Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation. Geoff Teall
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upper body straight and strong, while your hands and your arms stay supple. Correct body position gives you strength, security, and balance. At the same time, soft arms and hands allow for good communication through the bit.
An independent seat and independent hands are not easy to develop—but they are necessary. Though classically beautiful equitation is an “art,” every piece of the art form was developed for a reason.
Time has shown us where to be on the horse, in relation to the horse’s build and balance, in order to be the most effective. The fact that it is physically demanding to get there and the fact that it goes against your first instinct doesn’t matter. The fact that it works is what makes it both important and necessary. Therefore, in order to ride well, you need to work hard enough to master the physical demands of correct position.
Mastering the principles of good equitation gives you a tremendous sense of pride and respect. The respect is not only for yourself and for the horse, but for the sport of riding as well.
Building a Solid Foundation
As you learn to ride, if you take enough time to build your foundation of good position, solid riding skills, and basic training skills, you will end up reaching your end goals faster.
The Fast Way Is the Slow Way
Riding is a bit like the old fable of the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady wins out in the end.
I often caution my overly ambitious students about cutting corners. “The fast way is the slow way,” I warn them.
If you skip things in the beginning, or try to move up through the divisions too quickly, you may start out ahead of the others. But, you will inevitably end up backsliding, and you will have to backtrack to learn the parts you missed. You will ultimately spend more time unlearning bad habits and forming good ones than you would have spent learning the good habits to begin with.
Equitation is about mastering the pieces of riding and then putting those pieces together in a unified, effective whole. The whole process takes time.
A Talent for Riding
I think it is easy for students (myself included) to use “lack of talent” as a way to avoid working too hard. Lack of talent is a great stress reliever. It allows you to say things like, “I didn’t do that right. It’s not because I am not trying hard; it’s because I’m not talented.”
What a ridiculous excuse!
Talent is so unimportant when compared to interest, when compared to desire, and when compared to hard work. It is a very, very small piece of the puzzle.
To my mind, a disciplined rider of lesser talent will always shine above the undisciplined, talented rider. In this sport, drive and determination are enormously leveling factors.
2.6 In riding, everything big relates to something small. You can’t have good position without a good leg. You can’t have a good leg without correctly placing your foot in the iron.
Work with What You Have
Physical attributes can help your riding, but they are not necessary. The ideal rider has long legs, a short body, and long arms. That is the easiest type of anatomy to work with.
The more you are restricted by your physical size and shape, the more difficult it may be for you to excel. But, even if you are not the ideal body type, take heart. In my experience, good equitation is never impossible.
A good rider needs a good brain. He needs to be relaxed, interested, determined, disciplined, and strong. In many ways, these attributes take precedence over a rider’s physical characteristics.
I really stress with my riders who are not tall or thin (the aesthetically ideal body type) that riding is a sport. The more you regulate your weight and control it, the more you keep yourself fit and strong, the easier riding will be. Riding can be used to help you get in shape. If riding doesn’t come naturally or easily to you, it will still help you develop physical strength, fitness, and control over your body.
The more your age, weight, coordination, or conformation hinders your progress, the more you have to rely on a solid foundation. The most basic part of your foundation of course, is solid position.
Make yourself repeatedly go back and regroup as you practice the basics. Then practice them some more, until you have such a sound, solid foundation that you are secure, comfortable, and as knowledgeable as you can be on the horse.
2.7 Interest is the most important factor in your riding ability. This older, experienced student’s interest in correct position and perfecting her craft shows in her Schooling.
The less raw talent you possess, the more you need to rely on a slow and steady approach to learning how to ride. Do it for the process rather than for the results. And, bear in mind that success is measured in many different ways.
Riding should never be discouraging for you if you are not the “right size” or the “right shape.” The important things are desire and drive and ambition. Don’t despair. Just get to work and get things done.
Start at the beginning. Start with your leg and work your way up. Continually strive to perfect the correct position.
Work on your abilities one step at a time and methodically learn how to ride. Then, methodically teach your horse how to do his job.
The better your foundation, and the more skills you can master, the better you will be able to deal with the day-to-day challenges that arise. You will also find that once you have the basics mastered, your riding will improve exponentially and you and your horse will be much more of a team.
Focus on Causes Rather than Symptoms
Regardless of how much talent or ability you may possess, no horse or rider is perfect. When a problem arises—and it will—it helps to have a methodical approach to solving it.
To discover the underlying problem, you have to take an unemotional moment to analyze the symptoms you don’t like. Decide, first of all, if something is a symptom, or if it is a problem in and of itself.
If you don’t accurately diagnose the problem, you will waste your energies on tangents. This happens all the time at horse shows. People who are going too slowly work on straightening instead of pace. People who are nervous work on pace rather than trying to calm themselves. All of their hard work is for nothing because it does not begin to fix their fundamental problems.
Problem solving is one reason why it is important to surround yourself with knowledgeable, competent horse people. Use their expertise to help you develop the art of looking at a situation and identifying the problems that exist.
Once the problems have been identified, it is important to choose the one that is the most pertinent at that moment. After isolating the core problem, then you can come up with simple, unemotional solutions to fix it.
If things go wrong and the rider freaks out over a symptom, riding becomes nerve-wracking. It becomes conflicting, uncomfortable, and worrisome for both horse and rider, because focusing on a symptom will never correct the underlying cause of the trouble.
When a problem manifests itself, you have to stop. Remove any emotion you bring to the situation. Look for the root cause; then decide what you