Today I had my first try out at Ingestre which was super exciting. I was on a horse called Tyson, who was a blue and white cob around 14 hh. He also was nominated to go to the Beijing Olympics to be competed in dressage, the only reason he wasn’t taken being the very long flight given his older age. Already this was very exciting as to be on such a talented horse I felt bad for making him deal with my riding. Although the lesson was only 45 minutes long, I was learning something new about my riding every moment, and found my instructor Chris amazing. It seemed as though I was learning how to ride again from the start, however this time round I was learning key aspects about how to ask the horse for what you want rather than just kicking and hoping for the best!

In the lesson we worked on some key points:

Contact: Do not try to wiggle the reins into a contact, this causes the horse’s head to sway side to side. Have a strong contact when with the horse, stronger than you think! When asking for bend just do half-halts on the inside rein, use of energy should allow him to work over the back naturally.

Energy: Focus on getting more energy instead of speed from the horse. Can often tell if there is enough energy by how much the rider is having to work to gain anything from the horse. By gaining energy from behind, this allows a drive forwards, by holding the head in the contact, the horse should naturally start to work over the back, as we are gaining the energy from the back as well as containing the energy at the front. Alike bending a ruler, holding the front end down whilst pushing the back, up, causing the ruler to bend.

Aids: first give a normal aid, then a stronger aid, then use the whip to reinforce your aid. If the horse does not listen, using the whip causes them to respect what you are doing, becomes a command rather than a question. Wanting the horse to want to move up into the transition rather than dragging themselves through it.

Bad Habits: Think of when giving a leg aid and if it is really necessary. Often giving leg aids when they are not needed, using it as small talk between myself and the horse, constantly ‘niggling’ them along. Instead, if you feel the aid is needed to keep the horse going, try just seeing what they do on their own. If they slow down, give a strong aid to demonstrate that is not the right, if they keep the pace, then there is no need for the extra leg aids. Set the horse up in the pace that you want and expect them to stay in that pace. This is what they are supposed to do (surprisingly) and keep the lower leg still unless when giving an aid. Elbows are straight when riding, to become more conscious of them and allow them to bend, so that when the horse’s head moves, the elbows bend back and forth coinciding with the horse’s movement.