Successful riders - why they succeed

[Orangehorse]

I had a very pleasant 3 days at Chatsworth last weekend and watched a lot of dressage, show jumping and showing, as well as the cross country course.

My conculsion is that successful riders simply ride better than the rest!

I could almost tell when a rider came into the ring whether or not they would jump clear round show jumping or not (I know, I know, it is so easy to be an armchair rider). I also studied the very best riders warming up for the dressage. Their body position is better, how they hold their hands and keep them still, the bent elbows, the way the horses are going comes from the rider.

One horse was warming up, it was very tense and fighting the bit - the rider's arms were completely straight and tight and their body position was slightly tipped forward. Presumably these riders are getting regular instruction, so why isn't this corrected? Others were trotting round with their hands going up and down, up and down - I can assure you that Mark Todd doesn't do that! Overall, the male riders were making a better job than the majority of the women, is that because they have better core strength naturally?

I am now going to retreat behind the sofa, as I will get a lot of flack, no doubt.

 

[Farma]

But they ride better likely because they have gained experience and spent more time in the saddle? Therefore those that aren't as natural and 'successful' are likely on the same journey as the good ones they are just a little further behind experience wise?

I am not saying everyone is capable of being amazing but who knows what experience people have to be able to look so natural and to have developed the feel they have?

It isn't always as easy as saying put your arm/leg/hands here or there it takes years and years of perfecting to naturally be able to sit like that and I think we all have odd habits that could be better!

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Have a look at the "Fit to Ride" website www.fittoride.co.uk as there is a lot of stuff on there which will interest you.......

 

[Orangehorse]

I think some people are true naturals, they couldn't even tell you what they do or how they do it, nor could they teach anyone else because surely everyone rides like they do? They have a gift to sit naturally on a horse without thinking about it too much, but they seem to do everything "right."

I think other successful people get instruction and act on it, listen, and put it into practice and strive to improve all the time.

 

[Orson Cart]

Personally I credit it to good bio mechanics. Something we can all learn, but only if ones instructor understands it all. I reckon a lot of naturally good and successful riders ride bio mechanically naturally. My riding has improved so much since having a bio mechanical instructor. That's just my ha'pennies worth.

 

[Mike007]

Personally I credit it to good bio mechanics. Something we can all learn, but only if ones instructor understands it all. I reckon a lot of naturally good and successful riders ride bio mechanically naturally. My riding has improved so much since having a bio mechanical instructor. That's just my ha'pennies worth.

I agree 100% . Saddles are many peoples downfall for example.If you are exactly the right height shape weight and foot size ,it all comes easily. I watch so many people struggling against the ergonomics of tack design and loosing. Its not a lack of effort or ability . And whoever came up with the saying"a bad workman always blames his tools" should be horsewhipped.

 

[Aspire]

Many do have instruction. Under pressure however, unless those riders have reached the stage of unconscious competence they will revert to old bad habits. Let's not forget Chatsworth is a prestigious event and venue. Some riders will have pushed themselves well out of their comfort zone just to compete there. It is impossible to know the background and circumstance of every competitor, some have had the luxury of ponies and great training from a young age. Some have had to reach adulthood before realising their dream of horse ownership. The one thing all the comeptitors had in common was none of them went there trying to do a bad job.
I spent the full day there on the friday judging the CIC* and had the full range of riders from professional to local amateur clearly dipping their toe in at 'the big league'. I guess 'success' has different definitions. If you mean to win, then yes the pros usually are much better than the majority. They have to be. Success to my friend who was there with her homebred, meant a dressage as close to 30 as she could muster (30.5), a 4 faults showjumping which she admitted was her fault for not being 100% committed to the fence, and a few time penalties but clear and safe cross country and a sound horse next day. Last year she had entered but he had tweaked himself so she withdrew. Another thing they all had in common is that they are all far braver than me! I gave up jumping years ago after driving home from Osberton feeling as sick as I had driving to the event. I realised then that the part I truly enjoyed was the dressage, and have made that my passion. Not that I have been immensley successful in that, at least in my eyes. I have yet to reach the goal I set myself when I started to specialise, partly down to losing horses before they fulfilled their potential, and partly probably due to a lack of inate talent on my part. I think the point about horse ownership and competition is that we should enjoy it, and seek to be the best we can be. To my mind for most amateurs the ribbons are just the icing on the cake.

 

[ihatework]

Whilst natural talent and basic good riding is obviously the biggest factor, success is so multi factorial that your statement really is too black and white.
I'm quite heavily involved with a youngish rider trying to make their way in professional eventing. It's very eye opening I can tell you.

 

[claracanter]

We went to Badminton this year on grassroots XC day and after our friend had finished competing, we went and watched the top pros schooling their horses in the dressage practise arenas. We were amazed to see one top rider being told off constantly by her trainer. He made her ride without stirrups at one point and was really vocal in his criticism. A bit simplified, but it made us realise that not all pros are complete naturals and some of them got to where they are with a lot of tuition, hard work and not just obvious talent.

 

[HashRouge]

It's such a combination of factors - natural talent, hard work, good instruction, opportunity, ambition. Natural talent does play a huge part but I also think that lack of it can by and large be compensated for by hard work. I have worked for several show jumpers. One was the most naturally talented person I've ever encountered (but lazy lol) while the other wasn't so talented but was very dedicated and hard working, which allowed him to be at least as successful as the first rider.

 

[sarcasm_queen]

I've always thought that one of the most important things was having more than one horse to your string. More riding time, more ring time, and a backup so that you don't end up waiting around doing nothing for months if your top horse gets injured.
I guess that's a care of money/luck/a LOT of hard work.

 

[dornrose]

Have a look at the "Fit to Ride" website www.fittoride.co.uk as there is a lot of stuff on there which will interest you.......

That link doesn't work, looks like he needs to update his details.

This one might do

http://www.fittoride.org/

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

A friend, an instructor, was given a class of Japanese and an interpreter, at the end of one lesson they could all post at the trot. Concentration.
A top jockey sat on a horse for the first time when he was 15. A natural.
A.P. learned to ride on naughty ponies, started riding racehorses in his early teen ..... broke all the records. Determination.

 

[Overread]

I've come to the conclusion that "natural talent" is a false concept.


I don't think anyone is born to be a rider and more than they are born to be an artist or an electrician or bin man.


I think natural talent is a term we like to use for people who show great skill and often (but not always) fast learning in feats that many people would "like" to have but which we do not. Thus it always desirable things - art, riding, sports etc.. that we see natural talent within whilst things that are not generally desired we don't see it.



What I think results in the highly skilled varies a lot and includes, but isn't limited to;
1) Genetics - yes I said there's no such thing, but we can't deny that mental and physical capacity are a factor in many things. However I would argue that this is possibly a lesser issue than many might think and that whilst its there; whilst it is part of it the effect of genetics is more subtle. (at least excepting extreme situations).

2) Upbringing:
a) They might have parents who push them into something. Consider Beethoven, a natural full of talent who was only like that partly due to being pushed into music from a very young age. We learn fast when we are young, push someone and fill them with the right info in a niche area and they can learn a lot. By the time they are 20 they've had nearly 20 years of a skill whilst most others are only just fumbling at finding it.

b) Tangent - they might not learn the specific thing that they are good at in latter life; but they learn skills that compliment either the activity directly and/or its learning. As a result when they come along they can appear to have natural talent in a field they've never tried before; but only as a result of their prior experiences.

In both A and B it is possible achieve these end results without teacher/parental input. A person can self learn through their own interest at this level. Thus its possible for them to gain skills far apart from what life might throw at them from teaching and parents because of that persons own determination to learn.




Consider also that everyone is not a teacher.
Teaching a subject requires understanding of a subject AND of teaching. As a result a person who has great skill might be a hopeless teacher. Part of being able to teach someone else is having what you know in a mental format that can be spoken and broken down into stages. However many people (esp when they learn things young) can learn subjects in depth to a point where they've either forgotten their own early learning building blocks or where they bypassed formal teaching and thus whilst htey know the building blocks they've no way to describe or put it into meaningful words.
Thus even when asked they can't tell you - they don't know how to.

Those people who say a horse just speaks to them and they understand is not magical nor mysterious. They have an understanding which can be broken down into steps and stages but they've never had to or have failed to be able to find those stages in their own thinking.




Thing is we all do this - consider something simple like driving a car. When you start you have to think all the steps as you're taught them. "mirror, signal etc...". However once you've done it over and over and over again you start to stop thinking in those steps. The whole process becomes a step that you go through and given time and no prompting need you can easily end up in a position where you'd have to put serious thought to recalling what you're doing in easy steps to teach someone else.

 

[rachk89]

I agree 100% . Saddles are many peoples downfall for example.If you are exactly the right height shape weight and foot size ,it all comes easily. I watch so many people struggling against the ergonomics of tack design and loosing. Its not a lack of effort or ability . And whoever came up with the saying"a bad workman always blames his tools" should be horsewhipped.

Well the last bit I don't fully agree with. Yeah you are at a disadvantage if you have a saddle too small for you or that puts you in an odd position. But i have seen many people blame their stirrups for them losing them and so buy those expensive ones that hold your foot in the stirrup and give you more security. A bit of work without stirrups would have helped really. I could fix my issue at not being able to keep my right foot as secure as the left with expensive stirrups but I know it's my issue so i dont. Once I have stopped my silly habit I will be a better rider. Covering an issue with expensive gadgets doesn't make you a better rider.

To be a successful rider or a professional one really in the same way i think was described quite well by an instructor i once watched a demonstration from. They can make any horse work correctly because they ride correctly. Not specifying if this is natural talent or not but i don't think it's about natural talent all the time. It's more about determination to learn and improve and confidence as well. You need confidence above all else to me. I can look like a total beginner on a horse at times when nervous but when confident can sit completely correctly and have the horse moving correctly. My nerves hold me back lol.

 

[Mike007]

I understand where you are coming from on the "bad workman " thing. My view is that too many people are held back by the belief that it is always the rider failing to achieve ,,in some manner. So often I see relatively inexperienced riders held back by tack which ,whilst it might be a perfect fit for the horse ,is an absolute disaster for the rider.

 

[Red-1]

I am no natural, and am no pro competitor, but some time back I decided that I WAS going to compete at Chatsworth.

My horse at the time would not have been able, so I bought another. My trainer said they could not see how I could do that event, so I changed the trainer, and got a good trainer for each phase, who helped me plan.

Our hacking was not good, so I made a deal with a farmer for off road riding.

I travelled, and trained, and to be quite honest, I kept turning up to jump the fences.

I banished the fear.

We did compete at Chatsworth (only the Nov) but then went on to do Int and also a few CCI* (two of which were old format). To me that WAS the big time.

These days I seem to be unable to rise above BE100. Oh, I have a raft of excuses, but I KNOW that if I were driven enough, I could go back to Nov and even Int this season. It would require drive, and sacrifices, and money, and training..... and TBH I do not have that drive any more.

So, I would say that the top riders have the drive, the drive to spend the time, to spend the money, to cut out what does not work, to banish fear, and to keep turning up and jumping the fences.

 

[daffy44]

Really interesting read, thank you! I agree with Red, that drive has a huge amount to do with success. But I would also disagree with Overread, I think natural talent does exsist, its not the most important thing, hard work can achieve more, but it does exsist. I used to teach in a riding school years ago, teaching children from 3yrs old upward, and some children were far more natural than others, you could take children of the same age, body type etc, who had never sat on a pony before, and some loved it, but hung on for dear life, wanted to sit hunched up, and took a while to grasp rising trot etc. But others just sat beautifully from the start, could rise/sit to the trot almost instantly, and had a visible feel for what they were doing.

 

[rachk89]

I understand where you are coming from on the "bad workman " thing. My view is that too many people are held back by the belief that it is always the rider failing to achieve ,,in some manner. So often I see relatively inexperienced riders held back by tack which ,whilst it might be a perfect fit for the horse ,is an absolute disaster for the rider.

Oh yeah totally get that. I would love to see me try to ride in a 16" saddle doubt my fat a$$ could fit in one anymore would probably swamp it. Can be held back in that respect definitely. I am lucky my horse is big enough for the 18" saddle i need which is as much for my bum as it is for my rather long legs.

 

[Goldenstar]

Gill Watson once told me to secede you need two of three things .
Talent , dedication , money .
All three and you have it sussed but two of the three is enough.

 

[daffy44]

Gill Watson once told me to secede you need two of three things .
Talent , dedication , money .
All three and you have it sussed but two of the three is enough.

Agree.

 

[Equi]

Some people really are natural at it. My uncle has never ridden in his life and he got on my pony and went into the field (i advised him not to but he would not listen and i was about 11 lol) pony knew this trick and off he went full pelt, turned about and trotted back and around agian - uncle said it was amazing he felt like a cow boy (anyone else would have been off and never on a horse again) he can also get into a cart with my lot and drive like hes done it all his life. Then there is my friend who claimed to have had riding lesson all her life, got on the same pony and promptly went into the fetal position when he walked and rolled off.