29/09/2026
Love this post such a great read!! It's absolutely true - all of our brains think a little differently 🤍
Some riders can watch a course once and remember every fence. Others get halfway through a simple arena exercise, dressage test, or pattern and suddenly have absolutely no idea where they are supposed to go next.
That does not automatically mean they were not listening. Remembering a pattern while riding requires the rider to hold directions in mind while also managing the horse, their position, pace, balance, rhythm, other riders, and everything happening around them.
For some students, that is a lot of information competing for attention at once. The solution is not always to repeat the pattern again, sometimes you need to change how you present it.
1. Break it into sections
Instead of teaching an entire pattern at once, divide it into smaller pieces. For example, “First, ride the circle and cross the diagonal."
Then add the next section. A rider who struggles to remember eight instructions may have no difficulty remembering two at a time.
2. Use the rider’s strongest way of remembering
Some riders remember best by hearing the pattern, others need to see it, and some need to physically move through it before it sticks.
For visual learners, try drawing the pattern on a whiteboard, sketching the arena and adding arrows, using different colors for different sections, numbering fences or movements, or letting the rider draw the route themselves from memory.
3. Have them walk it on foot
This can be especially helpful for dressage tests, jumping courses, and more complicated arena patterns. Walk the pattern in the actual arena before they mount.
For a dressage test, you can physically walk every movement together. You can even make your own miniature dressage court somewhere else. Just put sticky notes with the arena letters around the edge of a rug, driveway, barn aisle, or open space and have the rider “ride” the test on foot. Now they are linking the sequence to direction, location, and movement instead of simply trying to memorize a page of letters.
4. Use landmarks, not just arena letters
“Turn at B” may work perfectly for one rider while another may remember “Turn at the gate.” You can gradually connect the landmark back to the correct arena letter later.
5. Give the pattern a sequence
For jumping courses, some riders remember better when fences are grouped into sections rather than memorized as eight separate numbers.
For example: Outside line → diagonal → rollback → final line. That gives the course a structure.
The same idea works on the flat: Circle → diagonal → transition → poles → halt.
6. Ask the rider to teach it back to you
You can have them draw the pattern from memory, say it out loud while walking it, close their eyes and mentally rehearse it, or explain the route to another rider.
7. Use visual markers when needed
Cones, poles, colors, numbers, or other temporary markers can help a rider learn the route before those supports are gradually removed.
8. Give them time to retrieve the answer
If a rider pauses and says, “Where do I go?”, try waiting a few seconds before telling them. They may know and simply need more time to retrieve the information. Immediately giving them the answer every time can remove the opportunity for them to practice recalling it themselves.
Perhaps most importantly, do not make forgetting the pattern embarrassing. A rider who already knows they struggle with this, can become so worried about going the wrong way that they devote even more attention to remembering the route and less attention to actually riding the horse.
The goal is not to see who can memorize instructions the fastest, it is to find the method that makes the information stick for that rider.
If telling them does not work, show them. If showing them does not work, let them walk it.
If walking it does not work, draw it, color-code it, break it apart, or have them teach it back to you.
Sometimes forgetting the pattern is not just a memory problem, it is a presentation problem.
