What does it take to be a rider who gets the best out of most horses? (And how long does it take to get there?)

[pryme_thyme]

It sounds like you are doing a great job! Dont be too hard on yourself OP. You sound like you overanalyze like I do

I am on the complete opposite spectrum. All I had access to when I was a kid were the new green ponies and horses in for training or schoolies needing a tune up. Which led to me buying unbroke horses and starting/training them until they are ready to start in the show ring and they always end up selling. Then I am back to square one.

Twenty some years later and I am still following the same pattern.

Admittedly, the best teacher I have had was a hot, sensitive and spooky Iberian filly which I just actually sold and she is moving onto a 1.20-1.30 career with a junior.

That filly tore me down as a rider. She was great to start, but boy was she ever hot! Smart as a whip but if you didn’t RIDE properly and effectively, get ready.

The best thing I ever did was take some lessons with a rider who knows the type of horse (actually the owner of the filly’s dam), grab a dressage saddle and some full seats.

To this day, I live by, ‘want to learn to actually ride? ride a hot horse for a few years’.

Best advice, ride the horse you have that day nice and forward, focus on your position, learn to ride more from your seat and thigh. Centered riding instructors will be your friend.

When you ride properly and effectively, you will get the best you can out of horses.

Good luck! Learning to ‘ride’ never ends!

[TheHunterKid90]

I would say that 90% of finding your “spots” going to fences is staying in rhythm. Most of the time if you have a good rhythmical canter going on, the spots find themselves. Have you talked to your coach about this? What do they think it is?
I too find that riders that clamp down with their legs and ride with a stiff seat tend to light horses up.
Not only is a stiff seat aggravating, they’re just waiting for a cue to come out of nowhere because you’re sitting up there stiff and still. And you can possibly keep a rhythm when you’re moving against your horse.
You might benefit from some lunge line lessons, if your lesson facility offers that and has capable horses to teach on.

As for when you get competent and feel like you kind of know what you’re doing….I’ve been a pro since I turned 18. 12 years. I’ve ridden 8-12 horses a day 6 days a week for the last 9 years. I STILL have days where I can’t get it together and I know I’m not doing my horses justice.
And with that in mind, be gentle with yourself, I have approximately 28,000 rides under my belt over nearly a decade and I still have times where I flounder and for that I have great coaches that encourage me but also tell me to get my head out of my ass.
Horses keep you humble.

[danhelm441]

I would say that 90% of finding your “spots” going to fences is staying in rhythm. Most of the time if you have a good rhythmical canter going on, the spots find themselves. Have you talked to your coach about this? What do they think it is?

That’s what it is and also what my trainer says. It’s rhythm and straightness, and picking the right track to get straight. Like I said, I have found it difficult for a long time—and now on multiple horses—to get a canter that just stays the same, not alternately too much or too little.

On several of the lesson horses I also have a problem that they get crooked and some even duck out in a line of jumps, so for that I get told to keep my leg on. But often I try to keep my leg off or soft to avoid shooting off at the canter. I don’t wear spurs or carry a crop, even for the horses you get advised to grab one for.

[CBoylen]

There is the problem. More leg is necessary to slow down and keep rhythm as well as stay straight. By taking your leg off you are scaring your horses. They hate feeling abandoned. Make sure you are not digging with your heel, but put your calf ON.

[dags]

Sally Swift calls it a “breathing leg”. The leg is always on, but in its most “inactive” state it’s on just enough to feel the horse’s barrel expand & collapse with each breath.

Most likely you will not actually feel this expansion & collapse, but it should help you envision how to keep the leg “on” without clamping.

I highly recommend the Centered Riding books for more ingenious mental tricks like this!

[LSBC]

Sometimes there are horses who like your leg “on” for security, but you’re not pushing them at all. I used to ride a very hot horse who took literally no leg, but he liked to have it “on” him because if he didn’t he would get nervous and go even faster.

I think you’re doing exactly what you need to do to get the most out of every horse. I never had a horse of my own and that helped me immensely in my riding - I could ride anything rather decently. As I’ve gotten older I’ve been more able to pick and choose the type of horse I want to ride, but for 15 years I rode everything.

I notice the disparity a lot with people who own really nice horses and seem to ride really well, but then you put them on a school horse and as my one trainer said, “I’ve never seen anyone miss that badly and that many times to a crossrail on our best school horse.” That’s where a lot of these riders would benefit from lessons on horses that aren’t their own, but where I am from it is totally normal to have a ton of riders like this.

Ultimately, the more you do it, the better you will get! Get on every horse you feel comfortable riding!

[danhelm441]

@dags

Sally Swift calls it a “breathing leg”. The leg is always on, but in its most “inactive” state it’s on just enough to feel the horse’s barrel expand & collapse with each breath.

Most likely you will not actually feel this expansion & collapse, but it should help you envision how to keep the leg “on” without clamping.

I highly recommend the Centered Riding books for more ingenious mental tricks like this!

I read Centered Riding when I was first learning to ride. I wonder if I would get more out of it now that I have more experience. I definitely do recall several of the visual metaphors she gives, but I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a bit of it went over my head, considering I just wasn’t doing much more than trotting on the rail at the time

I’ve read a lot of books about riding, training, and horse care, and in fact sometimes I wish I didn’t read so much. It’s great to have a relentless intellectual curiosity and all that , but you can’t exactly read your way to becoming a better rider. And it can be frustrating to have head knowledge that doesn’t match practical ability.

Actually after I made this OP, I started wondering if a large part of my problem was simply reading too much! Too much horse media. Books, Instagram, COTH… being too obsessed with horses 24/7 can make it difficult to just be in the moment and accept the slow and steady learning curve for what it is.

[dags]

Along these lines, I’m currently teaching a Brand New to Riding adult and am reminded how much they tend to overthink things. They have this thought that if they just understand, they can do, and it… just doesn’t work like that.

She’ll be thinking so hard about How To Post that she’ll miss the natural rhythm behind the whole concept. So, I’ll put out two poles and we’ll work on the mechanics of a circle; it has to be round, it has to start & end at the same point, you have to find the center of the poles, etc. And lo & behold, within minutes she’s posting all over the place without missing a beat.

(Most) Kids don’t over-analyze, they just get on and do, and end up riding circles around adults that have been riding longer than the kid has even been alive