Averett Equestrian Studies

06/14/2026

Riders show up to their lessons week after week, but may lack direction.

It’s a pattern clinical psychologist Paul Haefner, Ph.D., has noticed repeatedly in his work with equestrians. Riders are committed and putting in the hours, but many approach their lessons without a clear intention beyond simply getting through the ride. They ride what’s put in front of them, respond to feedback in the moment, and work hard… but they’re not always riding with a clear sense of purpose.

Lessons can be busy without being purposeful. A rider might jump a full course, make adjustments, hear feedback, and leave feeling like they worked hard. But without a clear sense of what they were trying to accomplish, it becomes difficult to track progress from one ride to the next.

Haefner points out that in many cases, there is no explicit intention guiding the lesson. The goal becomes simply to “get a lesson,” rather than to develop a specific skill or build toward a larger objective.

That approach creates a subtle disconnect. The rider is participating, but not fully engaging in the process of development. Progress is about doing something specific, repeatedly, with awareness.

Effort alone doesn’t always translate into improvement, especially when there’s no clear direction guiding it.

Two riders can take the same lesson, jump the same course, and hear the same feedback. One leaves with a clear takeaway. The other leaves with a general sense of having ridden, but no defined direction moving forward. The difference is intention.

When a rider approaches a lesson with a specific focus, whether it’s improving pace, staying connected through turns, or maintaining composure after a mistake, everything in that lesson becomes more meaningful. Feedback has context and corrections have purpose. Repetition becomes deliberate instead of automatic. Without that framework, it can be hard to understand the direction that the training needs to go.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/06/13/if-you-dont-ride-with-intention-youre-holding-yourself-back/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

06/03/2026

Great tips!!!

The canter depart, aka the transition into canter, is one of the most diagnostic moments in riding. It tells you immediately what the rider actually has and what they do not yet have in terms of balance, timing, feel, and preparation. A clean balanced canter depart on the correct lead does not happen by accident. It happens because the rider prepared the horse correctly, applied the aids clearly, and had the balance and core stability to stay with the transition rather than getting left behind it. Here is what goes wrong and how to fix each one...

1. The horse picks up the wrong lead.
This is almost always a preparation problem rather than an aid problem. The horse picks up the wrong lead when it is not balanced and bent correctly before the aid is given. Before the canter depart, ask for correct bend through the last corner or circle, confirm the horse is soft on the inside rein and connected to the outside one, and then ask. A correctly prepared horse picks up the correct lead far more consistently than one that was surprised by the transition from a straight or incorrectly bent position.

2. The horse runs into the canter.
A horse that accelerates at the trot before breaking into canter is a horse that was pushed into the transition rather than lifted into it. The aids came from the leg alone without a half halt first to rebalance and engage the hindquarters. A half halt two to three strides before the canter aid rebalances the horse, lightens the forehand, and creates the engagement that makes a clean upward transition possible. Without it, the horse falls forward into canter rather than stepping under and up into it. Teach your students to half halt first, every single time, before the canter aid is applied.

3. The rider gets left behind.
A rider who tips forward or gets launched out of the saddle at the canter depart lost their position in the transition. This almost always comes from one of two places, either bracing against the transition instead of following it or not having enough core stability to absorb the moment the canter stride begins. The fix for bracing is feel work such as lunge line transitions where the student focuses entirely on softening into the upward transition rather than stiffening against it. The fix for core instability is progressive no stirrup work and two point at the canter before asking for the depart itself. A rider who can hold two point through a canter transition has the balance and stability to stay with a depart without getting thrown.

4. The horse ignores the aid entirely.
A horse that does not respond to the canter aid is a horse that has learned it does not have to. This is almost always a rider problem that has become a horse problem over time. Repeated unclear or uncommitted aids train a horse to wait for a bigger signal and eventually the escalation becomes the normal aid. The fix starts with making sure the aid is clear deliberate and applied once before escalating, not a series of squeezes that the horse has learned to ignore. If the horse does not respond to a clear aid reinforce it immediately and consistently every time. Inconsistency in the response to the aid is what teaches a horse to test it.

5. The depart is correct but falls apart immediately.
A clean depart that breaks down within a few strides tells you the horse was not genuinely in front of the leg or balanced before the transition and that the rider got lucky on the depart itself but there was nothing underneath it to sustain the canter. The fix is the quality of the trot work before the depart. A horse that is forward off the leg, genuinely connected, and balanced through the corners will maintain the canter after the depart because the energy that created the transition is still there. A horse scraped into canter from a flat disengaged trot has nowhere to go but back to trot.

Here are some exercises that actually fix canter departs...

- Transitions on a circle. Ask for the depart at a specific point on the circle such as at the top, at the side, etc and ask for a downward transition back to trot after four to six strides. Return to the same point on the circle and ask again. Repeated short canter transitions on a circle develop the horse's balance in the depart and the rider's feel for preparation and timing without the pressure of sustaining a full canter around the arena.

- Trot to canter over a ground pole. Place a single ground pole on the track and ask your student to trot over it and pick up the canter on the landing side. The pole encourages the horse to step under and lift through the transition and gives the rider a clear preparation point to work toward. A horse that rushes to the pole is a horse that needs more half halt work before the exercise. A horse that steps over calmly and picks up the canter cleanly has found the right balance for the transition.

- Canter from walk. For more advanced riders a walk to canter transition bypasses the rushing trot entirely and requires genuine engagement of the hindquarters and clear preparation from the rider. It is harder than a trot to canter depart and fixing it fixes the trot to canter at the same time because the aids and preparation are identical but just more obvious in their absence at the walk.

A clean canter depart is not luck and it is not natural talent. It is preparation timing and balance built through correct progressive work. Fix the preparation and most canter depart problems fix themselves.

What is the most common canter depart problem you see in your students and what fixed it?

05/25/2026

𝑰𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚.

𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦 𝑀𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐷𝑎𝑦🇺🇸

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05/22/2026

We are looking for a live in person for our equestrian facility. Housing provided, duties include night check and 1-2 days of barn/horse management per week. Perfect for someone looking for a little extra income and a beautiful country setting to live. Interested applicants should email [email protected]

05/18/2026

Such an incredible program for our students to take part in. Many thanks to Jodi Lees Dressage for spending Friday night sharing career insights with us!

05/10/2026

We wouldn’t be anywhere without the love and support of our amazing horse show moms. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms out there! We are forever grateful for you!💐💕

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05/08/2026

🎓𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭🎓

Congratulations to Spring 2026 graduate, Kam Humberstad! We wish you all the success in your future endeavors. We are so proud of you and will miss you so much!💙💛

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05/07/2026

As the 2025-2026 IDA season is now at a close, a huge thank you goes out to IDA coach Ginger Henderson as she finished another successful season!

Looking forward to many more to come!💙💛

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05/04/2026

💛𝔸𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝔸𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕥𝕥💙

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05/01/2026

🏆 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃🏆

Featuring another award recipient from this year’s Averett University Equestrian Banquet! This year, freshman Hannah Meyerhoeffer received the Jane Faulkner Horsemanship Award!

Congratulations Hannah!💙💛

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