You hop into the saddle, ready for a great ride. But before you know it, you’ve spent most of the session adjusting your hands, correcting your position, and just ‘fixing’ yourself. All while your horse just plods along! Sound familiar? Don’t worry, you’re not alone…
Ask yourself this: Where is the majority of your attention or focus when you ride? Think back to the very last schooling session with your horse with you in the saddle. Maybe you had a lesson, or perhaps it was just you and your horse working together alone. Who did you focus more on: you and your position, aids, tension, etc., or your horse and how well he was working?
There comes a point for most riders when they realize that they spend more time focusing on themselves in each training session. Fixing, correcting, reminding themselves to do or be a certain way…
This is the ‘passenger’ phase of your horse-riding journey. And while all riders must initially go through it, the challenge comes when they unknowingly get stuck there! It’s when you’re focusing so much of your energy in ‘fixing’ yourself that you’re not actually riding the horse! You’re simply ‘sitting there’.
So, if you’ve been feeling like 80% of your time in the saddle is spent ‘fixing’ and correcting yourself – this article and episode will help you to begin making the shift from passenger to rider.
Signs You’re Stuck in Passenger Mode
So there are a few ways you can begin to identify this in your riding. The first and most obvious one is becoming aware of how you spend your time when you’re riding…
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- You spend most of your time in the saddle ‘fixing’ or adjusting your hands, seat, or legs – instead of focusing on your horse’s way of going
- You actually feel like a passenger the majority of the time in the saddle – your horse is leading you, rather than the other way around, or working together as a team
- Corners, bends, circles, or transitions seem to happen TO you – rather than because of how you set things up and asked for them!
- You spend a lot of time trying to find your balance – instead of using your weight aids to positively influence your horse’s way of going
The ‘Stuck in Passenger Mode’ Test
Think back over the past 5 rides you’ve had where you wanted to work on something and achieve something with your horse. Where did your focus go for the majority of those rides? If you worked with an instructor or a trainer, what did they spend most of the time working on? You or your horse? And if they had to keep ‘fixing’ or correcting you to work on your horse – the answer is ‘you :)
Another way to think about this is by assessing your basics in the saddle. If the majority of your time is spent correcting, fixing, stabilizing, or any of the other ‘ings’ your basics, then you are in passenger mode.
And keep in mind that is not a ‘bad’ thing. Once you realize that this is a very real part of the journey of becoming a more skilled rider, you can start to actively work on transitioning out of it!
The basics that you will find yourself focusing on are:-
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- Your Position
- Your Posture
- Your Aids
- Bending (and creating a channel with your aids)
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Passenger Versus Rider
Of course, when you’re stuck in passenger mode, you might wonder, ‘What else is there to actually focus on?’ And the answer is, ‘Oh, lots!’. ‘Riders’ are not spending their time worrying about and ‘fixing’ their position. Or their aids, or posture, etc. They are not obsessing over carrying their hands or keeping their heels down.
The difference between passengers and riders is that riders are thinking about the best way to communicate and support their horses to get the desired outcome.
If they don’t spend the majority of their ride or training session worrying about their position. They are wondering if the horse understands what they are trying to explain. And if they think that maybe there’s a little confusion going on, they are thinking about how to clarify that. How to USE their position or aids to get the most out of their work with their horse. Not just keeping the horse between themselves and the ground!
Passengers focus most of their energy on fixing their position or aids. Riders don’t have to think about their position; they focus on understanding how the horse is interpreting what they are trying to say…
Transitioning from Passenger to Rider
So the first part of creating this transition for yourself is to actually become aware that something has to change! And, hopefully, after reading this post or listening to this episode, you’re already there! The next part will be a little more time-consuming. This is because working through this transition in your riding skills requires putting your basics onto autopilot…
‘Riders’ don’t have to worry about their position or aids because they have already invested the time in putting the right basics onto autopilot – they just happen by themselves now and no longer need constant management
That is a key part of the process to move away from being stuck in passenger mode and move into ‘rider’ mode. Putting the ‘right’ things onto autopilot. This is why riding instructors the world over go on and on about a good position. About good posture and self-carriage. Or can be heard shouting ‘heels down’ all of the time! These things matter.
If you are in passenger mode now, you can begin carefully curating what you want to put onto autopilot so that you get the best possible results for you and your horse further down the road.
Flipping the 80/20 in Your Riding
So, if right now, you are spending 80% of your time focused on ‘fixing’ or ‘correcting’ your basics (position, posture, aids, and bending), this is leaving only 20% of your time to focus on your horse. This needs to flip if you want to get unstuck and begin actually ‘training’ your horse the way you want.
Moving away from being stuck in passenger mode requires you to become more aware of what you are doing so that the 80% of time you’re spending focused on ‘you’ now pays off in the long run.
You want to turn each ride into the opposite of the ‘Passenger 80/20’:-
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- 20% self-awareness → A little time invested intentionally adjusting your alignment, position, aids…
- 80% riding your horse → So that you can focus on supporting your horse to do his best work
If 80% of your ride is spent fixing yourself, you’re not riding – you’re just sitting there, often stuck in passenger mode
Where Should You Begin?
This will vary for every single rider. Often, it can be worth getting an expert opinion on this initially if you’re unsure. I say this because you might begin to fixate on a specific thing, let’s say a swinging lower leg. When really that is merely a symptom of a forked seat. If you don’t have the knowledge or experience to identify a symptom and a cause, investing in a riding lesson with a knowledgeable instructor will be worth it’s weight in gold.
Once you’ve figured out the root cause, start there. Spend 3 to 5 minutes at the beginning of every ride intentionally correcting this. Then, build checkpoints throughout your ride to check in on how you’re doing.
You will have to correct a lot initially. This is absolutely normal and to be expected. And this is often the work many riders are not willing to do! Again, this is also why riding instructors keep repeating the same things over and over. They are doing the ‘checking in’ for the riders!
Only when you’ve been consistently doing the correct thing for a length of time will that then become a habit. Your body and brain will put it on ‘autopilot’. And this is what frees you up to focus on something else.
Putting Your Basics on Autopilot
If you want to move out of being stuck in passenger mode and begin transitioning into being a ‘rider’ for your horse, I can help. I truly believe that spending 9 to 12 weeks focusing on this is long enough to create a transformation in your riding.
I can help you do this by putting the correct things onto autopilot in your riding, inside of the Returning to Riding Program. You can find more details over at https://returningtoriding.com
The Returning to Riding Program is designed to move you out of the passenger seat and into confident, intentional riding. Join us and start riding with purpose!
Happy Riding
Lorna
More Episodes on This Topic
Online Training to Help Your Riding
Connect with Lorna online:-
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- Connect in the Daily Strides Podcast Online Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/dailystridespodcast
- Connect in the Virtual Stable Lounge Private Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1499737810323191
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