17/06/2026
🧐 Have you ever been told you’re doing it wrong?
Your half pass aids aren’t correct.
Your flying change isn’t how it’s taught.
That’s not what the book says.
That’s not how I was shown.
Trust me, I hear it all the time.
Now here’s a little news flash… horses don’t read the textbook. 🐴
Yes, there are fundamentals to good training. The training scales exist for a reason and the basics matter. But beyond that, we’re dealing with individuals, not machines.
I’ve ridden horses that needed me to be quieter. I’ve ridden others that needed me to be clearer. Some need more support, some need less. The aid that unlocks one horse can completely confuse another.
If there was only one correct way to ride every horse, we’d all be producing identical results. But we’re not. We’re working with different minds, different bodies, different strengths, and different challenges.
Sometimes I think we spend too much time worrying whether we’re following the rulebook perfectly and not enough time asking the horse in front of us what they actually need.
The best riders I’ve met aren’t the ones who can recite every aid from a manual. They’re the ones who can adapt, listen, and communicate with the horse they’re sitting on.
So I’m curious…
What’s the best piece of advice you were ever given that completely went against what you were originally taught? 👇
