Making Each Ride Count – Trainer Tips for the Time Crunched Rider

Now are the days of data collection, charts, curves, and continuous improvement. We live in a hyper competitive world, we measure and track everything we do, and expect to see improvements from day to day, not month to month and year to year. Our expectations for our horses and our own abilities to produce measurable results quickly, are no exception. According to the innerwebs, it takes repeating an action correctly about 5,000 times before it becomes muscle memory and repeatable. This tells us what we already know, riders need more saddle time to improve. Time in the saddle can be limited because the rider only has one horse to ride or, because they are strapped for time. Either way, most riders need to make every minute in the saddle count, especially if you are a rider with ambitious goals. Below I have provided a step-by-step process on how to achieve your riding goals even if you have a fixed amount of saddle time.

Step 1 - Identify and Set Goals

Most riders have a good idea of what they need to improve on as riders, what their horses need to improve on, and what you need to work on to improve as a pair. To ensure you make the most out of each ride, write down goals for yourself, your horse, and your partnership. Make these goals realistic, make some for the short-term, and some for the long-term. Below I have listed some of my goals for myself and my horse Rah.

Step 2 - Develop Exercises to Help Achieve Goals

Looking at your goals, put down two exercises for each goal that will help you and your horse achieve those goals. Be sure to use exercises that will challenge you and your horse, but are also realistic. When deciding on exercises, you should consider you and your horses current fitness level, where you are in your capabilities, and knowing how long and how many repetitions both you and your horse can perform these exercises without becoming frustrated, tired, or burnt out. Setting out to do exercises that you cannot do at the moment will only frustrate the both of you and can create new issues and exacerbate old ones.

Sample Goals and Exercises

My Goals for Rah

1. Not rushing into transitions from walk to trot, and trot to canter.

Practice each transition multiple times with a German martingale.
Place 3 groups of poles consecutively in a straight line starting with 3 walk poles, 24’, 3 trot poles, 26’, and 3 canter poles. Walk into the exercise starting at the walk poles, transition to the trot before the trot poles, transition to the canter, and canter out over the canter poles.

2. Working on rideability through a spook.

Go to a place where I know Rah is spooky, and practice riding through the spook on a circle using more bend to redirect her attention. Work on shifting the circle closer to and farther away from the scary object as needed to work on rideability and getting her attention back.
In hand, take her to places that are scary and encourage her to put her head down and look at things. Use treats as positive reinforcement.

3. Not rushing to fences.

Trot and cater cavalettis, stopping before and after after each fence. Vary the distances between the stop’s and the jumps.
Setup trot poles before and after jumps to set the distance and rhythm.

My Goals

1. Work on sitting up tall and straight with no bend in my hip angle while working on dressage.

Interlock my arms behind my back and post trot.
Riding in my dressage saddle, video myself at a walk, trot, cater for 5 minutes while working on nothing else but keeping my body at a 90* angle. Watch video, adjust my body position, then repeat.

2. Working on my leg position while riding in a dressage saddle.

Ride without stirrup’s and work on pushing my leg down.
With dressage length stirrup’s, work only on keeping my heel down while keeping control of my lower leg and not letting it swing.

3. Keeping my hip angle more open over fences.

While on the flat, in either the walk, trot, or canter get in and stay in my desired jumping position for 2 minutes at a time. Repeat at lest three times.
Setup a series of bounces and practice holding the same, correct body position jump after jump.

Team Goals

1. Work on fitness for cross-country.

Trot sets, staying in jumping position the entire time.
Canter up hill, walk down, repeat three times. Shorten stirrups three holes for entire ride.

2. Achieving collection with energy.

Practice moving between different levels of gaits. Start at a walk and move to a canter, then vary the pattern of gaits throughout the workout.

Walk: Medium, Collected, Free

Trot: Working, Collected, Medium, Extended

Canter: Working, Collected, Medium, Extended

3. Getting Rah off her front end and sitting back to the fences.

Bounce, one stride to a vertical, bounce.
Basic gymnastic.

Step 3 - Breaking Down Your Ride

First determine how long your rides are on average, and how you want to break down your ride time. For simplicities sake, I will continue to use myself as an example. I ride each horse on average for 45 -60 minutes. I know that I am fit, and because I have been riding for a long time, I can spend the majority of a 60 minute ride working on just myself. I also know that my horses can go for about 20 - 30 minutes of drills/repetitive exercises or hard work with a 5 minute break in the middle before things go south. Over drilling on a horse can result in the best case, having a tired frustrated horse that has quit learning or, the development of any number of more serious issues.

Suggested Breakdown for a Training Ride

15 Minutes - Time to work on myself. Pick an exercise I can do well while the horse warms up at a walk, trot, and canter on a lose rein.

15 Minutes - Start a drill that works on just the horse or, both you and the horse. The first 15 minutes should be an “easy” version of the selected exercise.

5 Minutes - Break. Let the horse wander around on a long rein at a walk.

15 Minutes - Trot and cater a lap to get the horse moving and move into a harder version (if the horse and rider are ready) of the selected exercise.

10 Minutes - Back to working on myself. Pick something simple like dropping your stirrups. Let the horse cool out. This last rider focused interval is where you will make real progress. If you can do something right while you are mentally and physically tired, you know you have it mastered.

Step 4 - Analyze your Progress

You should be reflecting back on every ride on what worked and what didn’t. Try to be self-aware and think about what made you frustrated, and what was hard for you as a rider. Then break things down and start tackling problem areas at the lowest level. For example, if Rah is still rushing fences with no improvement after a week or two, then I will go back to flat work and practice adjustability to help get her listing to my aids better. Do not continue to repeat something that shows no improvement or change. Repeatedly doing the same thing over with no change in results is called insanity. It is also important to keep in mind when analyzing progress that change will be small, so do not miss the small changes, even if they are infrequent.

Things to Keep in Mind

You and your horse(s) are not machines, and in the end, you are riding for fun, and for the love of the horse. I understand having goals that are designed to help you improve in the show ring and move up the levels but, do not make every ride all work and no play. Having a formal training program is important, and scheduling out your rides to ensure that you get the most out of the time you have in the saddle is crucial to the competitive rider. But having efficient rides means that you have sometime time to trail ride and just enjoy your time with your horse. Keep in mind what the sport and time with your horse is really about and find a good balance of hard work and enjoyment.

Thanks for reading to the end! If you have questions comments or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments or contact me via the contact page.