There are many different horse riding tips, but today I have something a bit unusual.
Have you noticed how people tend to ride their horses differently when they are alone, and when they have someone watching them?
There are two types of mistakes
People all of a sudden start horse riding and especially correcting their horses differently when there is someone watching them.
Some people tend to ignore the mistakes their horse does when they have someone watching them, and they just pretend that their horse never did a mistake.
Or some other people start correcting their horse for every single little mistake, which they would normally tolerate.
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Experienced riders get nervous too! Here is what happened…
There was one girl in my stable, she was riding quite well, and her horse was listening to her reliably.
Then, one day she invited her friend to come over to take a look at her riding. The plan was to have a nice day outside and show off how well her horse listens.
What followed was a bit unfortunate for the girl, her horse just all of a sudden didn’t listen to her nowhere nearly as well as he usually did. She was very annoyed with it (who wouldn’t) but she didn’t want to keep correcting her horse all the time. She was worried that her friend would think she is a bad rider and that she treats her horse badly.
But her horse just kept getting worse and worse, so later on, she was just not able to ignore his mistakes anymore.
You can imagine what happened next. Because she was already annoyed, she started rushing and all of a sudden correcting all the mistakes. Then she started apologizing to her friend saying that her horse is usually much better. Which is completely true.
Do not spoil your horse just because someone is watching you
Horses can sense how we feel much better than we think. They can sense when we are insecure, when we have expectations that are just too high, or when we are not paying full attention.
Horses can feel your little movements and your tension, they are always judging whether you are a leader that will make them safe. Horses test their riders by making small mistakes and seeing how the rider reacts. They want to be sure that you are a worthy leader that will make them safe.
And that’s why horses sometimes tend to misbehave when we have someone watching us. We get nervous, don’t correct the mistakes and our horse just gets worse and worse.
So here is your horse riding tip:
It’s important to learn to always stay calm and follow your training system with no regard to who is watching you at the moment. The opinion of someone watching you riding on your horse might last until the next morning, but a well-trained horse that you have a great relationship with will last you many years to come.
