09/25/2026
Dyslexia is far more common in your lesson program than you might realize and it shows up in ways that are not always immediately obvious. A student who struggles to remember which is left and which is right. A rider who cannot process a multi-step verbal instruction by the time the horse has taken three more strides. Someone who hears everything you say but cannot translate it into a physical response quickly enough to make it useful. These are not focus problems or effort problems. They are processing differences that require a different delivery system and once you understand that the adjustments you need to make are surprisingly practical and effective.
1. What riding actually does for a dyslexic rider.
Before we get into the teaching strategies, it is worth understanding why riding is such a powerful environment for a dyslexic student in the first place. The rhythmic motion of a horse at the walk closely mimics the pattern of human gait and that movement stimulates the vestibular system which governs balance and spatial orientation, the proprioceptive system which develops body awareness, and the tactile system through the physical contact and movement of riding. For a dyslexic rider whose brain is working to build better sensory processing and motor coordination, the horse is doing genuine neurological work with every stride. The movement helps the brain organize incoming sensory information more effectively and builds the kind of body awareness that supports not just riding but reading, writing, and fine motor tasks outside the barn. Riding also builds neuromotor and neurosensory pathways that support how the brain processes language. The lesson you are delivering is doing more for your dyslexic student than developing their position and their feel. It is actively supporting how their brain learns.
2. Replace left and right with something physical.
Left and right reversal is one of the most common dyslexia related challenges and it causes enormous frustration in riding lessons where direction changes are constant and fast. Stop relying on left and right as your primary directional language and replace it with landmarks. Head for the E marker then turn toward the barn. Track toward the gate. Ride to the corner near the road then turn toward the woods. Physical landmarks in the environment are processed faster and more reliably than left and right for many dyslexic riders and the confusion disappears almost immediately once you make the switch. For some riders the instruction go out to the rail and take the right rein is genuinely impossible to process in real time. Head for the E marker then turn toward the barn gets there in a fraction of the time.
3. Use a whiteboard for figures, patterns, and courses.
Keep a small whiteboard and dry erase markers at the arena with you and use them. When you want to teach a figure, a pattern, or a jump course draw it rather than describe it. Include the dressage letters if you have them, draw in your arena landmarks like the barn, the road, the woods, whatever is visible and then hand the board to the rider and ask them to trace the pattern with their finger before they ride it. The physical act of tracing the route with a finger before riding it is one of the most effective processing tools available for a dyslexic rider. They have seen it, touched it, and traced it before their horse takes a single step. The result is a rider who knows exactly where they are going rather than one trying to process verbal directions while managing a moving horse.
4. Color code the horse's shoulder for the posting diagonal.
The posting diagonal is one of the most consistently difficult skills for a dyslexic rider to develop visually and the standard approach of looking down at the outside shoulder does not work well for a brain that processes visual information differently. Try this instead. Put colored tape along the blade of each of the horse's shoulders such as red on the right shoulder and a different color on the left. Put matching colored tape on the rider's hands or use different colored gloves. Now the rider has a full color coded system that gives them multiple reference points for identifying and matching the correct diagonal rather than relying on a single brief glance at a shoulder while posting.
If the color system still is not landing stop trying to solve it visually and teach the feel instead. Have them drop briefly to sitting trot and feel which diagonal pair is moving before rising again. It works beautifully for riders who cannot reliably use visual confirmation. The feel approach is actually more correct long term anyway and for a dyslexic rider it may simply be the more natural path to get there.
5. Hop on another horse and show your rider
For younger dyslexic riders who cannot readily process verbal instruction at all, ride a horse yourself and ask them to mimic your posting. The rider watches your movement and copies it rather than trying to process and execute a verbal instruction. Mimicry bypasses the processing bottleneck entirely and for young children it is often the fastest route to a correct independent posting trot.
6. Give one instruction at a time.
A multi-step correction is genuinely impossible for many dyslexic riders to hold in their working memory long enough to execute. Pick the single most important thing, say it once clearly and give them time to try it. Then add the next piece but one thing at a time always. The lesson moves more deliberately and the rider improves significantly faster.
7. Use physical demonstration over verbal explanation.
Show it before you say it. Walk alongside the horse and demonstrate the position with your own body. Use your hands to physically cue the correct position when appropriate and safe. For a rider whose brain processes visual and physical input more reliably than auditory language the demonstration does in three seconds what ten repetitions of the verbal correction never achieves.
8. Be consistent with your language.
Dyslexic riders often need to hear the same instruction phrased the same way every time before it becomes automatic. Pick your vocabulary for each concept and stick to it. The consistency reduces the processing load and the instruction lands faster.
9. Never draw attention to the processing difference in front of others.
A dyslexic rider who is already working harder than their peers to process your instruction does not need the additional weight of being visibly different in a group setting. Make the accommodations quietly and matter of factly as part of how you teach this specific rider. Most of the adjustments that help dyslexic riders like clearer language, one instruction at a time, more visual demonstration, landmark based directions help every rider in your program anyway.
A dyslexic rider who finds an instructor who understands how their brain works is a rider who stays in your program for years. The horse is already doing more for them than most people realize. Your job is to make sure the instruction that goes with it is delivered in a way their brain can actually use.
Do you have dyslexic riders in your program? What strategies have worked for you?
