In her training program at Beacon Hill Show Stables in Colts Neck, New Jersey, Stacia Klein Madden enjoys helping her students bring their younger equitation horses along by teaching them properly and at their own pace. Through this process, Madden strives to foster independence in her riders.

“I don’t want them to be robotic. I want my students to develop feel and compassion for their horses and have a huge understanding of why they’re doing certain things,” she explained. “So I spend a lot of time explaining what I’m teaching because equitation courses often test riders about their knowledge of their horses and the sport inside the ring without their trainers providing constant instruction.”

In this lesson, Madden helps a student break down an equitation course into smaller pieces by incorporating trot work and circles to encourage her young horse to relax and slow his motion down over fences.

Slow It Down

“After we schooled these indoor equitation courses, it was clear that our young horses could benefit from a little slower track and breaking the course down. We’ve now identified the strengths and weaknesses of this horse, so we know what we need to work on.

“To help this younger horse, we’re going to break the course down, slow it down and work on teaching him how to do the pattern slower by incorporating some circles and trot work to see if we can get him to just a take a breath.

“Essentially, we’re going to repeat the course, but in fractions. For example, we’ll do a line, then circle; sometimes we might stop and back or go back to trot for a few steps or even walk so the course isn’t being put together too fast.

“Then, we’ll just see how the horse digests it. Breaking down the courses like this will help your rounds not feel as frantic and hurried. Sometimes you can actually even hear your horse take a breath in the corners when we do this.

“Overall, your goal is to help your horse slow his jumping down and take his time through the course. In turn, this will allow you get a better riding horse a little bit quicker.

Avoid Anticipation

“Additionally, once your horse has schooled a course a few times, he will start to learn where he’s going and can anticipate. Changing things up by incorporating circles and trotting will prevent him from anticipating or rushing and instead encourage him to listen to you. If you just keep repeating a course over and over, your horse isn’t going to get the idea of how to take his time and breathe on the ends of the ring in order to make slow, high jumps.

“That was an excellent slow, high jump. You can hear in the horse’s breathing that he’s starting to relax and you’re able to give off the ground. This horse is learning nicely. That’s what we love to see—the horse’s learning curve. A lot of times, when you bring your horse out to school, you might be surprised by how much they learn.

“On a final note, I like to teach in small groups with two to four riders because the horses need a break. While your horse is resting, you can watch the other riders to learn from any instruction I give them.”

Read more with Stacia Klein Madden here.

About Stacia Klein Madden

Known as one of the most successful trainers of young riders in the country, Stacia Klein Madden began her career as a successful Junior, winning the 1987 ASPCA Maclay National Championship and placing in the USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Final and USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals—East. She turned professional in 1988 and started working out of Beacon Hill Show Stables, now located in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Madden also worked for Johnny Barker in North Carolina, before returning to Beacon Hill where she began teaching and developed a passion for working with young riders and matching them with horses.