05/31/2026
Recently a very good rider made a point that retraining challenging or misunderstood horses can have a negative affect on your riding, which in some ways I completely agree with. However here is an excerpt from my essay my journey into dressage and the reasons I continue.
Problem Horses or Misunderstood Horses
“The horse must be trained according to his nature.”
— Gustav Steinbrecht
Most problem horses are not difficult by nature. They are misunderstood.
Over the years, I have retrained many horses labeled as problems. Through them, I learned more about riding — and about myself — than any book could teach.
Where Problems Begin
Problems often begin when training exceeds the horse’s physical or mental capacity. When understanding is lost, trust erodes.
Once trust is damaged, the road back becomes longer and more difficult — but not impossible.
The horse always gives feedback. The responsibility lies with us to listen.
Education as Rehabilitation
Correct education has a healing effect — physically and mentally.
Through systematic, patient training:
• Weakness becomes strength
• Anxiety becomes confidence
• Confusion becomes clarity
This process requires time, consistency, and fairness.
As Karl Mikolka of the Spanish Riding School described, correct training can transform a horse into something stronger and more capable than it was before.
Temperament and Responsibility
A good temperament is a valid priority.
It takes far less time to train correctly from the beginning than to repair fundamental mistakes later. Not all horses follow the same timeline, and not all learn in the same way.
The training scale allows the horse to guide the process. Challenge them — but when the foundation deteriorates, return to it.
Therapeutic riding “….is that kind of training you do, where you take a handicapped horse, so to speak, and you improve this animal to such an extent that at the end of his training, it looks like a super horse, worth a million. You build muscles where there are none, you strengthen the weak parts of your horse, you change his temperament, and you transform the whole body and the mind. In short, you make the horse into something which it wasn’t before. The entire training process has a healing effect on the animal, and this I consider the goal of horsemanship. “
- Karl Mikolka, Oberbereiter, Spanish Riding School
This is what speaks to my heart.
