Horses naturally feel more energetic as the weather gets cooler, so you need to be prepared for any unruly behavior.  First, be careful when you’re turning your horse out, for a frisky animal will sometimes spin around quickly and let out a buck as it runs into the field.  You can be kicked as this happens if you aren’t able to move away fast enough.  Instead of walking into the paddock or field with your horse, closing the gate, then releasing the animal, it would be wise to turn your horse around to face the gate, then wedge yourself in the small gap of a nearly-closed gate and release the horse from this safer spot.

As for the bucking, which is commonplace, and rearing, which is not, it’s important to know ahead of time how to deal with these issues.  For bucking, the correction is to keep the horse’s head up and drive it forward with your legs.  A horse can only buck you off if it’s able to get its head low enough and rear end high enough that the saddle can serve as a launching pad.

Conversely, you want to keep the horse’s head low when you’re dealing with a horse that wants to rear.  It’s important to have very quick reactions to a rear in the making, for the higher the horse lifts its front feet off the ground, the more the rider is going to slide backward in the saddle.  (Worse case scenario is if the rider’s sliding weight pulls the horse backward, where it falls onto the rider.) If the horse starts to lift its head and front feet, lean forward and hold one rein down toward the point of the horse’s shoulder, while holding the mane with the other hand. Drive the horse forward adamantly with your legs, for the more forward motion you have, the harder it is for the horse to rear.

If you’re having lots of trouble with bucking and rearing, longe the animal before you ride to take the edge off a little.  (There are detailed instructions for longeing in Chapters 2 and 6 of my book, The Complete Guide to Hunter Seat Training, Showing, and Judging.)

Many riders seem to forget that they are sitting on another living being when they’re riding their horses.  I often see riders gathered in a group, chatting with each other while their horses are still confined into a frame by the riders’ hands.  The riders are taking a break, but they’re not letting their horses have one.

Also, I notice riders clashing their aids by applying conflicting pressure.  For example, if you try to bend your horse to the right by applying your right leg in an at-the-girth position, then you must relax the pressure of your left leg so that the horse can displace its ribcage to the outside of the bend.  (See “How to Bend a Horse” in the “Horse Articles” section of this site.)

The same goes for applying the hands.  If you pull back on the right rein to turn the horse’s head to the right, then you must ease off the left rein so that the horse is able to turn its head to the right.

Don’t forget that your horse has feelings, too, and can become frustrated and angry if you’re not sensitive to its needs.  Horses are generally compliant in nature, allowing us to accomplish incredible physical feats on them, while they could easily rebel and throw us off or just completely resist doing what we asked, if they had a mind to do so.

Their kind nature deserves to be reciprocated with kind treatment.  Only when you approach your horse with a spirit of generosity can you fully reap the rewards of this remarkable partnership between human and animal.

The phrase, “practice makes perfect,” is well known, but people sometimes don’t think about it enough to realize that if you’re practicing incorrectly, you’ll never be very good at riding. It’s not how many times you ride each week or how long you ride each time, but how much you improve during practice sessions that makes a difference in your riding level and showing record.

For example, if a rider is practicing without stirrups, but doesn’t keep the knees in place, the calves on the side of the horse, or the toe pulled upward so that the Achilles tendon is stretched, then the leg position will never improve. You have to strive for a perfect position to even achieve a good one, must less an excellent one.

When teenagers ride after school, sometimes they chat a lot with their friends in the arena, never doing much more than walking around on their horses. Yet these same riders seem very disappointed when they don’t place well at a horse show. Success is partly due to talent, but largely due to self-discipline and hard work. As someone once said, “No one can give you self-esteem. You have to earn it.” So the next time you’re riding your horse, work on something specific that will improve your skills. You’ll find lots of ideas for things to work on in the “Horse Articles” section of this website.