Training in the Right Way: In Order to Be a Good Trainer, You Must Change Parts of Who You Are

We often think of training as mostly about riding well and having a solid knowledge base (both of which ARE huge), but there are psychological components involved as well (some more obvious than others). 

Dressage training is supposed to be the process of training ANY horse to be a better riding horse. The more the horse learns, in theory, the easier it is to communicate with and therefore complete more complex tasks with. Although competition dressage training often is more focused on training for the dressage test, that is not what the original intention (and original judging requirements) were for competitive dressage. Initially, it was designed to give riders and trainers a way to determine how their training measured up to the theoretical ideal of the training process. That said, it is critically important to understand the meanings and reasons for some of the terms we use to describe dressage training and what to look for when observing training and competition (and videos and photos), regardless of whether you intend to compete or just train your horse to be a better whatever you do with him. That, ultimately, is the main purpose of my articles. To provide education and knowledge for riders to understand and improve their eye and understanding of what dressage training is supposed to be. While there will always be some differences in practice and theory, good horse training is always recognizable to the educated eye. That said, it absolutely is necessary that we remember and understand that limited knowledge is limited judgment.

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Without a doubt, riding and training horses is difficult. And in fact, in order to be a good trainer, we must change parts of who we are.  

Communicating successfully with horses is the ultimate purpose of good training and riding. Photo (C) Morgane Schmidt.

The process of learning how to train horses is the process of getting better at communicating with horses. This entails understanding and altering the parts of our human ways of perceiving and processing that do not assist a horse in understanding what we want from them. Technique and athletic ability absolutely come into play as well as there is obviously no substitute for learning the physical skills that riding horses requires. However, it isn’t simply a matter of physically “riding better.” In fact, the mental component is just as significant, How we interpret our horse’s responses to our physical skills (aids and balance), AND how we process our emotional reaction to these responses, has everything to do with our training success or lack thereof. 

Once upon a time, I learned from a sports psychologist that because humans are naturally oriented to finding tools to solve problems, we consistently experience frustration when we do not have the tool to solve a problem. In the case of riding horses, tools are not physical objects, but skills, and techniques. And these skills and techniques are applied to a living being that has not had the opportunity or ability to read the rule book or watch the video on “how to dressage.” Our horses are dependent on our interpretation and application of the skills and techniques to “get better” at what we are trying to train them to do.  

So, what do I mean by saying, “in order to be a good trainer we must change parts of who we are?”  

Becoming an excellent rider is a process of analyzing what parts of ourselves get in the way of developing our horse partner’s understanding of our requests. Photo (C) Morgane Schmidt.

Trainers and good riders recognize that the system of skills and techniques that teach horses aids and the exercises that allow them to become better balanced under a rider and more capable of completing more complex and difficult maneuvers, is a very imperfect process. Communicating with anyone, human or animal ENTIRELY (or at least mostly) through the sense of touch is by nature imperfect. But, when riders and trainers accept this and begin to work on how they respond to failure within this process, they become better riders and trainers. 

When you are trying to train a horse, or learn a better technique, or improve an exercise, remind yourself that your emotional response to the success or failure of this process will affect your future understanding and ability to reproduce this same (or better) result. If you are too excited and overly proud or confident, you will miss some important physical sensations and responses your horse gives you. But, also, and perhaps more commonly, if you are frustrated or upset with the result, you will most likely miss some critical feelings of the horse’s reactions that will minimize your ability to solve the problem again later.  

In other words, it is normal for us as humans to have emotional responses to our successes and failures. What we need to hone within ourselves, in order to become better riders and trainers, is the ability to recognize that our emotions will tinge our perception of an event and thereby alter our ability to respond more productively in the future to similar events. 

The horse will never understand what dressage is, or what a pirouette is or why we do it. Photo (C) Morgane Schmidt.

So, if you are super-mega frustrated with how you and your horse produce left canter pirouettes, you will ride them less effectively based on your negative feelings clouding your decision-making and perception of the result. If you can focus on riding the details of the left pirouette (that is, what makes it a pirouette— the rhythm, bend, size, number of strides, and how to get into and out of it) you will have a better result over time because you are measuring specific responses and results compared to “I’ll give it a try but it never works” kind of thinking. 

Training and riding horses really well requires that we examine our own feelings and change how we approach the training process to make ourselves better able to communicate with our horses. Photo (C) Morgane Schmidt.

Ultimately, as verbalized to me by a couple of students recently, “learning how to train horses well is hard. If it was easy, there would be a lot more people doing successfully.” Letting your emotional reactions invade your training thought process, instead of focusing on the techniques and their effects, definitely will make things harder. Most of us (really all of us) were not born emotionally, intellectually, and physically prepared to train and ride horses. It is a process of changing our human perspectives and physical and emotional reactions to the responses the horses give us that make us better riders and trainers. 

Remember: Limited knowledge is limited judgment.

Gwyneth and Flair in competition at Grand Prix. (c) flatlandsfoto.

Gwyneth McPherson has over 35 years experience competing, training, and teaching dressage.  She began her education in in the late 1970s, riding in her backyard on an 11 hh pony. Her first instructor introduced her to Lendon Gray (1980 and 1988 Olympian). who mentored Gwyneth for a decade during which she achieved her first National Championship in 1984, and her Team and Individual Young Rider Gold Medals in1987.

In 1990 Gwyneth began training with Carol Lavell (1992 Olympian) who further developed Gwyneth as an FEI rider and competitor. Gwyneth achieved a Team Bronze in 1991 and a Team Silver in 1992 in the North American Young Riders Championships, and trained her stallion G’Dur to do all the Grand Prix movements while riding with Carol.

In 2008, while Head Trainer at Pineland Farms, Gwyneth began training with Michael Poulin (Olympian 1992). Michael was trained by Franz Rochowansky (Chief Rider for the Spanish Riding School 1937-1955). Michael has shared much of Rochowansky’s knowledge and wisdom with Gwyneth, completing her education as a Grand Prix rider, trainer, and competitor.

Gwyneth’s teaching and training business, Forward Thinking Dressage,is based in Williston, FL. In addition to teaching riders and training, Gwyneth also loves sharing her knowledge of the sport and art of dressage as well as discussing relevant topics pertaining to the training itself and the current competitive landscape.