Its rather like the chicken and the egg when it comes to a schooled horse and a balanced effective rider.  A horse can not move correctly  with a rider on board who is blocking with the hands and seat, gripping with the legs and bouncing around on their backs and the rider can not ride with any finesse when the horse is unbalanced, falling in or falling out, heavy in the hands, stiff through the neck and hollow in their back. One will only improve as the other does. So, where do we start?

It’s common for an unschooled horse to be ridden by a rider who is also still learning.  Its also common for instructors to say “sit deeper” “use your seat” “more outside rein” “support with inside leg” “follow the movement” the list gos on and on! None of these things are ever understood by the majority of people who are often left thinking schooling a horse and riding with finesse is too difficult and lead themselves to believe that they aren't good enough. “Im just a happy hacker” is the common justification. 

But with simple explanations everyone who rides a horse can learn to school their horse too.

 

So what about the horse? Trying their best to accommodate a rider who is behind the movement in rising trot, who are blocking with the hands and simply not balanced in the saddle, they do their best to find some kind of solution. When a rider is told “your horse is falling in, use more inside leg”, both horse and rider aimlessly prop each other up and because the horse feels totally lost as what to do they inevitably find a way to help themselves by running faster, not moving at all, leaning on the hands etc etc!

In response the rider says to the instructor, “my horse is really heavy” or "my horse isn't forwards" the common advise would be you need to change the bit or the horse needs to be rounder, so the rider goes down the root of stronger bits to offer more control and riding with stronger legs, often with spurs and the problems just spiral out of control.

 

What is needed is a system where both horse and rider are educated to help each other. A system which is easy to understand where progress is inevitable simply because both horse and rider have exercises to over come all of the above. A system which can bring the most ordinary horses and their riders up to a high level of equitation. This is possible for us all!