Horse & Rider USA – September 2019

56 / HorseandRider.com

your control isn’t the

only benefit of this exer-

cise. Faithfully practicing

it will also improve your

horsemanship. You’ll be

forced to think in the

saddle, processing more

quickly what you need

to do in order to make

the transition happen at

the cone.

Obviously, this exercise

will also sharpen your

horse’s responsiveness.

He’ll learn that when you

say “now,” you really do

mean now. And the cone

patterns that involve

turning will tune up your

horse’s steering, as well.

Master precise tran-
sitions and you’ll
become a more confi-
dent, effective rider.

­Confidence on a horse

is all about feeling in con-

trol. When you can trust

that you direct when and

where and how fast your

horse moves, and that you

can transition downward

anytime you choose, you

can feel like a confident,

effective rider.

Unfortunately, it’s easy

for us to fool ourselves on

this point. We can assume

that we are controlling

our horse quite precisely,

but if we’re not actually

measuring our results, we

don’t really know whether

we are or not.

This exercise answers

that question for you. It

makes use of cones to

mark exactly where your

transitions must occur.

With a clear visual target

to gauge by, you can learn

whether or not you’re

nailing your transitions

and, if not, use the cones

to refine your cueing and

improve your control.

Benefits Galore

Boosting your confi-

dence by fine-tuning

Ride&Train

Precisely Confident

BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN, WITH J. FORSBERG MEYER

Finally, this exercise

in all its variations is just

plain fun. It’s like a game

that blasts boredom out

of your practice sessions.

Add another rider, and it

can become an entertain-

ing competition.

Setting It Up

You’ll need four plastic

training cones (more if

you want to ride several

patterns consecutively)

and a safe area with good

footing in which to set

them up.

Arrange the cones

in one or more of the

patterns shown, placing

them at least 75 feet

apart to start. (As you

and your horse become

more proficient, you can

increase the challenge by

placing the cones a bit

closer together.)

The Straight Line

We’ll start with the

straight-line pattern.

Warm your horse up

as you normally would,

then plan exactly what

you intend to do at each

cone. For example, you

CONFIDENT RIDER

Learning to make transitions precisely at the marker—that is, when your horse’s shoulder is directly across

from it—will increase the control you have over your horse and make you a more confident, effective rider.