In the quest to do well at a competition or when schooling at home do you as a rider ever stop to contemplate what you are doing? Do you ever ask yourself whether you could have used less leg, less hand, fewer taps with the whip?

Sometimes the drive to do well makes us forget that our friend the horse is an equal partner in all of this. Whilst he or she may appear to prefer to be out eating grass with their mates they have often been bred specifically for a job as a competition horse, and they should derive as much satisfaction out of training and competing as you do. As many of you know I enjoy my competing and would be a sad individual without some goals to work towards! But I am constantly analysing my performance as a rider after a competition and watching the videos to see whether I could have ridden my horse in a more sensitive manner. When I school at home I make a rough plan of what I will do with each horse and make sure it is achievable and interesting for both of us. I am careful to challenge the more able horses and not over-face those that need their confidence building up.

I bear in mind that every action taken has an impact. If you pull on a rein instead of squeezing and flexing your wrist, if you kick with your legs or use your seat the horse will feel what you are doing, remember that they can feel where a fly is on their body! Start to think more as if you are the horse on the receiving end of the aids. Are they a confused jumble of leg and hand aids or are they clear and precise?

So many times I see horses at competitions and in schooling arenas that look thoroughly miserable or tense and unhappy. Why should that be so? Horses are generally not born with difficult or angry temperaments, the great majority are willing, trainable individuals, that want to work and have been bred to work. But then add a handler/rider who is not sensitive to their needs and psyche and it is a minor miracle that they are not more horses that are labelled as unrideable or dangerous.

In my opinion it is the rider first that is at fault not the horse, after all you are supposed to be the intelligent one in the partnership so start taking ownership of any problems. So why do so many people focus purely on the horse when training and not correcting what is wrong with the rider? What is it that you are doing to make your horse confused and unhappy. What about giving conflicting aids? Putting the leg on at the same time as hauling on the mouth? Learn to ride with an independent seat so that the reins are not required. Master the technique of switching on your muscles, be able to put your seat and legs into action either independently or at the same time and very quickly. Ask people to assess your riding on a regular basis, it could be a friend or your trainer, perhaps have a lunge lesson working solely on your position.

When you are teaching your horse something new or when he responds very quickly to an aid remember to reward your horse. The reward can be a quick pat or scratch by the wither or could be a release of the rein and of course not repeating the command again.

Aspire to be a rider that bonds with every horse that you ride and is at one with them, where the aids to the horse are not visible to those around you and apply aids that are sensitive to the horse’s body language and needs so that you are at one with your horse.

If you master these techniques I guarantee they will be reflected in improved competition scores.

In the next blog I will look at how you can change horses that have become dull to leg and hand aids through over-riding.