On the other hand, the disadvantage in having a division dedicated to equitation is that success in the division sometimes becomes an end in itself. That attitude is not healthy, in my opinion. If you learn equitation only in hopes of winning the finals and then never ride again, that does a disservice to the whole concept of equitation. To the riders whom I hope the division rewards (and for whom I look when I’m judging), equitation is a means to becoming better—whether their ultimate sport is hunter/jumper, riding cross-country, pleasure riding or something else.

To give you some insight on what a judge is looking for when you ride in an equitation class, I’m first going to explain what I believe are the components for success in the division. Then I’m going to let you look over my shoulder and share my thoughts as I am judging. As I explain how I arrive at placings, I’ll point out how some of the things that affect my scoring will also affect how you might perform in another discipline, such as hunters or jumpers.

The Basic Pieces: Stylish and Effective

The basic elements I look for when I judge an equitation class are exactly the same whether I’m watching riders on the flat or over fences: style and effectiveness in the same rider, in the same round. This combination is elusive: What the judge often sees is a rider who is effective in getting the job done but is not correct in position, style or presentation; or a rider whose style, position and presentation are correct but who isn’t effective.

It’s difficult to attain both of these qualities in the same class on any given day—and even more so because the riders who are trying to do it are so young. As I get older I realize that one of the best things about this sport is that you truly do get better as you get older, and that process continues for a very long time.

So what is the secret to putting both pieces together in the ring? I have a favorite saying for my students: “The best rider isn’t the one who can do the most complicated things; it’s the rider who can do the most simple things the best.” To me, this means that if you want to be the best rider in the ring, you need to really concentrate on these simple things:

• Positioning you feet correctly in the irons
• Having your reins exactly the right length
• Maintaining a consistently straight line from bit to hand to elbow
• Having the exactly correct line from hip to to heel in your leg
• Riding with exactly the right angulation in your leg and the other parts of your body at the different gaits

These details add up to style, by they also contribute to effectiveness, because they’re essential to having proper contact with your horse’s mouth and having just enough pressure to keep your horse in front of your leg.

Adding Fences to the Mix

A rider who is able to put all this together on the flat has made a great beginning; the really good riders are able to do the same thing in the over-fences classes. I see a lot of riders in equitation who are very stylish and effective on the flat but have no feel or pace or jump. Then there are those who have great feeling at the jumps but no feel or pace between the fences.

And some riders who look great on the flat simply don’t have the strength of position, they need for jumps and just fall apart when faced with fences in front of them. Some are very effective seat-of-the-pants riders over the jumps but look terrible on a horse. When I judge an over fences class, I am looking for the rider who can show me she understands the course so well that she jumps it in beautiful form while keeping her leg aids invisible and without the appearance of effort. The horse looks comfortable doing it and flows and looks beautiful.

The skills that enable a rider to produce this kind of round are simple and basic, which is not to say that they’re easy:

• Coordination of aids
• Independent hands and seat
• Invisible aids

The rider who has developed these abilities can say, “OK, here’s the course and I understand it. My position is so strong that my hands, seat and legs will be independent of each other from start to finish. I’m such a good rider that I can completely coordinate my aids, and I’m going to do that so subtly that no one watching will be able to tell what I’m doing.” The other point that contributes to a winning round is pace. As I always tell my hunter riders, the idea is to pick a pace and do the entire course at exactly that pace. Taken all together, these skills are the whole point of the equitation division, and they are what need to be rewarded.

Looking the Part of a Winner

What you wear in an equitation class is both unimportant—and critical. When I say it’s unimportant, I mean you don’t need an expensive or custom-made jacket, breeches or boots to make a good impression. On the other hand, attire is critical because the way you present yourself is one of the ways in which you can demonstrate your respect for the horse, the sport, the show, the judge and yourself. Clean, well-fitted clothing (including a fresh shirt and a clean choker or a nice tie) and shiny, shiny boots and spurs show respect. Conversely, dirty boots, a battered hunt cap, distracting jewelry and—my pet peeve—messy hair do not show respect.

Your job in equitation is to get your horse to do his job, while becoming effortless and invisible on him. The sport is about the horses, and you demonstrate your understanding of that by choosing conservative styles and colors and avoiding bright colors and bling. As a judge my principle is, “If you notice it, it’s probably wrong.” And in particular, if I notice it about you—whose job is to disappear—then it’s really wrong.

The ideal equitation horse is an athletic mover with scope and good looks; most important, though, is his brain. An equitation horse needs to want to keep doing it, no matter what. As I tell my students, “If you don’t have the best horse, you need to work on having the best-trained horse.” So your horse needs to be able to accept and absorb enough training to compensate for what he might lack in scope or beauty. One good thing about the equitation division is that with hard work and good horsemanship (meaning good care, feeding and conditioning), good training and a reasonably good horse, you can be competitive. If I have to choose, I’ll always pick the horse with the best brain and less scope over a gorgeous, scopey horse with the wrong brain.

How It All Fits Together

Now let’s see where all the pieces of equitation come into play when I’m judging a round. First impressions count and the evaluation that starts the moment you step into the ring, and it doesn’t end until you leave.

Details matter! Is your position correct in all the particulars I described earlier? Are you dressed appropriately, with clean clothing and tack? Is your horse—whether fancy or ordinary—beautifully turned out? If this is an over-fences class, is the opening circle just right, too big or too small? I’m processing everything, but what pops out are the things I don’t like. (This goes back to my adage that if you notice it, it’s probably wrong.)

A twisted stirrup leather, too-long reins, an odd bit, a too-short martingale … they’re all details that tend to lower my expectation of the performance I’m about to see. I don’t think in terms of number scores as I’m watching, but I tentatively assign you to one of four categories based on first impression. Those categories have numerical equivalents: poor (60s), inexperienced (70s), pretty good (80s) or fantastic (90s). It’s important to be turned out well, have a good position and present yourself well, because that helps you start out the class with an edge.

Whether you stay at the level I initially assign to you or move up or down, depends on what you do next.

How I Score

Only two things in equitation are scored objectively at present. One is time faults—a point off the score for each second over the time allowed. The other is a rail, which usually lowers the score four points. There’s a reason for this scoring: Both rails and time allowed are tangible aspects of performance that exhibitors, trainers and spectators can see and understand just as the judge can. It’s also worth noting that a time element isn’t normally introduced in equitation classes until the upper levels. As the classes become more advanced, the time tends to get tighter and becomes more of a factor. This is a great example of how equitation prepares you for other divisions. As you progress up through the equitation division, the classes and scoring begin to resemble what you’ll encounter when you’re out of equitation and in the jumper divisions.

The rest of scoring is more subjective and each judge has a personal system, but certain problems that I notice at the in gate alert me to watch for particular errors on course. A major indicator to me for what kind of round to expect is whether your foot is positioned correctly in the stirrup iron, because I think that detail is the basis for having a good leg and therefore a good position. If I notice that your reins are long when you come in, it won’t surprise me that your horse goes around looking very quick or leaves a stride out of the last line. If your reins look short, you’re likely to have a nervous, choky kind of round.

Rubs aren’t a deduction in and of themselves; the rider problems that cause rubs are what lowers a score. If I’m saying to myself, Gee, I think that rider falls back a little in the air, and the horse has a hard rub behind at the next jump, that confirms my impression of her mistake, which gets factored into her overall score. The same factors apply when your hands appear stiff and you have a rub or a rail in front: I penalize the reason for the rub, not the rub itself.

The bottom line is that a flaw in position or technique will have consequences somewhere during the course—and that is true whether the class is equitation, hunters or jumpers.

That’s why good equitation is such a strong foundation for other disciplines. For example, jumping ahead of the horse may cause a rail down in front; an inadequate release can cause a rail to come down either in front or behind. If you get too wrapped up in just one aspect of the course—how you’re landing, getting your lead or nailing the turn—you may get ahead of your horse in the air instead of staying in balance with him, and end up cross-cantering the turn.

I don’t take off X number of points for any of these errors; my scoring is more intuitive. But if you come in looking like you belong in the 80s or 90s, you can end up right down in the 60s if, after riding most of the course beautifully, you whip through the turn and chip at the second-to-last jump (indicating that you didn’t understand the course after all). On the other hand, if you make a less polished first impression and start out in the 70s but proceed to show me that you really understand the course and your horse and know how to put him where he needs to be, you can work your way up into the high 80s.

When the class is over, I’ve done my job as a judge if I reward the rider who—in this particular class—understood the course the best, demonstrated the best riding skills and rode it with the most style and the least apparent effort, and whose horse looked the most comfortable doing it.

The ‘Halo Effect’ When Judging Equitation Classes

At the top levels, a few successful riders perform so well and so consistently over time, it seems as if they come into the ring with a halo effect. They develop “momentum” that gives them an automatic edge when they ride in the ring. As a result, judges who are not confident in their own evaluations may try to build confidence by demonstrating that they know Rider X is really good by placing Rider X high, perhaps overlooking the fact that X found a really deep spot at one jump, while lesser-known Rider Y had a better round.

Creating more confident judges is obviously a goal of the Judge’s Mentor Program. I have my own system for creating a “clean slate” among riders, especially if one is better known than the other. I mentally switch them and imagine that Rider X had Rider Y’s round and vice versa. This way I make sure that I’m picking the rider who had the best ride in that particular class.

About Geoff Teall

As a trainer and coach, Geoff Teall has produced winning horses and riders and numerous major shows and championships, including the Devon Horse Show, the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, the Washington International Horse Show, the USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals and the USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final. He is an “R” judge for both hunters and equitation and a sought-after clinician who travels extensively in North America and Europe. His Montoga, Inc. hunter barn is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is co-founder of the American Hunter Jumper Foundation, which recently merged with the US Hunter Jumper Association, and is the author of Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation: Develop a Winning Style.

“Flat is the basis for all of it. This is where you build your habits and where you learn. This is where you develop the skills you need for jumping,” he said. “There’s no question that at certain times you just want to warm up and jump. But if you really want to improve, then you have to work and get things organized on the flat.”

In trying to better all your skills in the saddle, Teall advises to keep it simple, start at the beginning and take care of the details. “Figure out what you need to work on first in order to slowly and gradually get to the end of the story to where you can comfortably gallop and jump a course,” he said.

Here, Teall offers tips on how to establish good habits during your flatwork by finding the proper rein length and contact and correcting your hand and leg position. He also explains how the angles that make up a rider’s position affect your balance and in turn influence your horse.

Flatwork: Rein Length & Hand Position

“When we’re talking about rein length, you have the right length when you have contact with your horse’s mouth and your hands are at or a little in front of the withers. Your elbows should be a little in front of your body. If you’re not sure if your reins are the right length, they’re probably too long.

“Once you establish the right rein length at the walk, start trotting and find something you don’t like about your reins. Once you decide what to work on, go back to the walk to make adjustments or think about it. Riding is a balance between going, thinking, reviewing and going again.

“Your fingers should be closed and your hands should be slightly inside the vertical—not on the vertical, but just inside it. You can also think of it as following the slope of your horse’s shoulders with your hands.

“A lot of riders carry their hands a bit low and wide, but I’d like to see you carry your hands a little bit up and together. When I ride, I actually have one hand touching the other and carry my hands higher for two reasons. Number one, when your hands get low and wide, it makes it more difficult for you to balance. Two, if your hands are up and together, it will position your reins on either side of your horse’s neck, which will help you maintain steady contact.

“As you start to get the position of your hands more accurate by being up and together, you’ll naturally find the right rein length. Ideally, this will help you find steadier contact that your horse can accept and trust. Always think about maintaining very smooth, steady and even contact with your horse’s mouth. And in order to do that, you have to find balance through your leg and your base.”

Leg Position Is Key To Balance

“Your balance and the most important part of your position starts with your legs. To establish that base of support, your heels must be down, your leg is back and underneath you and your toes should be slightly turned out. Constantly think leg back, down and in. Everything that you’re doing at home in your flatwork is about building habits.

“A lot of people ride with their toes straight ahead. But I like for the toe to be slightly turned out at a natural angle; it should be just enough to free up your ankles, which in turn will allow your knees to relax. Once your knees relax, you can get your leg down and more around your horse. The longer your leg, the more secure you are.

“If you ride with your leg too open, you’re constantly going to be losing your balance backward and catching it in your hands. You should have a bit more of a closed feeling.

“Ultimately, you want independent hands and an independent seat. This starts from finding balance through your leg and your base during flatwork and then working with your hands out in front of you and not using them for balance.

“When trying to make changes, you’re better off working at the walk first. Get things exactly where you want them, walk, adjust again and then go back to trot. This way, you’re building good habits instead of just going around and around practicing bad habits.

“Another great exercise for leg position is to hold your two-point position at the walk or trot. Try to avoid looking in the mirror to see if you’ve got it right because that prevents you from developing feel. Instead, keep your eye up and feel where your leg is and where your toes are so that your balance starts to get better.

“Even in your two point, maintain feel with your horse’s mouth. You don’t want to go back and forth between no hands to heavy hands to no hands to heavy hands. The contact needs to be light but steady.”

Understanding Rider Body Angles

“An angle is the way two straight lines intersect. While riding, our position has four different angles: ankle, knee, hip and elbow. These angles can either be open or closed.

“The angle of your ankle is formed by your foot and calf; the angle at your knee is formed by your calf and thigh. Your thigh and upper body form the angle at your hip, and the angle at your elbow is formed by your forearm and upper arm.

“To lean forward on your horse, you must close your hip angle. You don’t want to lean forward from your waist because that will create roundness in your back, which is not only hideous but puts you in a weak position. You want a slight arch in the small of your back. That’s your strength on your horse.

“Practice leaning forward by bending through your hips at the walk. Keep your eyes up, lean forward and keep your back flat, leaning forward from your hips.

“At the posting trot, you should be inclined forward about 50 degrees inside the vertical to follow the motion of the trot. So, as you go to the trot, close your hip angle about 50 degrees in front. But as you close the angle, you must bend at your hips. This will allow you to stay down in your legs.”

For More:

• To watch the full video series with Geoff Teall on EQUESTRIAN+, click here.
• For Teall’s five exercises to develop your eye for distances and boost your confidence on course, click here.

This week’s episode of the Practical Horseman Podcast is with respected hunter and equitation judge, trainer and rider Geoff Teall. It is sponsored by sponsored by Sentinel. In the episode, Geoff shares his insights on what he looks for when judging hunter and equitation rounds. Additionally, he explains the qualities of both horse and rider that make a winning trip. “Judging from the positive” is a term he uses. It explains how he’s looking for the round that’s special to win. In other words, this is a trip that has a little something extra, as opposed to a round with no mistakes in it. “Extra,” for example, includes having a horse who looks like he’s enjoying jumping. Furthermore, Geoff also shares about how the industry may be scaring off judges, who increasingly face very public criticism and second-guessing on social media.

Geoff Teall’s Background

Geoff earned his U.S. Equestrian Federation big R judging license and has judged prestigious competitions. These include the Pessoa/USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Finals and several ASPCA Maclay National Championship Regional Finals. They also include the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Finals, the USEF Pony Finals and the New England Equitation Championships, to name a few. He’s based in Wellington, Florida. There he runs a riding, showing and boarding operation, training young riders and adults with Charlie Moorcroft.

A Word From This Episode’s Sponsor

Helping Practical Horseman celebrate its 50^th anniversary is the sponsor of this podcast. Sentinel. No one knows your horse’s thoughts, emotions and moods as well as you. Just as in touch as you are with your horse’s personality, Sentinel’s expert nutritionists are in tune with your horse’s dietary needs. With feeds in the form of extruded nuggets to provide exceptional nutrition, and formulas made for every life stage and activity level, Sentinel’s wide choice of carefully crafted feeds makes it easy to find the perfect fit to better your horse’s health. Learn more at feedsentinel.com/english.

Feature photo by Amy K. Dragoo: Geoff Teall (left) and Bill Moroney judging at the 2012 Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg.

Based in Wellington, Florida, Geoff Teall has been involved in the horse industry for more than 40 years. He started out at age 8 foxhunting in upstate New York, learning from Mike Kelly and Gordon Wright. As a young professional, Geoff joined forces with many successful young trainers including Missy Clark and Kip Rosenthal. During this time, his student Laura Bowden won the 1991 AHSA National Hunter Seat Medal Final win. He eventually moved to Wellington, Florida, and continued to run his thriving business, Montoga, Inc., training students to accolades at top shows across the country.

Geoff earned his U.S. Equestrian Federation “R”-rated judging license and has judged prestigious competitions such as the Pessoa/USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Finals and the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Finals to name a few. He has also served as the vice president of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association, the president of the American Hunter Jumper Foundation and on the board of directors for those two organizations and the USHJA Foundation and the USEF. 

In this episode, Geoff talks about how he pushed himself and was encouraged by others to try a variety of jobs in the horse industry and his training philosophy of “simplicity, basics, discipline and habit.” He also shares his system for teaching his students how to “see a distance” and his thoughts on SafeSport.

You can listen to the full interview wherever you listen to podcasts, but in the meantime, here is a snippet of the conversation.

Listen to the full interview

There are people who like to stay in their comfort zone. What is about you that has always pushed you to try something new?

It’s interesting because in the beginning it was people who pushed me and then over time I learned to push myself. Horse show management is a great example. I would never have even thought of doing that. My friend Louise Serio called up one day out of the blue and said, “Would you run my horse shows for me?” And I said, “Well I guess we’ve been friends long enough. Yeah, I’ll try that.”

I’m actually a very timid, fearful person and I have a severe lack of confidence which anybody who really knows me would believe me—but that’s about three or four people. Most people think of me as being very strong and very confident and very sure and I’m not at all. I really believe that anything that you are afraid of or gives you anxiety, you have a choice. You can either run away from it or toward it. So many times I have made the choice to run toward it as opposed to away from it because I think once you turn around and start to run away there’s no stopping. I should also say that I had amazing parents who were very fair but very strong and they had a lot of confidence in me—I have a brother and sister as well—and always pushed us to do the best that we could. I think good parenting is crucial to all of this.

How do you get past the fear of failure?

It always comes down to one or two things that stick in your brain that make you go either this direction or that direction. I remember one time very early on Conrad Homfeld saying to me, “All you have to do is stay on the list.” I don’t know what he meant but what I took that to mean was, each day get up and go to work, do the best that you can and as long as you have done the best that you can, that’s as much as you can do and there’s sometimes where you just have to say, “Alright that wasn’t particularly good but that’s the best that I could do and I will figure out a way to correct it and make it better and go back out and do it.” That’s just strength and resolve and discipline more than anything else. You can’t spoil yourself and you can’t placate. You have to just get up in the morning, go to work and do the best that you can. As long as you do that every day, you’re doing great.

How would you describe your teaching or training philosophy?

Over the years, it has become so clear to me. My whole approach is very simple, very basic and build the very best habits that you can. Whether you’re talking about your position as rider or how to train a horse or how to prepare for this big event or that big event, it all boils down to simplicity and basics and discipline and making the simplest things such habit that you can’t not do them. 

I’ve been so lucky, I get to teach a lot of clinics around the country and because of that, when I have a 2-day or 3-day clinic ahead of me after having done probably 8 or ten million of them, I’m very confident that as long as I work on just the very simplest things and I start at the beginning and go very slowly and very methodically and very thoughtfully that I will get to the finish that I want to get to. Because I’ve had a chance to do that in so many different situations, it’s very easy for me at this point in my career to never vary from it. So that’s a long way of saying, basics, simplicity, good habits. I like to say at clinics that the best rider is the rider who does the simplest things the best. It’s not the rider who does this fancy schmancy thing or that fancy schmancy thing the best. It’s the rider who does the simplest things the best and that’s what we all have to keep track of.

Over the years, you’ve written a lot of articles for Practical Horseman. The most recent one is about your program for helping your students “see a distance.” It seems as if there are a lot of amateur riders who beat themselves up if they don’t see the ideal take-off spot to a fence. Why is that such a prevalent feeling among riders?

Seeing a distance, unless you can keep it at bay, will become the most important thing in the world and that’s it’s biggest danger. Everybody worries themselves to death about it, talks about it, dreams about it and so it becomes larger than life. And the reality to me is that each person really has the same ability to see a distance … If you can discipline yourself to ride forward and straight and in an even pace and maintain that going to that jump, your eye coupled with the help of a horse, you will react to what’s happening subconsciously or automatically. The trick is to understand the pieces that you can control and must control and then they will take care of those things that you cannot control. So the opposite is if you go to the jump and you are actively looking for a distance, then unknowingly, more than likely you’re either slowing down, speeding up, going left or going right and therefore, the distance will elude you. So the very thing you are looking for, you’re creating an environment where it won’t happen. Instead you have to manage that and control that situation and control what you can control, which is pace and line and as a result you will see or react or feel the distance.

See also: “See Your Distance”

Could you share your thoughts on SafeSport?

First, we have to create a safe environment for our children and our sport. There’s obviously no question about that and I don’t think anybody could argue with that and it’s not limited to children. We need to be constantly creating the safest and best environment that we can for our participants. Having said that, the only way that I can personally get through this stuff is to really look down the line and so for me, what’s the most important part about all this is that we find these people that have problems or that are a danger or that have issues. We find them as early as we can before they become the icons of our sport and get them out of our sport. So we need to really focus on everything from this point on, looking forward, so that 10 years from now and 15 years from now, 20 years from now, we will be selecting the next group of icons from a group of people who have already passed the test and are safe, upstanding reliable people so that we don’t have the issues in the future that we’re having now. This is a very difficult time. And I struggle with it in a lot of different ways. But again, when I get struggling for me what’s important, just like riding, is to look forward and say, “This is an issue, this is a problem, we can’t have this problem. We need to get to these people as early and as efficiently and as completely as we possibly can so that we can have a clean sport to work from.” 

Listen to the full podcast here

About the Practical Horseman Podcast

The Practical Horseman podcast features conversations with respected riders, industry leaders and horse-care experts to inform, educate and inspire. It is co-hosted by Practical Horseman editors. Find the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher and Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts.

There’s a common misconception that some riders are born with a great eye—the ability to guide your horse to the ideal takeoff spot—and others are not, says hunt-seat trainer Geoff Teall. In reality, all riders have the same ability to see a distance, he adds. The only difference is the degree of confidence we each have in our ability.

In this Practical Horseman Extra, Teall shares his system of 5 progressive exercises that will improve your confidence at seeing your distances. The key is to cultivate a discipline for riding the right line and pace for every situation.

BONUS! Be prepared to manage a minor injury or stabilize a serious wound until your veterinarian can arrive. Follow our handy checklist for what to include in a well-stocked emergency first-aid kit for your horse.

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Developing your eye is the most challenging element of riding any jumping course. There’s a common misconception that some riders are born with a great eye, but in reality, all riders have the same ability to see distances. Confidence is what makes the difference in our ability.

If you constantly obsess about finding the right distance to a fence, you’re already setting yourself up for failure. Overthinking your distances results in anxiety that can cause you to change your pace or track (or both), pump your body, put yourself ahead of the motion or clutch your horse’s mouth. All of these things will disrupt your timing and ironically your fear or hesitation ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy for missing.

The opposite is true when you have confidence. It would never occur to great, bold riders like Leslie Burr Howard, Louise Serio and Laura Kraut that they won’t get to the right distance—so they never pull back on the reins or make any other common mistakes in their approaches to fences. As a result, they never get the wrong distances.

The good news: Even if you’re an anxious rider with little faith in your eye, you can improve it significantly. I’m living proof! I’m by nature a timid, nervous rider who had no confidence early in my riding career and a terrible eye. But I trained myself to overcome those issues and develop a great eye.

The most important lesson I learned during that process and subsequent years teaching students is that focusing on your distance doesn’t work. What does work is systematically cultivating a discipline for riding the right line and pace for every situation. As that discipline develops, the distances simply appear. In this article, I’ll share the system that I’ve used successfully with many students.

Confidence Counts

The first building block of this system is learning to believe in yourself. You can develop a great eye! In the meantime, understand that even if you don’t see a distance, it will not be the end of the world. If you can keep your pace and track—whether that’s on a straight line or a curve—exactly the same in an approach to a jump, the worst distance you can arrive at will be a half-stride off. The vast majority of horses can make up for that half-stride and still jump the fence safely.

To take your timing to the next level, you need to convince yourself that it’s possible. Here’s a great exercise for doing that: Ask yourself, “Who do I know who is most clearly an example of a confident rider?” The next time you ride, try to imitate that person. You’ll be surprised by what a difference this makes. Do it in the show ring, too. Especially if you tend to be really nervous, pretend that you’re that extremely confident person. I’ve tried this method with countless students—and it works alarmingly well!

As you focus your mind on this essential building block, gradually start to develop your sense of line and pace, as well, with the following exercises:

Exercise 1: Invisible Jumps

Build a normal course with only jump standards—no jump cups, poles or other materials (flower boxes, etc.). Then pick a pace and ride the entire “course,” cantering through the middle of each pair of standards and making straight lines and smooth turns just as if the jumps were there. Use your eyes to plan your track; as you approach the end of each line, look ahead to the next one. Meanwhile, try not to let the pace slow down or speed up even for a moment. This is harder than it sounds. If you struggle to keep the same pace throughout the ride, don’t worry. Just keep practicing riding invisible courses (over many sessions) until your pace control feels perfect.

This exercise removes the issue of timing completely, so you can zero in on your track and pace. It’s also a great opportunity for checking in on your position, making sure that you’re keeping your body still in between the jumps. As you practice it, remember that we can do only one thing at a time. So pay attention to each skill—track, pace or position—individually until it feels right. Eventually, these fundamental skills will feel like second nature, so you can clear your mind for other challenges.

This exercise also benefits quick or nervous horses who anticipate the jumps (often because they’re worried about what their riders might do in the approaches). As your horse learns to trust that you won’t interfere with him—by pulling on the reins or changing your position dramatically in the saddle—he’ll begin to relax.

I don’t advise using poles on the ground for this particular exercise because they add back in the element of timing. You’ll worry about your distances to them, so you won’t be able to focus 100 percent on your track, pace and position.

When you feel confident riding these invisible courses, gradually add the jumps back in. Mix single jumps with invisible lines—and even within lines. For example, make the jump into a line over a normal fence, then make the jump out invisible or vice versa.

Periodically revisit this exercise, even as your confidence over real fences improves. You’ll find that refreshing your discipline for pace and track will help to keep you from slipping back into bad habits. It’s also a great way to cope with nerves at shows. I often have students practice over a “missing” jump in the warm-up, pretending that it’s set up right next to one of the actual warm-up fences. They organize their pace and line and then ride forward to it, just as if it’s a real jump.

Exercise 2: Five-Stride Invisible Line

Next, we’re going to get you in the habit of riding forward to be straight. Most people who think they’re doing this already are actually riding backward—pulling on the reins—to get straight. Like the first exercise, this one eliminates the issue of timing, so you can focus exclusively on your track and pace.

Set up two pairs of standards five strides (72 feet) apart. Exactly in the middle of the first pair, build a chute by placing two ground poles parallel to one another and to your track. Space them about 9 feet apart initially. Do the same for the second set of standards.

Canter to this “line” just as you would to a real line on course. Come forward off the turn, ride forward and straight through both chutes, then plan a smooth turn afterward. When this feels easy, roll each pair of poles slightly closer together (though never closer than about 6 feet). This will require you to increase your accuracy—without, of course, making any changes to your pace.

Exercise 3: Jump on a Circle

Now it’s time to transfer your track and pace skills to a single fence. We’ll start on a circle to keep the track very straightforward. Build a small (2- to 3-foot) vertical in an area large enough to incorporate it into a circle 36 to 40 feet in diameter. Place ground lines on either side of the jump.

Unlike cantering over a ground pole—which many horses won’t jump over with care—this vertical should be big enough to get your horse’s attention, which means he’ll make an effort to help you arrive at the correct distance. However, don’t make it so tall that you’ll be overly concerned about jumping it.

Practice cantering your 36- to 40-foot circle next to the jump, working to stay “straight” on the track—not drifting off your line to the right or left—by correcting your horse every time he tries to bulge out or cut in. Use your eyes by looking across the circle as you approach the area of the jump. When you feel as if you can do that at a consistent pace, widen the circle just big enough to incorporate the jump into it. Again, use your eyes. As you come around to the jump, think, “no bulge, no cut, no bulge, no cut,” while also correcting the pace every time it changes. Don’t try to “find” the distance. Just keep focusing on your line and pace all the way to the center of the jump, trying not to change anything at all.

As you approach the jump, there may come a moment when you feel something in the pit of your stomach telling you to move up to it, settle back or simply maintain the same pace. This is your unconscious sense of timing. It’s most likely to reveal itself if you’re consciously controlling your line and pace. When those elements are truly consistent, the jump will say, “Here I am! Jump me!”

As soon as you get just a glimmer of that feeling, make any necessary minor adjustment forward or back, then lift your eyes up and across the inside of the circle, planning the line you want to ride after the jump.

Don’t worry if you don’t get a sense of the distance in the beginning. Just focus on your line and pace and trust that you will arrive at a safe enough distance—and that your horse will figure out the rest. On takeoff, lift your eyes up and across the circle.

When you land from the fence, balance your horse, organize your reins and then adjust your line and pace as necessary to get back on the circular track. Then look across the circle toward the jump again. Resist the urge to do anything else. Just wait to see if that feeling emerges.

Practice this several times in both directions. Stop when it feels good. If it doesn’t feel good after multiple attempts both ways, don’t drive yourself crazy. Let it go for now and try it another day.

As your eye develops, you’ll still find this exercise useful, especially in stressful situations, like a championship. If you’re really nervous and feel like a deer in the headlights, practicing it over a small jump in the corner of the warm-up arena will help you regroup and relax. You’re far better off going into the ring after jumping several low fences confidently than you would be potentially mucking up a 3-foot-9 oxer just before hearing you’re on deck.

Exercise 4: Five-Stride Line With Jumps

When you begin to get a feeling for distances in the circle exercise, the next step is to develop a sense for what pace works in different situations. This exercise will help you do this while also teaching your horse to balance and come back to you on landing.

Set up a five-stride (72-foot) line again, this time with two small verticals with ground lines on both sides of each one. Pick up the canter and make a circle at the end of the arena to establish the pace you’d use in the show ring—what I call your “home-base pace.” Then canter forward around the turn and through the line. Afterward, bring your horse to a halt on a straight line before entering the next turn. Then process how the ride went. Do you think you could have used more or less pace? Repeat the exercise making that slight adjustment. Then turn around and ride the line in the opposite direction.

Continue doing this, alternating directions frequently until you can reliably produce a nice jump in and nice jump out without having to change your pace midway through the line.

Exercise 5: Triple Combination

This exercise is only for advanced riders. It will give you a more nuanced sense for how different paces work in different situations.

Set up a line of three verticals or square oxers at distances of 36 feet (two strides) from one another, all with ground lines on both sides. Ride it just as you did in the previous exercise, finding your home-base pace in the intro circle, then riding through the combination and stopping on a straight line afterward. Again, process how the jumps rode. Did you have to hit the gas midway through? If so, approach the combination with more pace next time. If the distances felt tight, approach it with a little less pace. Then repeat the exercise in the other direction.

Practice this a few times—again, alternating direction frequently—until you get a sense of what pace works best.

Takeaway: As you methodically assemble these building blocks, your eye will gradually improve. All the while, remember to believe in yourself!

About Geoff Teall

One of the country’s leading hunt-seat trainers, Geoff Teall builds the success of his horses and riders on a foundation of confidence and careful preparation. Based in Wellington, Florida, he travels extensively to teach, judge and compete. An R-rated USEF judge, he has officiated at many top shows, including the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals, the USEF Pony Finals and the Washington International and National Horse Shows. He is a co-founder of the American Hunter-Jumper Foundation and a former member of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association board of directors.

Check out Geoff Teall’s training series on EQUESTRIAN+ for more expert tips and strategies to improve your game in the hunter ring.

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of Practical Horseman.