Most riders don’t emerge...

If we learned to swim in a sea that constantly changes direction — waves swelling from gentle ripples to surging forces that pull us under — our journey would look very different from one begun in the still water of a pool.

In the pool, we float on a noodle if we lose balance; we can touch the bottom whenever things feel uncertain. We find our rhythm without fear.

Learning on the right horse — and teaching on one — feels just like that. The motion is steady, the feedback kind. You still wobble, lose balance, question your coordination and feel, but the horse’s movement supports you like buoyant water. It invites your next effort instead of drowning it. It builds your confidence instead of proving your inadequacy.

Does that make you a brilliant rider?

Not at all.

Just as swimming twenty easy lengths in a quiet pool doesn’t make you an open-water swimmer.

In the horse world, we often romanticise the idea that “the best riders are made on naughty ponies.” And yes — there’s truth in that. If you emerge from years on tricky, unbalanced, unpredictable horses, you’ve earned your stripes. You’ve learned persistence, grit, and timing. You’ve built a body that reacts before it thinks and a mind that refuses to give up. You probably develop what it takes to go to the top in the sport.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most riders don’t emerge.

As a coach working mostly with grassroots riders, I think about retention. I think about the people who fall in love with horses, who discover the athletic joy of movement and connection, who begin to understand the art of communication — and I want them to stay.

From what I’ve seen, for every hundred beginners who start out on "difficult" horses, maybe one or two stay long enough to buy their own horse and keep learning. But those who start on truly good horses? Nearly all of them stay. They find something that keeps calling them back — that magical blend of effort, connection, and possibility.

I remember every one of those great horses. There aren’t many. I can still see them move, remember how they felt to ride and to teach on, how they carried their bodies and how, in turn, they taught me to carry mine and my riders'.

To me, the best learner horse has:

• A martial artist’s like composure — confident, focused, and seemingly unflustered by distraction.

• Natural balance,

• A neck that gives the rider a feeling of “something in front of them,”

• A strong back,

• And — most importantly — a good learner canter.

  
  

By that I mean a balanced, true three-beat canter with not too much impulsion, rhythmic and unhurried. A horse that likes staying in a canter, even when the rider wobbles. One that says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

Why canter?

Because the walk and the balanced canter are the two most natural and forgiving paces for a human body to learn on. The horse’s back moves in a way our pelvis can follow almost instinctively. And when a beginner can canter on a horse that feels safe, they experience something profound — joy, freedom, confidence.

Put a new rider on a horse with a crooked, fast, unbalanced canter, and that same gait becomes a battle. The tension rises, the body locks, and all feeling disappears. Learning to ride through that kind of movement is like learning to swim in rough surf — possible, but exhausting, and rarely enjoyable.

That’s why I won’t teach a beginner to canter on a horse that doesn’t offer that supportive rhythm. It’s not fair on either of them — the rider or the horse.

Because at the start of the journey, we don’t need rough seas.

We need the quiet water that lets us want to swim again tomorrow.

There will be plenty of time later — once balance, confidence, and curiosity have taken root — to test ourselves in deeper water.

But if we want more riders to stay, to fall in love with the process, then that first year shouldn’t be about who has the most grit. It should be about who becomes most enchanted — maybe even a little addicted — to the horse.

What about you?

If you teach, I’d love to know — what’s your idea of the perfect horse to start someone’s riding journey on?