Arena riding is like school. In fact, it’s often called “schooling.” And if you remember grade school or high school, you must also remember the recesses built into learning.

The brain struggles to go, go, go without proper incentives and rewards. But with the right incentives, it’s amazing what can be achieved.

Here are four important objectives in arena riding:

Balance
Endurance
Sensitivity
Trust

The acronym is BEST intentions.

Balance is all about straightness, with steering, stopping, and transitions as paramount practice items.

Endurance is about learning to hold gaits longer in visible increments.

Sensitivity is about dialing reactions to signals and stimuli up or down.

Trust is where the recesses and rewards enter the picture. The horse must learn to love the work. Otherwise, what are you? A dictator?

No. A good rider is a coach and a friend. A coach first, but always a friend too.

Combined, these four activities leave endless games to play, from figure-eight patterns all the way to high-level dressage patterns, reining, or even jumping courses.

The core activity is always about BEST intentions, but what makes it all really work in the hands of a great trainer is the reliance on recesses and rewards during training.

Integrate Trust into the work and notice how everything improves.

Sadly, many riders avoid asking for things in hopes that simply being nice will add to trust. Ironically, asking for something and then rewarding the horse for it builds Trust, while avoiding the ask can actually build distance and disdain.

It’s food for thought, my wonderful equine enthusiasts.

As you school your horse, I ask this of you: be reward-oriented. Your job is half done just by adding in recesses.

Here’s to your success. ​Don