses a couple days a week that made me a decent whip. That was paired with years of riding with different people. Everyone does have a different outlook and tricks, you just pick up whatever you can.
