What makes a GOOD rider?

​Crazy question really as it depends on our definition of what a good rider is, and I am sure this varies between all of us.
 
So often people say to me "I'm not good enough for my horse"! I doubt the horse really cares if he/she doesn't have an Olympic rider on its back and as it never has, it wouldn’t know the difference. What it does know, however, is if the person on its back hurts him, confuses him or forces him into uncomfortable positions and difficult situations.
 
We are blessed to be able to ride these amazing creatures and owe it to them to be the very best riders we can which brings me back to the initial question. What makes a good rider?
 
I believe a good rider is someone who is aware not only of what their own body is doing but also of their horse’s and their surroundings. They have good balance, good feel and focus on what they are doing. They also have invested the time to learn as much as they can about horses – the care of them, their bodies, movements and minds. This then enables riders to respond to their horse and to external stimuli in a correct, empathetic and educated manner at all times. In other words, they have the knowledge to be confident in what they do and to not get frustrated or worried when things may not go as planned.
 
I thought I would dedicate a blog to each of these attributes as they are all so important for riders to develop. It is easiest to discuss them individually but they are very inter-related. For example, riders with good balance are able to feel more that those who still need to improve in this area and riders with good feel will be more aware of their own body and that of their horse.
 
Awareness is the best starting point to discuss as without that, riders are unable to know that change is needed and are less able to feel differences and follow through on changes made, either with regards to themselves or their horses.

How Aware are you when you are riding?
What are you aware of?
You have probably never stopped to think about this as a lot of this is done subconsciously but we have a big job as a rider! We need to constantly move our awareness between three main areas – ourselves, our horses and our environment.  
 
Rider Aware is to be aware of ourselves as riders. Of our minds and our bodies as we all know how much both of these influence our horses! In fact, it was my inability to connect with a mare many years ago that lead me to learn to meditate and for that I will be forever grateful . How true is the saying “our horses are our teachers”! In more ways than one and not only with respect to riding and horse interactions but about life in general.
 
Some people are more body aware than others, but this is certainly an area everyone is able to improve. It is worth checking in on this every now and again as it can change with stress, age and injury. Our minds are incredible about getting us back after injury… consider when you have an injury, initially we have an increased awareness of that area. It hurts and the pain forces us to rest the area and find other ways to function. Sometimes after a while we subconsciously block out the area so we can get back into the swing of life. Old movement pathways may never be completely restored to what they were prior to the injury, for whatever reason, and before we know it we have set a new “normal” feeling or new “normal” way of moving, sitting or standing. In riding we may see this as riders sitting unevenly, leaning, collapsing, twisting and many other asymmetries.
 
Fortunately there are now many new fun and easy techniques to allow make our own brains aware of these patterns and very quickly open up new neural pathways. This is by far the most effective way to truly correct these and works much quicker and results in much longer lasting changes than when concentrating solely on the musculoskeletal system. Your brain needs to become aware of the issues in order to reset itself. This is so much better than someone else telling you that you are sitting crooked, have uneven hands, shoulders, legs or whatever. If your brain knew this was the case then it wouldn’t allow it! We need to show your brain that this is happening and let it feel the correct pathway.
 
There are many different ways to do this depending on what we are trying to change. For example, we can increase our awareness of a particular part of our body by tapping or using training aids to work on superficial and deep proprioceptors. Training aids can also be used to either place your body in the correct position, or to do the opposite and exaggerate the undesired position or pathway to increase awareness. What works for one person may not be the same for another, even if they present as having very similar asymmetries or movement patterns. We can even use trigger words until our brain has been reprogrammed and the correct pathway as seen as normal. It is really fun work with often truly amazing results!
 
Riders also need to be aware of our horses, horse aware, - their bodies and their mental state. For this, some knowledge of their movement and how it affects what we feel is important. Every rider should know the footfalls of each pace as well as some basic horse biomechanics so they understand what part of the horse’s body is resulting in what they can feel underneath them and at which part of the horse’s stride this occurs. This will then allow them to perfect the timing of their aids, as well as to work out which part of the horse’s body is not working correctly when they can’t feel what they should. This is so important not only for correct training, but also to detect early training and/or soundness issues. This is nowhere near as daunting as it sounds and is easy and fun to learn! With this knowledge, your aids will be much clearer for your horse. You will be giving your aids when your horse is perfectly set up to react – a great help for lateral work be it in dressage or working Eq, transitions and flying changes. 
 
We should also be aware of our environment when riding, for logical reasons such as safety, identifying potential dangers to us and also anything our horses may perceive as dangerous and react accordingly. If we are aware of the weather and work surfaces we can plan our ride accordingly such as being prepared if our horses may be fresh in cold, windy weather or tire easily when doing hill work or working in a deeper surface than normal and not overtax their bodies in anyway.
 
Future posts will cover Horse Aware and Environnmental Awareness in more detail and also how to become better at smoothly shifting your focus from one area of awareness to another. This can be extremely useful for riders who may fixate on one area, perhaps due to nerves, and like anything, is something that needs to be practised so it can be done easily at any time. But to begin, take the time to develop your awareness as this is the first step to becoming a good (or better) rider. Enjoy the process and then start to learn about the areas where you feel you could improve. Above all, have fun!