Jean Harris, Riding Coach

31/05/2026

A FEW MORE CLUES. - Firstly. - A master rider/trainer will never call themselves a 'Master'. The best trainers are quietly respected and saying so invites instant ridicule among their colleagues. (Who are well aware of each others weaknesses). To most of us born and bred in the European cultures confidence and selling yourself seems fake. Quality is always understated, it does not need to brag.
Secondly. - There are two parts to riding. There is learning to ride properly, and there is learning how to school the horse. (Although they blend together). The top trainers need you to be able to ride well before you school a horse. They cannot have a clumsy, unskilled rider on their valuable horses.
Thirdly. - Master riders are not always men. Even these days women are not taken as seriously.
Fourthly. - Often when a new student arrives, the trainer takes a quick look at them and puts them on the longe. Where they may stay for the next two years. Perhaps less but possibly a good deal more. This is not a waste of time. The trainer has excellent standards and wants you to succeed. They are on your side. If you are serious about it, you will stay and work. Humility is part of the bargain.
Friends. - There are ways of developing a very good seat without being on the longe but every rider needs to eliminate unhelpful habits. That takes time and eyes on the ground. It continues your entire riding life. Students coach each other as part of their training. There is great camaraderie among everyone and lasting friendships.

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22/05/2026

GOOD TRAINING. - It depends how serious the rider is, and how much time and effort one is willing to put into it. The serious student spends many years working for their trainer. This means living at the trainer's yard. Once you've found a good trainer the advice is to stay for, at least, 7 years, just to get a solid foundation. (Unless the rider has a backer of course, or lots of money to pay for horses and training). As well as learning to ride it then takes time to learn how to teach in different times and different countries. It's harder than you would think. Even now there are not many 'master riders' and few schools or individual trainers turning them out. If unable to work directly for a master rider, a novice rider can try to find someone who has been trained by one. They must look for a trainer who has worked many years for a master. There are some stunning riders about, but you cannot rely on them always being good trainers. Most novice riders will arrive expecting the trainer to teach them how to school a horse. Instead they will be taught how to ride. This can take a couple of years, or more. No trainer wants their well schooled horses ruined by unskilled riding. To get good one-on-one training the serious young rider may have to leave home, take risks, possibly go to another country and work very hard. Don't make excuses. If you really want it and you're free, you will find a way.

22/05/2026

Most people begin to ride by getting on a horse or pony and, sometimes with a little help from an instructor of some kind, eventually manage to walk, trot, canter and jump. That's okay, it's how I started, - minus the instructor. In a crude way I could do a dressage test, jump things, win competitions and teach in a British Horse Society riding school. I was told I was pretty good, but at the back of my mind I knew I had barely started to learn to ride. Then, in 1973, I got a job with a Master Rider, trained in Austria (SRS) and my world changed. After 18 years of riding, at last I could start. The first requirement of a good rider is learning how to do nothing. Just sit on the horse in perfect balance, not disturbing the movement. Sitting, doing nothing but go with the horse until one is skilled at it takes time. For most people a lot of time. - Years. - With legs relaxed out and down, the rider must develop a deep seat that stays quiet and still, going with the horse no matter what happens. While developing the more perfect seat, the rider learns how to give aids on a trained school horse. These aids must be clearly and concisely given, using the right muscles, so developing rider awareness and co-ordination is important. Then the rider must learn how to explain the aids to the untrained horse. After that there are gymnastic exercises to develop the horses' strength, suppleness and other abilities. Doing exercises quickly or too soon, only causes damage to the horse. Everything takes time and serious discipline. A good trainer can guide the rider more thoroughly and quickly. The mindset changes from, 'get the horse to do what I want' to 'what does the horse need from me in order to make it easier for him?' JH

03/05/2026

OLD AGE. - It is clear now that I have reached an age where I know nothing. In fact I've noticed this coming on for the last twenty years. 😄 These days I am more likely to be passed over by the younger generation, not that I mind. What I did in the past, risks taken, all the countries worked in, were simply what I did and generally of no interest to those coming after. The horses and principles of good riding have not changed. Competitions, peoples expectations and social media hype have changed hugely. Young people try so hard to make their mark in the equestrian world. I know it's about financial survival as well as self esteem. I've spent a lifetime down that track myself. Perhaps not so much the self esteem. My generation are much less likely to trumpet our achievements. Working so long for European master riders doesn't give you much room to feel smug. What I did seemed so ordinary to me at the time, although I knew how lucky I was. But there is no end to the study of riding and how to teach it. - Photo of riding ex-polo ponies in Fiji, about 1957, when I was 11 and had never had a lesson. - Not my ponies, never a saddle.

10/04/2026

06/03/2026

Having spent much of the past 72 years working in various countries for various trainers, I still do not consider my equestrian training complete. Over the years I have watched fashions come and go among the riding public. Luckily my training was very broad and well established long before the internet brought so much extra confusion.

Over the centuries there have always been riders with semi-understood theories causing very confused horses. There are also those who make a religion of a particular school. Highly skilled riders also have their preferences but, it is never a case of 'either-or', because the principles of all the major schools overlap. There are strengths on all sides and many similarities. Of course there are arguments (friendly) between the different schools of training. There are also arguments among the riders of the same school. The differences often come from the type of horse one is sitting on and the purpose of the schooling, - dressage, jumping and so on.

My training was fifteen years of the Austrian, Spanish Riding School. Their training manual, 'Directives', was based on the teachings of Xenophon, Grisone, Pluvinel, Baucher and De La Gueriniere, among others. With the emphasis on Gueriniere.

One of my teachers was SRS trained, Johanna Hall. After her career in competition, she became a very respected dressage coach in Europe. She told me, "The world's best trainers teach much the same thing, in much the same way".

These days when I teach, I work to develop the riders seat, balance, awareness, co-ordination, understanding of the contact, diagonal aids, how to teach the aids to the horse, followed by exercises to educate and balance the horse. With this understanding, and having established the start of those skills, the rider is in a position to decide if they want to follow a particular school, Baucher, De La Gueriniere or perhaps the German or Dutch schools.

The photo is of Hans Riegler on Favory Superba.

31/01/2026

At the 'Spanish' the long reins are only ever introduced when the horse is fully trained under the rider. Never when starting under saddle. There is real concentration in this horses face. I saw this pair working together often, the horse never missed a beat.

26/12/2025

If anyone wants lessons, I don't stop for the holidays. 😄

Plan for early, before it gets too hot. I also can't do more than a couple of lessons a day. Or three if they're all at the same place.

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24/12/2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025 - to everyone. And thank you to all my riding clients for sticking with me for so long. I plan to keep going.