In riding, everything big relates to something small. You can’t have good position without a good leg. You can’t have a good leg without correctly placing your foot in the iron.
Work with What You Have
Physical attributes can help your riding, but they are not necessary. The ideal rider has long legs, a short body, and long arms. That is the easiest type of anatomy to work with.
The more you are restricted by your physical size and shape, the more difficult it may be for you to excel. But, even if you are not the ideal body type, take heart. In my experience, good equitation is never impossible.
A good rider needs a good brain. He needs to be relaxed, interested, determined, disciplined, and strong. In many ways, these attributes take precedence over a rider’s physical characteristics.
I really stress with my riders who are not tall or thin (the aesthetically ideal body type) that riding is a sport. The more you regulate your weight and control it, the more you keep yourself fit and strong, the easier riding will be. Riding can be used to help you get in shape. If riding doesn’t come naturally or easily to you, it will still help you develop physical strength, fitness, and control over your body.
The more your age, weight, coordination, or conformation hinders your progress, the more you have to rely on a solid foundation. The most basic part of your foundation of course, is solid position.
Make yourself repeatedly go back and regroup as you practice the basics. Then practice them some more, until you have such a sound, solid foundation that you are secure, comfortable, and as knowledgeable as you can be on the horse.
2.7 Interest is the most important factor in your riding ability. This older, experienced student’s interest in correct position and perfecting her craft shows in her Schooling.
The less raw talent you possess, the more you need to rely on a slow and steady approach to learning how to ride. Do it for the process rather than for the results. And, bear in mind that success is measured in many different ways.
Riding should never be discouraging for you if you are not the “right size” or the “right shape.” The important things are desire and drive and ambition. Don’t despair. Just get to work and get things done.
Start at the beginning. Start with your leg and work your way up. Continually strive to perfect the correct position.
Work on your abilities one step at a time and methodically learn how to ride. Then, methodically teach your horse how to do his job.
The better your foundation, and the more skills you can master, the better you will be able to deal with the day-to-day challenges that arise. You will also find that once you have the basics mastered, your riding will improve exponentially and you and your horse will be much more of a team.
Focus on Causes Rather than Symptoms
Regardless of how much talent or ability you may possess, no horse or rider is perfect. When a problem arises—and it will—it helps to have a methodical approach to solving it.
To discover the underlying problem, you have to take an unemotional moment to analyze the symptoms you don’t like. Decide, first of all, if something is a symptom, or if it is a problem in and of itself.
If you don’t accurately diagnose the problem, you will waste your energies on tangents. This happens all the time at horse shows. People who are going too slowly work on straightening instead of pace. People who are nervous work on pace rather than trying to calm themselves. All of their hard work is for nothing because it does not begin to fix their fundamental problems.
Problem solving is one reason why it is important to surround yourself with knowledgeable, competent horse people. Use their expertise to help you develop the art of looking at a situation and identifying the problems that exist.
Once the problems have been identified, it is important to choose the one that is the most pertinent at that moment. After isolating the core problem, then you can come up with simple, unemotional solutions to fix it.
If things go wrong and the rider freaks out over a symptom, riding becomes nerve-wracking. It becomes conflicting, uncomfortable, and worrisome for both horse and rider, because focusing on a symptom will never correct the underlying cause of the trouble.
When a problem manifests itself, you have to stop. Remove any emotion you bring to the situation. Look for the root cause; then decide what you will do to solve the problem.
Instinctive Riding
As a rider, give yourself credit for being aware of your horse. Instead of second-guessing yourself, pay attention to your instinct. For instance:
If you think your pace is too slow—it probably is.
If you think your horse is dead to your legs—he probably is.
If you think your horse has a dead mouth—he probably does.
If you think your horse is moving stiffly or feels lame—he probably is.
If you don’t think your horse is reacting correctly—he probably isn’t.
If, in your riding, something “just doesn’t feel right,” don’t be in a hurry to discount it or ignore it. Riding is a tactile, physical exercise that relies at least as much on feel as it does on logic.
“Feeling” often alerts you to problems with your horse, with a course, or with your riding. Once the problems are defined, however, logic helps you solve them.
Watch for “Tack-Masking”
In many ways, riding emulates life. There are no shortcuts to success. Quick fixes and easy cures rarely exist.
Consider your tack, for instance. If you discover that using a particular piece of equipment improves your riding or your horse’s way of going, use it for a while if you must. However, don’t stop there. Apply yourself to determining what caused the improvement. Ask yourself what underlying weakness in structure, experience, or schooling the new equipment is masking. Then work on devising a way to strengthen the inherent weakness, rather than simply patching it.
If you can fix the problem, then, when it is gone, the symptoms of that problem will also disappear. You will have spent your energies getting to the root of the matter, rather than trying to mask or cover one piece of the larger puzzle.
Let’s apply the principle of focusing on causes rather than symptoms to two cases—one where the underlying problem lies with the horse, and one where the problem is the rider’s fault:
Case Study 1: The Heavy Horse
If your
