The riding instructor should analyze the pupil and the horse in every lesson situation. Are they compatible in conformation? As for age—well, there’s an old adage: young horse, young rider—no good. I tried it, and I learned it’s wrong. It just doesn’t work. Very often when a poor lower amateur or lower junior rider doesn’t have much money to spend, you try to save him a dollar and get a three-year-old, then you’re in for a long haul. A young rider doesn’t have to be youthful chronologically; he can be a forty-year-old amateur who’s got a certain number of hours training in the saddle. Matching the temperaments of the rider and the horse is certainly as important as achieving congenial conformation. If I have an overriding boy, I get him a horse that’s a little sluggish. If I have an underriding, somewhat timid girl, I get her a horse that’s a little bold, that will carry her. Everybody’s an underrider or an overrider to some degree. Riders can always be categorized by temperament.
You can observer a rider’s instinct when he works with a horse and especially when he gets in trouble with one. In fact, you ought to be something of a psychologist as you work with people.
In analyzing riders it is desirable to grade them. Don’t count how long they’ve ridden, how many hours they’ve had in the saddle, but try to grade them according to your technique and your system. How much they know and can do are the keys to which grade they’re to be in.
Reprinted with permission from George H. Morris Teaches Beginners to Ride by George H. Morris, published by The Lyons Press