Bit of Pleasure Horse School

08/29/2026

Here are a few bad pictures from our moonlight ride last night.

08/24/2026

Beating the heat

08/16/2026

We are striving to create this environment of horse-first, confidence building, knowledge-based, genuine love of the sport support here at Bit of Pleasure Horse School.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1484552673691200&id=100064094430769

One of the greatest challenges facing our industry is not a lack of passion, talent, or dedication. But the tension between the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of validation, an anonymous contributor writes.

Most people are first drawn to horses because of the profound effect they have on us. Horses offer confidence to the uncertain, peace to the anxious, purpose to the searching, and belonging to those who have struggled to find it elsewhere. Their therapeutic influence is undeniable. Yet somewhere along the way, many equestrian systems begin rewarding something very different. Instead of nurturing curiosity and lifelong learning, they often reward status, image, and external success. The result is an environment in which appearing knowledgeable can become more valuable than becoming knowledgeable.

Horse people aren’t inherently narcissistic. Many have never felt genuinely supported in their own educational journey. When people feel insecure, unsupported, or afraid of being exposed as inadequate, self-protection becomes their primary objective. Human psychology makes this entirely understandable. We defend what we believe gives us value, and we often resist anything that feels as though it might diminish it.

Viewed through this lens, resistance to education, qualification, licensure, or even modest eligibility standards is not always opposition to learning itself. It may instead reflect a fear that one’s identity, livelihood, or sense of belonging depends upon already being seen as competent. When knowledge is perceived as a threat rather than an invitation, curiosity is replaced by defensiveness.

Empathy cannot flourish where survival dominates. A person who is preoccupied with protecting their own status has far less capacity to consider the needs of others. In this industry, the “other” is the horse.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/08/08/a-horse-first-culture-starts-with-how-we-teach-humans/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

08/15/2026

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The Biomechanical Problem Sitting on Your Horse🔥

We spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to improve our horses.

More balanced. Better transitions. More engagement. More relaxed. Better behaviour.

Meanwhile, sitting on top of this entire biomechanical improvement project is 50 to 90+ kilograms of human, listing slightly to left, gripping with one thigh and wondering why the horse is crooked.

Awkward.

So here is today's Collectable Advice:

🚩If you want to improve how your horse moves and behaves under saddle, have a look at the body sitting on top of it.😎

Because your horse doesn't just carry your weight.

➡️Your horse has to manage what your body does while it carries you.💥

Riding position isn't really a position

We tend to teach riding position as though someone might burst into the arena with a protractor.

Shoulder. Hip. Heel.

Excellent. Nobody move.

Unfortunately, the horse has.

Horses don't experience our position as a photograph. They experience us as *mass in motion*.🫣

Every stride, the horse is generating, absorbing and transferring forces through its body. Its back moves. Its limbs load and unload. It accelerates, decelerates, bends and changes direction.

And perched on top is you.😬

You with your dodgy left hip, a collapsing ribcage and that might not have done anything resembling cardiovascular exercise since 2017.🫠

The horse must now incorporate you into the movement.

This is riding.

Our job is essentially to manage our own body well enough that the horse doesn't have to manage it for us.❤

That requires:

1️⃣Enough stability to contain our own body.

And:

2️⃣Enough mobility to allow the horse to move underneath us.

When we can't?

If your trunk collapses every stride, the horse accommodates it.

If you consistently dump your weight onto one side, the horse accommodates that.

If an old injury means one hip doesn't move properly, the horse feels it.

And if you brace every available muscle in an attempt to “sit deep”, congratulations.

You have transformed yourself into a 70 kg backpack containing several bricks.

The horse still has to carry it.😕

And horses respond.

They may shorten their stride, rush, hollow, drift, fall through a shoulder, struggle with one rein or become tense when you sit....or just become spooky and scared of the world‼️

This doesn't mean *everything is the rider's fault*. Horses come with their own asymmetries, weaknesses, discomfort, training problems and occasionally strong opinions about wheelie bins.

But horse and rider are a *moving system*.

Change one body and you change what the other body has to manage.

Which gives us something surprisingly useful to work on😃

Ourselves.

Improve your fitness.

Develop enough muscular integrity to stop various parts of you departing independently at the trot.

Work on mobility.

Manage your injuries.

Notice your asymmetries.

Develop balance, coordination and body awareness.

Not because you need to look fabulous in beige breeches.

Because every improvement in your ability to manage *your own body* potentially changes what your horse has to manage underneath you.

There is also the minor matter of survival - you improve your chances of remaining in the saddle if s**t happens!

Which is generally preferable.

So here is something you can start asking yourself..

*“Am I making myself easy for my horse to carry?”*

Because good riding isn't about arranging yourself beautifully on a horse.

It's about having enough control of your own body that you can move *with* another one.

And before we spend another six months trying to straighten the horse, perhaps we should take a quick look at the slightly asymmetrical cripple primate sitting on top.🤪

Collectable Advice 271/365.

Please SHARE if you made it to the end of this without being offended 😆

07/04/2026

06/29/2026

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July 29 + August 26

06/06/2026

Our horses channeling their inner unicorn. And more ducks!

06/03/2026

Can you ride with a duck on your head?

05/02/2026

Celebrating Kentucky Derby Day at Cleveland Elementary School

04/30/2026

Our beautiful horses on their way up for dinner.