As an equestrian, you know that horses are wired to be on the alert for energy and nervousness in the herd. So you probably know that, when you allow yourself to get too excited or anxious in the saddle, that energy gets transmitted to your horse like you were connected to it with jumper cables.

Your hands get too rigid on your horse’s mouth. Your legs clamp in on your horse’s belly. Your body tightens and loses all suppleness. And all of this, as well as every little overreaction or sense of indecision on your part, gets transmitted to your horse through your excessive, unforgiving contact. You telegraph, “something’s up!”

In the end, this communicates to your horse that he’d better get hyper-alert to what’s going on around him. And that’s not a good thing, especially if you’re trying to keep him calm and focused on the job at hand.

At Trowbridge’s, we call highly charged riders “electric”. That’s because, as their nervous energy goes up, they get their horses charged up as well. And you can guess where that leads.

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Obviously, there are some real advantages to getting private lessons from a knowledgeable instructor. Chief among these is the undivided attention you get.

There’s no downtime waiting for someone else to work. There’s no watering down of instruction to serve the “common-denominator” needs of riders. Every minute of your lesson is dedicated to meeting your specific needs.

Still, there are some things group lessons offer that individual lessons simply can’t match. It’s important that you experience them. And it’s important that you make the most of them.

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We’ve spent a lot of time researching how riders’ personality traits shape their ability to succeed as competitive riders. One such factor is learning style. And at some point, we’ll write about four aspects of learning style that affect everyone’s ability to learn how to ride. But I’d like to preview one of them right now, because it can also affect your performance in the show ring.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s say the world is divided into two kinds of people. There are those who like to think things through completely before they try something, and there are those who like to jump right in and figure it all out later (maybe).

Knowing which you are can help you improve your performance in both the practice arena and the show ring.

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I’m often struck by how difficult it is for some riders to transition from one riding level to the next. And part of the problem is they’re not fully aware of what’s most important for success at a given level.

The same goes for how difficult it is for some trainers to transition from being good riding instructors to being good coaches. Here’s what I mean by this.

Beginners Need to Develop “Autopilot” Capability for Basic Skills

No surprise here. Beginners need to focus on developing basic riding skills to the point they can execute them subconsciously. The problem is, it gets awfully tempting to jump to a more capable horse before this job is done.

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Open any book on sport psychology and you’re sure to find a discussion of visualization. It’s right at the top of the list when it comes to mental training. Basically, athletes use it in two ways.

First, some visualize successful, competent performances to build confidence. And second, some use it to support their training, because mentally rehearsing performance routines and physical skills can help you learn them.

For example, even sitting in a chair, a figure skater can use classic visualization to run through her routine or rehearse placing her arms and legs in the right places during a triple lutz. You can see skaters, gymnasts, divers and other athletes going through such mental rehearsals all the time on TV during the Olympics.

It’s not surprising, then, that equestrian sport psychologists often adopt these same techniques as is. But there’s something missing in this approach. And it stems from the fact that competitive riding is a fundamentally different sport from any other.

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Is your barn a fun and supportive place? Do you help keep it that way?

These are important questions, even if you don’t think about them often. After all, who doesn’t want to look forward to going to the barn? So, let’s take a minute to look at what makes a barn more or less pleasurable, and what you can do to improve the social climate at yours.

This is actually something I can talk about a little. As an amateur, I spent at least some time training at more than fifteen barns. And each one of them presented a different social climate.

Sometimes the climate reflected the personality of the instructor. Sometimes it took on more of the personality of socially dominant riders in the barn. But every one of them was different, and I came to see each one as a combination of five different “tones” that can swing either to the positive or to the negative.

I’ve gotten to the point where I can feel these tones almost as soon as I set foot on a property. If you pay a little more attention, so can you.

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There are lots of things that can get in the way of having a productive lesson or show. But one problem I see often is a rider trying so hard to please her instructor that she focuses more on that than on her riding.

Some people just feel driven to please authority figures. But even if you don’t, it’s easy for you to pay too much attention to how your coach is feeling about your efforts. This is especially true when you’re feeling insecure about something. Then, every little shift in tone or look of frustration on the part of your instructor can get you off your game.

When this happens, you probably don’t even know why things are suddenly going downhill. That’s because it’s tough to recognize when you’re being overly sensitive to criticism, or hyper-vigilant for signs of approval or disapproval from your instructor. And it’s tough to recognize when you’re talking and behaving in ways that serve no purpose other than to get positive feedback.

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When you’re new to riding, your success depends a great deal on your ability to concentrate on what you’re doing. Where are your hands? Where are your heels? How is your body positioned?

But as you gain experience, things change. And concentrating on how you’re riding, if carried too far, can do you more harm than good. Here’s why.

Learning to ride is largely a matter of practicing skills to the point where you DON’T have to think about what you’re doing anymore. That’s the whole point of practice.

You first learn basic skills such as balance and leg placement. Then, free of having to think about that, you move on to more advanced skills, such as picking up a canter or executing a flying lead change.  Ultimately, you even automate things like correcting for the goofball things your horse does in certain situations.

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Ah, the lunge-line lesson. It’s a training staple for beginning riders. But far too many experienced riders underestimate its value. Some even see it as beneath them.

I work all my riders on the lunge line, even the most experienced of them. And that’s because these lessons reveal things that would otherwise remain hidden. In particular, I use them to check a rider’s fundamentals, such as balance, core body strength, certain fine-motor skills and confidence.

You’d be surprised how much an instructor with an experienced eye can learn about riders by working them through these kinds of exercises. You’d also be surprised how much even the best of riders unknowingly use their reins to compensate for fundamental weaknesses that keep coming back over time. And you’d be surprised to learn how valuable getting a periodic check-up for these kinds of weaknesses can be.

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From the end of the Second World War through the 1980s, Japan went through a remarkable transformation. From the ashes of its industry, it built an industrial juggernaut that came to lead the world in numerous markets, from cars to consumer electronics. It did it by producing products of exceptional quality.

One key business (and life) philosophy behind this transformation is called “Kaizen”, which, at its core, honors dedication to continuous, incremental improvement.

Kaizen calls on you to make small improvements every day, rather than pin your hopes on some magical solution that will change things in a big way all at once (a new horse, anyone?). Then, like the tortoise beating the hare, you end up ahead at the finish line, or you maintain a competitive advantage for as long as you stay disciplined about continuous improvement.

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