(“Okay, hop back on.”)

I have written before that there are many times an instructor should get on his or her student’s horse.

Though some may claim to the contrary, there will always be instances where the horse doesn’t feel exactly the way he looks. It’s possible to climb aboard and discover that different advice would help the situation more than the things you’d been saying.

I am also completely in favor of showing a rider what a movement should look like, explaining how it should be ridden as I demonstrate. And there is great value in softening or balancing or connecting the horse in a way that the student is not equipped to do herself. Some purists may cry “foul,” but unless the rules prohibit me, I’m not above climbing on for a last minute show tune up before a rider presents herself to the judge.

Having said all that, there’s a personal line I draw. I don’t want to “fix” a horse so his rider doesn’t have to learn how to ride him correctly. I have no problem when a rider can’t do it right but is trying hard. It’s a process that takes time. However, after observing some ineffective and fairly atrocious hand-riding the other day, I rode a student’s horse at length to persuade him to be respectful to the leg and yielding in his jaw to combined aids originating from behind.

Having accomplished everything I meant to, I stopped and said to his rider, “Okay, hop back on.”

“No,” she said, “It will do him more good if you ride him.”

As I explained, that wasn’t true. The point of my riding him was so that she would get the right result if she rode him correctly. Without the opportunity to feel that, if she rode him on her own the next day, she would simply repeat the bad habits that got her in this situation in the first place!

I appreciate riders who want to win. I appreciate them much more if they want to learn to do it right so that they deserve to win.