10 secrets to horseh success

Why do some people seem to remain perpetually at training level?
Why do some people regress?

Why do others make progress through the levels?

Take my ideas with a grain a salt. I am no George Morris. Or David O'Connor. I am just a typical, average adult amateur with a very average horse. On a below average budget.

1) Observation
Watch those who are successful. How do they train? How to they ride? Pick an idol and when you ride, try to ride like them. (I sometimes envision JJ Tate or Silva Martin when I ride. They look so quiet and elegant on a horse, and so I strive to ride like them. My right airplane ankle has other ideas but ... what can ya do ...) There are plenty of YouTube videos available. Watch them ride tests. Watch them train. Observe the little details - like how the highly successful riders are strict on details. Was that walk-trot transition behind the leg? They don't "let it go," they do it again until it is better.

2) Study
Read books. Watch videos. Audit clinics. I really like dressagetrainingonline.com and similar sites. The videos often focus on specific issues and apply to all levels from greenie to Grand Prix. TIP: Don't just watch the videos at your level. Watch the upper levels and see where you need to be next. I find this helps make sense of the exercises you are doing at the lower levels.

3) Experiment
If you never take risks, you won't make much progress. Schooling First and Second level? One day when you and your horse and feeling good, try a flying lead change. Try half pass. See what happens. So what if you mess up - the horse doesn't know it was a mistake. Or, you may surprise yourself!

4) It's ok to be ugly
Dressage people especially are so afraid of having ugly moments. Understandable, since the sport is all about harmony and the quest for perfection. But you have to start somewhere. Our first canter/walk transition was BAD. In fact our first everything was pretty bad. And these days our attempts at flying changes can get horrendous. But with time, and strength, it gets better. But if you never try, if you never push through the ugly - you never get to the pretty. Laugh it off. Keep trying. Reward good efforts.

2010. Our canter looked like this. Basically a train wreck.

5) Find quality instruction ....
I don't need to preach here about how difficult it is to find a good instructor. An instructor who clicks with your friend, may not click with you. A teacher who keeps you on a 20m circle for 45 minutes and tells you how great you are is not going to help you make progress. Unless you are Steffen Peters. Pick an instructor who has been where you want to go. For example, my current coach has trained her own horse through Grand Prix. She knows what it takes to bring a horse through the levels. If my goals were to get through Training Level eventing, I maybe would not pick her. She hasn't evented. So pick someone who knows how to get where you want to go.

6) ... and stick with a consistent program.
I was very bad about this with my previous horse, T-Bone. I jumped from clinic to clinic. Hoping SOMEONE would tell me how to ride this friggin horse. All that did was confuse both of us as each person had a different program. So we didn't make much progress at all. Yes it's fine to go to clinics, but following one program is likely to help you make progress easier and faster. Plus, it's less frustrating and confusing.

7) Back to the basics
Yeah, I know. This is an obvious one. If you do not establish the basics, then you will just end up practicing the "tricks" the wrong way. Practice does not always make perfect if you are practicing things wrong.

8) Have a friend take photos/video your riding, shows, lessons, etc.
Sometimes this can be a little difficult to watch, but I have found this to be highly beneficial. Especially since we don't have mirrors in our arena (if you do, USE THEM!). You will see yourself do things you didn't know you were doing, and how it affects your horse.

9) Put in the work
Trust me I know how hard it is to balance a full time job (with an extremely erratic work schedule) and riding. And I don't even have children to throw into the picture! But the fact of the matter is, if you want to make progress, you have to do the work. Riding once or twice a week really isn't going to cut it. If I had my way, I would ride 6 days a week, as many horses as I could throw a leg over. That is how you become a better rider. But riding my own horse 4-5 days a week is my typical schedule at the moment. Many people ride way less than that. And we all know how winter throws a wrench in riding. Over the winter, as long as the footing was good and it was not pelting ice in my face, I rode.

Riding in the snow

10) Treat your horse fairly.
This should probably be #1 on the list. While you should challenge yourself and your horse, you should always be fair. My typical rule is that Hampton is allowed to make a mistake 3 times. The fourth time he makes that mistake, I make a stronger correction. (the first few times I continue on no big deal ... give him the benefit of the doubt). You can't allow mistakes to continue or they become an evasion, but you have to be fair in that horses make mistakes in trying to figure out what you want. If your horse comes out stiff, be fair to him and maybe take it easy that day. Set him up for success.