How to Ride a Difficult Horse: The Basics for Beginners

Step-by-Step Learning

Learning to ride a horse is the first step. Progressing to difficult horses is the next phase for riders. Here are my tips for riders to get comfortable with more challenging horses.

Step 1: Challenge Yourself

The first step is transitioning from what I call a "push-button" type lesson horse to a horse that is a little testier. I'm not talking about a horse with dangerous bad habits or anything scary, just one that will make you be assertive and really ride.

That is the problem with the push-button horses. They are great confidence-builders but can give us a false sense of our ability. It will get to a point where you know the basics and are confident,

but then that push-button horse doesn't have anything left to teach you. To build your skills, you need to step up the ladder.

Just take one step up—to a safe horse, but one that will make you use the skills you learned on old faithful. Basically, a horse that won't let you be a passenger and a horse that will teach you that you really have to tell the horse what to do all the time; that is why they call it riding, not "passengering."

This Is the Hardest Step

This is the hardest step, I think. You get so confident on the beginner lesson horses that it's a shock to the system to ride something a little more difficult. It can be a little disappointing because you realize that you weren't being as assertive a rider as you thought you were. It's okay, though; that's what the horses on this ladder are for—to challenge you within your ability level.