At some time in our riding career, most of us have riding lessons. We learn how to hold the reins, we are taught to look up where we are going, we are drilled on keeping our weight neutral in the saddle. Our brains are branded with the correct use of the reins, legs, and seat for turns, transitions and half halts, etc. A lot goes into riding correctly.
We should all strive to ride well and be as clear as possible while at the same not hindering our horse’s movement.
But the correctness of our position and aids is often sold to us as the solution for everything that goes wrong. When our horse is crooked we are told it is because our position is wrong. When our horse struggles with a movement it is because our aids were not correct or our timing sucked.
While riding with textbook precision and timing is important and a worthy goal, it is not as important as we are sometimes taught.
In my view, the most important element of training and riding is the consistency of our intent. Consistency beats correctness every time. If we are consistent in the way we present our intent and what we expect from our horse, a horse will learn to override any flaws in our riding. If a horse understands what a rider is asking, it can be straight even if the rider is sitting crooked. A horse can even learn counter-intuitive responses, such as stopping when a rider applies their leg and going forward when they pull on the reins, if the training and the intent are consistent.
I am bringing this up because I recently read an article by a dressage trainer who explained that in their view every fault in a performance stemmed from incorrect riding. I just can’t agree with this.
I am not a very correct rider, but I am a very effective rider because I am very consistent with the way I present my intent. Most of the best riders I know are not classically correct, but they are extremely effective for the same reason.
Horses love patterns. Consistency provides a pattern to a horse that gives them both clarity and helps with emotional comfort. It is by being very consistent that a horse can decipher our intent over the noise of our incorrect riding or confusing signals.
I’m not dismissing the importance of being a rider with textbook position and aids. However, many "correct” riders that confuse and bother a horse. There is a difference between being a correct rider and an effective rider. If your aim is to bring clarity and comfort, as well as correctness, to your horse, learn to be effective.
Don’t blame everything that’s wrong with a horse’s performance on rider position. It’s a mistake to conflate correct position withy good riding. They are not the same thing. If you always look to faults in a rider’s position to explain performance problems you’ll often be looking in the wrong place and the fix may escape you.
Harry Whitney combines excellent position with brilliant effectiveness.