How Do You Communicate With Your Horse When You Ride?

Have you ever finished riding your horse smiling because you understood each other, and then felt that same connection the next time you ride?

It’s so exciting when you and your horse start to pick up the threads of communication and the way of going you discovered in the ride before. The conversation feels gift wrapped, as though your horse is saying, I’m here, I’m listening and I understand this.

That’s one of the things that makes dressage and schooling so exciting for me.

I think about communication between horse and rider as a dialogue. Ask your horse a question with your aids and your horse responds; this response gives you the information you need to listen and respond in turn, allowing the conversation to continue and develop.

The dialogue has many layers, with feel, timing and attention all contributing to an understanding that grows through the experiences you share with your horse. As that understanding develops, the language between you becomes richer and more nuanced, because each of you has more experience of the other and more ways to recognise what is being asked, offered and understood.

Each ride gives you and your horse more shared experience to draw upon and more to bring to the conversation the next time you ride. It is exciting when you and your horse reach this shared understanding. Pick up a thread from your last ride and you might find your horse is already there with you, recognising the question and ready with an answer that gives you somewhere new to go.

What conversation would you like to continue with your horse?

Take some time to think about the threads you would like to pick up when you next ride, with guided reflections Inside Achieve Dressage.