What does it mean to ride every stride?

There’s a phrase in riding, particularly in dressage, which says to “ride every stride.” A lot of people think this means to constantly “do” something every stride the horse takes. But is this really what that phrase means?

What it really means to ride every stride is to be aware of what the horse is doing every stride. From there, a rider can act sooner to correct something that may need correcting or to prepare the horse for the next movement. For example, if you become aware that your horse falls in and onto the inside shoulder before the corner of the arena, making for a counter-bent corner and the end of the arena cut off, you can then respond to that loss of balance before the corner begins rather than trying to fix it on the actual shortside (a much harder task). This awareness takes time to develop; in the beginning, it’s easy to get through a movement and then drop the guard and lose awareness. While we do have times we need to relax  and pause, such as taking a few moments on a loose rein to catch a breath, we don’t need to let go of the awareness in other areas that can help us prepare. The shortside of the arena is often victim to this dropped awareness. The rider gets to the corner and relaxes, and then the corners become sloppy, leading to the rider needing to take the next longside to get ready to start up again. If instead, the rider keeps awareness of what’s happening even on the shortside and keeps the horse prepared for the exercise, the rider can spend less time and therefore waste less of their and the horse’s energy during the ride.

I often tell students that 90% of riding is preparation. If you set up the horse right, the actual movement becomes a lot easier. This is another aspect to riding every stride. If you know you have a 20m circle coming up at E, you start preparing at V. As you become more and more aware and quicker to react, you’ll need less and less time to actually prepare. Developing awareness takes time; that kind of mental concentration takes practice and time to develop. However, there is a trick from the Old Masters that helps to develop it faster: counting strides. Even if it’s just counting up to 10 over and over, it can help to keep your awareness going. Once you have an idea of how many strides it takes to get from one point to another, you can use that as a countdown for the next exercise. For example, if you find it takes your horse 10 strides to get from the shortside to E, you can count down from 10 leading up to the circle.

Getting a feel for the horse’s rhythm also helps increase awareness. The horse’s gaits are like a dance style (like foxtrot or waltz). When you get a feel for the rhythm of each gait, it’s easier to work with that flow and become aware of what the horse is doing and therefore good timing for the next exercise. I often recommend students take at least some ballroom dance classes to get a feel for rhythm and working with a partner. Within one dance style, there are a number of different movements, but if you don’t follow the rhythm and work with your partner, it can look and feel disjointed. Same goes for riding. If you’re struggling to find your horse’s rhythm, taking longe lessons where you can focus more on feeling the rhythm than on steering/controlling your horse can help with that. It also can help to ride to music. Cross-training with dance is also a phenomenal way to develop a feel for rhythm and quickly picking up on someone else’s rhythm.

Riding every stride means to be aware of what’s happening with your horse’s balance, what’s about to happen, and how your horse’s rhythm flows. By being aware and flowing with you horse, you can act sooner and with more subtlety, working with your horse instead of against it. It does not mean micromanaging your horse; if things are going well, be aware of it and allow your horse to just “exist” in those moments. However, it does mean trying to catch things before it becomes a bigger correction, saving time and energy and maximizing your ride so you and your horse spend less time drilling and more time doing things and having fun with it. So as you ride this week, see if you can start adding more awareness to the “mundane” areas in your ride, such as by adding music to your ride to get a better feel for rhythm, counting strides to become aware how many strides it takes for the horse to get from one part of the arena to another, and purposefully being quiet in your riding so you can feel what’s going on when you do nothing. You’ll start to find that riding becomes more of a mindfulness exercise, and as you become more efficient through your awareness, you’ll start feeling like you can dance with your horse and get more done in less time.

-Emily Wright