08/26/2026
Couldn’t agree with this more. 👏🏼❤️
As instructors, we LOVE watching our riders progress just as much as their parents do. But progress isn’t always cantering faster, jumping higher, or moving up to the next thing.
Sometimes progress is a better steering circle. A quieter leg. Learning the correct diagonal. Tacking up independently. Building confidence. Learning how to handle a mistake without panicking.
We will never rush a rider just to say they’re doing more. Every lesson is building the foundation for the next one, and I’d much rather have a confident, capable rider with solid basics than a rider who was pushed ahead before they were ready.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. 🐴❤️
If they can’t walk and steer, they can’t trot and steer.
If they can’t balance at the trot, they aren’t ready to canter.
If they can’t go catch their own horse, groom it, tack it up and take responsibility for it, how are they supposed to lead that horse from the saddle?
Going faster does not equal getting better. Strapping your kid to a horse and sending them into the arena isn’t making them better, it’s setting them up to get hurt.
You might think watching your kid walk circles isn’t exciting. You might think they should be cantering, jumping “doing more.”
But sometimes they’re simply not ready.
And respectfully — that’s why you hired an instructor. Because knowing how and when to progress a rider is our job.
We aren’t holding your kid back. We’re building the foundation that keeps them safe and makes them GOOD.
- Author Unknown
