You’re putting in the hours. You’re doing the exercises. You’re reading the books, watching the videos, maybe even taking lessons regularly. And yet… something isn’t clicking.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The truth is, most riders aren’t failing because they’re not working hard enough. They’re failing because of a handful of common training errors that are invisible until someone points them out.
Here are the five mistakes I see most often — and more importantly, how to fix them.
1. Progressing Too Fast
This one is epidemic in our sport, and I get it. We’re ambitious. We want to see progress. We finally nail a decent leg yield at the walk, and the immediate instinct is: Let’s try it at the trot!
But here’s the thing: your horse needs repetition to build both physical strength and mental clarity. When you rush through the basics, you’re building on a shaky foundation. That leg yield at trot might technically happen, but if the walk version wasn’t solid, you’re just creating confusion and tension.
The fix: Stay at each level until it feels easy — not just possible. If your horse is tense, resistant, or confused, that’s information. You haven’t earned the right to move on yet. And that’s okay.
2. Training for the Movement, Not the Horse
I see this constantly: riders who are so focused on achieving a specific movement that they forget to read what’s happening underneath them.
You want shoulder-in. You watched the tutorial. You know where your legs go. But your horse is bracing through his jaw, his back is tight, and he’s barely breathing. Does it technically look like shoulder-in? Maybe. Is it training your horse to be supple and balanced? Absolutely not.
The fix: Before you ask for any movement, ask yourself: Is my horse soft? Is he breathing? Is he with me mentally? If the answer is no, the movement can wait. A relaxed horse doing a simple exercise is always more valuable than a tense horse doing something impressive.
3. Inconsistent Aids
Your horse is not a mind reader. They’re pattern recognizers. They learn through consistency and repetition — the same aid meaning the same thing, every single time.
But most of us are not nearly as consistent as we think we are. We use leg in different places. Our half-halts range from whispers to shouts. We reward at random intervals. And then we wonder why our horse seems “confused” or “stubborn.”
The fix: Film yourself. I know, it’s uncomfortable. But video doesn’t lie. Watch where your leg is, what your hands are doing, when you release pressure. Then pick ONE thing to be more consistent about this week. Just one.
4. Skipping the Warm-Up (or Phoning It In)
I’ve been guilty of this too. You have limited time, you want to get to the “real” work, so you walk for two minutes and dive into whatever you’re working on.
But here’s what’s actually happening: you’re asking a cold body to perform athletic movements, and you’re asking a brain that hasn’t transitioned out of “field mode” to suddenly focus on precision work.
The fix: A proper warm-up isn’t wasted time — it IS the work. Those ten minutes of walk, gentle bending, transitions? They’re setting the stage for everything else. A horse that’s warmed up physically and mentally will give you better work in twenty minutes than a cold horse will give you in an hour.
Check out my free warm-up lesson if you need a structure to follow.
5. Not Knowing When to Quit
This might be the biggest one.
You’re working on something. It’s going okay, not great. Your horse gives you one decent attempt, and you think: One more. Just one more good one to end on.
Except that “one more” turns into three more, which turns into your horse getting tired and frustrated, which turns into ending on a worse note than where you started.
The fix: When your horse tries, reward it. When you get something better than before — even if it’s not perfect — end there. Walk on a loose rein. Give cookies. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s progress. And progress means quitting while you’re ahead.
The Real Problem
Notice a pattern? Most of these mistakes come from the same place: impatience. We want results, and we want them now.
But horses don’t work on our timeline. They need time to build muscle. Time to understand what we’re asking. Time to trust that we’re not going to push them past their limits.
The riders who make the fastest progress are the ones who slow down. Who stay at each level until it’s boring. Who reward the try, not just the result.
That’s not weakness. That’s horsemanship.
Working on suppleness? These mistakes are exactly what I help you avoid in From Stiff to Supple in 28 Days. It’s not just exercises — it’s learning how to train effectively, one step at a time.
