There is this myth that very well trained horses are easy to ride. Most of them are not! The fact is, unless you are an accomplished rider, they are difficult to ride. Along with their suppleness goes a great deal of sensitivity which does not allow for mistakes by the rider. Such a horse tends to either overreact to insensitive aids or become frustrated and resistant. Dependent on the temperament, his reaction to false or inconsistent aids may be a trial and error response to a signal by the rider which often does look rather comical to the observer but is no laughing matter to the rider. The less generous horse will probably turn to active resistance or begin to ignore his rider and take over the control of the ride.
     It does look so easy when we observe experienced riders riding a dressage test or jumping an obstacle course. The horses seem to react to the thoughts of the riders and aids are hardly visible. The horses are obviously moving with a great deal of power, they seem to need little urging to move forward, and are totally focused on the rider. In most cases that is a correct observation. Yet take a closer look at the rider after the test and you will see that the moisture on her face is perspiration, not just tears of joy. As a matter of fact, she is soaked through. The truth is, while the rider made it look easy, she worked very hard. Much of that hard work was directed at absorbing all that motion so as to not interfere with the balance of the horse; one reason why horses tend to slow down under the rider. During the entire trip the rider kept up a constant dialog with the horse. It is much easier to be coarse in the aids than to be subtle. Subtleness requires a great amount of concentration and a feel for what is the proper strength in the aid to achieve the desired response from the horse. The directive to the rider is to do as little as possible yet as much as necessary. So the rider must do what it takes to achieve the exact desired response from the horse and not more. That requires a great deal of thought and experience. Hence the adage that riding is a thinking person’s sport.
     Let us kick this around a little bit more. In teaching students my first goal is to develop in them an independent seat. They must learn to stay on their horse strictly based on balance. This way their hands and legs are available to them to communicate with the horse, not hang on to him. Next they must understand the aids and how to combine them so that instead of shouting commands they will speak to their horse in complete sentences. Then they must detect and sharpen their sense of feeling so that they can effectively listen to their horse. The final step is to wean the student from me, the instructor. The student must learn to think while she rides. Please read carefully. I said, think while she rides, and not think to ride. The act of riding is left to the subconscious mind. Just like in any conversation you might have, you think about what you are going to say, not how to produce the words. Speaking, however, is only part of a conversation. The other half is listening. In order to listen well, the rider must learn to feel. The seat is both eyes and ears for the rider. My friend Eckhart Meyners calls this feeling of the body’s motion, the “inner eye" of the rider. Eckhart is a university professor specializing in the science of motion. I believe it is obvious that in order to be able to feel this motion correctly the rider’s seat must be secure and relaxed. This, the listening part of the conversation of a rider with his horse, is worth a closer examination.