Riding Lessons

Online Lessons | Downloadable Lessons | Contact Tim About Lessons

A Conversation With Your Horse

The first thing I ask my students when they take a lesson with me is to describe what riding is to them. I get a wide range of answers: riding is a sport, it is a way to travel, it is a hobby, it is something that they have dreamed about doing for years, but are only just getting around to. There are no wrong answers to the question. Riding a horse is many things to many people – and each person will come to it with their own assumptions, goals and expectations.

The reason I ask the question is to get the rider to think about what it is they are doing and what they want to achieve. Then I tell my students what riding is to me.

For me, riding is a language – a language between the rider and the horse. It is not a spoken language, though the voice can play a part, particularly in the early training. It is a language that is based on the rider’s part in balance, touch and weight, and on the horse’s part in movement.

The rider will communicate to the horse through the use of his aids (balance, touch and weight) and the horse will respond in the way he moves – or does not move. The rider will then “speak” to the horse again through the aids. The lines of communication have to be open both ways. As long as you are in the saddle, this conversation should be ongoing.

For the beginner rider, they have to learn the basics of how to communicate with the horse –squeeze with both legs to ask the horse to walk for instance. They squeeze and the horse responds by walking. The horse, by walking, has replied to the rider “I understand what you’ve asked.” The rider can then stop asking for the walk as they have received the desired response.

As the rider progresses and becomes more balanced and subtle with their aids, they also become more sophisticated in their understanding of the horse’s response. They can tell whether or not the horse is balanced as it performs a turn, they understand if the horse is properly engaged with his hind legs and is in a position to perform an upwards or downwards transition, and they gain an understanding and feel for the rhythm of the horse’s gaits. The rider becomes quieter in the application of the aids and the horse responds more willingly and with better movement. This increased sophistication on the rider’s part leads to a clearer understanding on the horse’s part and the conversation begins to really flow.

What I have tried to achieve here is to provide the rider with some basic exercises that will improve their and their horse’s understanding of the fundamentals of this language.

The horses and riders depicted on this Web site aren’t perfect. Many of the horses are former racehorses who have been purchased cheaply (including my own horse, Aries) and been given an opportunity of a second career and a happy life. The riders don’t have aspirations of the Olympics, but they are very dedicated to the care of their horses. They are looking to improve their riding skills and enjoy the time they get to spend with their equine friends.

Online Lessons | Downloadable Lessons