08/10/2026
Why does an amateur dressage rider benefit from having a trainer regularly ride their horse?
This doesn't mean a trainer has to ride your horse but it can make your journey easier, and help you get to your end goal quicker!
There is a common thought that if an amateur owns and rides their own horse, the horse should be trained exclusively by them. But dressage is a partnership—and partnerships don't mean both partners have to be equally skilled at every single thing.
One of the most valuable roles a trainer can play is filling in the gaps between what the horse knows, what the rider knows, and what the rider is physically or technically capable of asking for consistently. Your horse doesn't stop needing training because you're an amateur or because the horse was previously trained to a certain level. Adult amateurs are constantly learning.
- You may understand the concept of collection but still be developing the feel to produce it.
- You may know what a correct half-pass should feel like but struggle to maintain the correct balance through the movement.
- You may understand the aids for a flying change but not yet have the timing to consistently produce a clean change.
- You may be working on your own position, balance, timing, coordination, and feel—all while simultaneously trying to communicate with the horse.
That's a lot to manage and that's where having a trainer ride the horse becomes incredibly valuable.
The trainer can fill in the gaps.
- Maybe the rider struggles to keep the horse truly in front of the leg.
- Maybe the rider's position becomes inconsistent when the horse becomes more collected.
- Maybe the rider has difficulty maintaining straightness.
- Maybe the rider doesn't yet have the feel to recognize when the horse has lost the connection.
- Maybe the rider can execute a movement but doesn't yet have the timing to train the movement.
None of those things mean the rider is a bad rider. They mean the rider is still learning!
A trainer can ride the horse and reinforce the correct responses while the rider continues developing those skills. The horse can also learn something from the trainer that the rider isn't quite able to provide yet.
A professional may be able to:
• Improve the horse's straightness
• Strengthen the weaker side
• Develop better self-carriage
• Improve the quality of transitions
• Maintain correct connection
• Develop collection
• Keep the horse responsive to the aids
• School movements the rider is still learning
• Address resistance or evasions
• Improve the horse's adjustability
• Maintain the horse's overall fitness and strength
Then the amateur gets back on a horse that has had those concepts reinforced. That makes the rider's job easier!
Instead of having to simultaneously teach the horse something new and learn how to ride it themselves, the amateur can experience the correct response and learn how to reproduce it.
Think of it as creating a bridge.
The trainer rides the horse at a level the rider is working toward. The rider rides the horse at the level they are currently developing and the horse's training helps bridge that gap.
Over time, the rider's ability catches up. That's the goal.
The trainer shouldn't create a horse that only the trainer can ride. The goal should be to create a horse that is educated enough to help the amateur become a better rider. It also prevents the rider's weaknesses from becoming the horse's weaknesses.
This is an important one!
- If a rider consistently struggles with straightness, the horse can learn to compensate.
- If a rider consistently struggles with the timing of the aid, the horse can become less responsive.
- If the rider has difficulty maintaining the connection, the horse can develop a habit of coming above the bit or becoming heavy.
- If the rider doesn't have the strength or timing to maintain collection for very long, the horse may gradually become less comfortable carrying itself in that work.
The trainer can periodically come in and reset the horse's training so those compensations don't become ingrained. Professional rides also create consistency.
An amateur may have a week where they ride five days. The next week, work gets crazy and they only ride twice.
Then they go on vacation.
Then the weather doesn't cooperate.
That's life—and that's okay.
But the horse still benefits from consistency.
For a horse being worked approximately five days per week, 2–3 professional rides and 2–3 amateur rides can be a useful starting framework, depending on the horse, rider, goals, fitness, and workload.
For example:
2 trainer rides + 3 amateur rides
can give the rider plenty of time to develop their own skills while allowing the trainer to maintain the horse's training and fill in the gaps.
For a more advanced horse, a rider who is still developing their skills, or a horse that needs more professional maintenance, 3 trainer rides + 2 amateur rides may make more sense.
But there is no magic number.
Make sure to work with your trainer to determine the best schedule for YOU and YOUR horse.
The right balance depends on the individual horse, the rider's experience, the horse's fitness, the horse's training level, competition goals, and what the pair are currently working toward.
And if you're struggling, there is nothing wrong with increasing the trainer rides.
This is something that deserves to be said out loud. Sometimes an amateur gets frustrated because something isn't clicking.
The horse becomes confused.
The rider becomes frustrated.
The same problem keeps showing up.
And the rider may feel like having the trainer ride more means they aren't good enough.
It doesn't.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your partnership is let your trainer take a few more rides.
The trainer can clarify the response for the horse.
They can work through the confusion.
They can rebuild the correct reaction to the aid.
They can establish the balance, connection, straightness, or movement again.
Then the amateur can get back on and feel a clearer, more understandable answer.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying: "I'm having a hard time communicating this. Can you ride him a little more and help us get back on the same page?"
That isn't failure.
That's good horsemanship.
The goal isn't to prove that the amateur can do everything without help. The goal is to create the best possible partnership between horse and rider.
The trainer isn't just correcting the horse.
They are also identifying where the rider's gap is. Sometimes the solution isn't:
"The horse needs more training."
Sometimes it's:
"The horse understands this, but the rider needs a different exercise to learn how to ask for it."
That's where good instruction becomes so important. The trainer can choose exercises that allow the rider to feel the correct answer without overwhelming them.
This is why professional rides and lessons work so well together. The trainer maintains and develops the horse. The rider develops themselves. The trainer can introduce or maintain the more advanced work while the rider gradually learns to reproduce it. Eventually, something that once required the trainer's ride becomes something the amateur can successfully produce on their own.
That is progress.
Having a trainer ride your horse isn't an admission that you aren't capable of training your own horse.
It's recognizing that you don't have to be the most experienced person in the partnership in order to be the right person for your horse.
A good trainer doesn't take the partnership away from the amateur.
They help make that partnership stronger.
The trainer fills the gaps until the rider is ready to fill them themselves.
And sometimes, when the rider is struggling, the fastest way forward isn't to try harder.
It's to let the professional step in, clarify things for the horse, and then give the rider a better foundation to build from.
Because ultimately, good training should:
Make the horse better.
Make the rider better.
And bring the two closer together. 🤍
