"Riding Feel"

Alex's Dressage Tips

Tip of the day...

“RIDING FEEL”

Over the years, I’ve instructed thousands of different people and always rode their horse whenever possible. My theory being that if I was fit and able (and a suitable size and weight) I should be able to get a better tune than the person I’m instructing, or surely I’m not good enough.

Riding lots of different horses gives you a bank of instinctive ‘feels’. You’ll develop a growing inventory of aids that will only improve your riding and help give you the competitive edge.

If you’re an instructor and you ride your clients’ horse from time to time then you’ll be better able to describe to them the ‘feel’ they have, the ‘feel’ they want and how to get there. This isn’t always possible and there are plenty of senior trainers with a wealth of knowledge and ‘feels’ from years gone by, who for other reasons may not be able to hop on!

Owen Moore was the gent who kindly taught me on Countryman when I was in Juniors. He used to get on and make him go like a dream. I used to stand on the floor for most of the lessons analyzing what he was doing, asking him heaps of questions and working out how he developed different ‘feels’. I found this extremely helpful and often used the same methods when I taught / teach. At the same time I drove Owen mad and I was probably the most annoying and demanding pupil he had.

I understand that people’s horses are very personal and that you won’t like sharing particularly, but if you get the opportunity to sit on and school a different horse, take it. Your unconscious instinct to know what to do in different situations will improve.

I guess there’ll be a few people reading this whose horses I’ve ridden and schooled in the past 20 – 30 years .