As riders, we can never be too vigilant about the way we communicate to our horses. Endless repetition of the same mistake will only reinforce the problem. Improvement will come only through identifying the root of the problem and correcting the aids. Horses do learn from repetition, but being consistent doesn’t mean grinding – the constant repetition of a movement. Practicing a movement correctly creates a learned response in both the rider and the horse.
Starting Slow
An exercise I use often with my students is to have them start working on an exercise they find difficult in the walk, and then introduce the gait that the movement is to be performed in only after achieving the correct positioning for the movement in walk. When riders school the trot half-pass, for example, one often sees too much focus on going sideways, rather than forward. Riders tend to tip forward, pull back on the inside rein and put the outside leg much farther back than is necessary or correct.
The exercise is simple: I have the rider start in walk with the correct position and aids, creating the shape of the bend with a balanced position sideways and forward. Once the rider has the feeling of the movement in the walk, I have her ride a walk-to-trot transition within the half-pass positioning. I often use this same approach to the canter pirouette. The rider gets the right shape of the movement in the walk. She then rides a transition from the walk pirouette directly into the canter pirouette.