The importance of Foundations in Riding

At our riding school, we strongly believe that one of the most important things we can do for our riders—and our horses—is to set everyone up for success from the very beginning. That starts with building solid foundations.

It can be tempting to rush into the more exciting parts of riding: trotting on your own, learning to canter, or starting small jumps. We totally understand the excitement—those milestones are fun, motivating, and often seen as signs of progress. But when riders move on too quickly without mastering the basics, it often creates bigger issues down the road.

Without the right foundations, riders can become unbalanced, create bad habits and take shortcuts in the saddle, which not only impacts their confidence, ability and safety but also affects the horse they’re riding.

When a rider preforms skills before they are ready, horses can become confused, frustrated, or even sore. Over time, this creates a cycle where neither the rider nor the horse is truly enjoying the experience. This can also create frustration as a rider who may in turn learn to blame the horse or feel bad about their own skills when really they just weren't set up to succeed.

Another challenge is that once a rider has had a taste of those more advanced skills, it can feel frustrating or even embarrassing to go “backwards” to work on basics again. But the truth is, going back to build a stronger foundation isn’t a step back—it’s often the most important step forward. Good riders aren’t made by how quickly they can jump a fence or pick up the canter. They’re made by how well they can steer, balance, and communicate clearly with their horse in every gait.

As coaches we create lots of little steps that lead up to these bigger goals so that there are no missing gaps when they reach them. We want to build confidence in each step before moving on so riders can fall back onto confidence at the last step if something happens in the next step.

We can think of our foundations as a tower. You need a solid foundation to keep building up. If you miss steps or don’t have them solid then we have a weak tower and every time we add something new we risk the whole tower crumbling.

For example here's some of the things we look for before we get a rider to canter.

1. Rider balanced in trot with solid position. And quiet legs and hands.

2. Can transition into trot by themselves and into walk after.

3. Able to keep and adjust trot pace and keep steering While balanced and in a good position.

4. Rider able to trot poles, circles, change of rein.

5. Ability to do rising trot without stirrups.

6. Rider can perform sitting trot and two point.

7. Rider has experience in and out of the arena, independent enough to ride in a paddock and hack without constant help.

8. Rider can gear up independently.

9. Solid understanding of basic horse behavior.

Having all these skills sets a rider up to succeed and be balanced in the canter.

We see a large amount of riders cantering before they are ready, this can create fearful riders, frustrated horses and riders learn bad habits to be able to complete tasks. (Like gripping in the canter transition because they aren't balanced)

Commonly seen things that tell you a rider isn't ready to canter

• loosing stirrups in the trot

• Not able to steer correctly through patterns or stay in corners

• Legs pushed towards the ponies shoulder and hands moving around in trot due to lack of stability.

• Not able to independently get or keep forward. (without coach helping with whip or following other horses)

That’s why we take the time to ensure every rider understands their body, their aids, and their responsibilities before they move on. We don’t teach quick wins—we teach horsemanship, partnership, and long-term success.

We’re proud to support confident, capable riders and happy, well-cared-for horses. And that starts with respecting the process and trusting that strong foundations are the key to everything that comes next.