12/22/2025
8 Ways to Ensure A Bad Ride
1.) Have a crooked pelvis, and spend the entire ride, blaming your horse for not listening to one of your legs
2.) Don’t move your hips with your horse- maybe you are at a show and nervous, or are in anterior pelvic tilt, or just generally tense. But if you’re not moving your hips with your horse, everything they do will feel against you.
3.) Have hands that take, but don’t give. You’re allowed to use your reins- that’s why we have them. But you absolutely need to give.
4.) Refuse to break big issues into smaller pieces.
5.) Don’t take breaks. Especially if things are already tense, refusing to take a break will absolutely make things more tense.
6.) Expect perfect obedience from your horse in spite of the environment.
7.) Take everything personally. Accountability can fix almost any bad ride.
8.) Never reward the right answer. An easy way to turn a good ride into a bad ride is to keep asking your horse to do the same thing over and over and over again without ever telling him he’s got the right answer.
