12/28/2025
This!!!!
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Riders often assume that the best way to prepare for a show is to increase their practice. More lessons, more schooling, and more rounds can feel like signs of commitment. But in Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers, and Equitation, Teall explains that over-preparation is one of the most common and most damaging mistakes riders make. When horse and rider practice past the point of usefulness, the work becomes flat and mechanical. The pair peaks at home instead of saving their best riding for the show ring.
Avoiding over-preparation requires awareness, restraint, and a thoughtful approach to planning. Teall makes clear that good preparation is purposeful—not excessive.
Teall describes over-preparation as the moment when practice no longer builds skill but begins to drain it. “Being over-prepared is when you have practiced too much and your riding becomes rote,” he writes. The performance that results “lacks spark and energy” and “lacks brilliance.” A round that should feel alive instead becomes automatic, with neither horse nor rider showing the freshness that good riding requires.
Horses suffer from this problem as much as riders do. Teall notes that it is “not at all uncommon to see horses knocking down jumps because they’re bored or sore.” Excessive drilling at home can leave a horse physically tired or mentally dull, unable to produce its best effort in competition.
Over-preparation doesn’t reflect a lack of effort—only that the effort has gone too far.
One of Teall’s clearest points is that riders only get “so many breakthrough rounds where everything is exactly right.” These rounds are limited, and a rider who uses them up during schooling leaves fewer available for the moments that matter.
For this reason, Teall cautions riders not to chase perfect rounds at home. The goal in practice is to improve individual skills, not to achieve show-ring brilliance before the show even begins. When riders push for that feeling repeatedly, they often achieve it only to find that they have peaked too early. By the time they arrive at the competition, the freshness that produced those excellent rounds has faded.
Teall’s perspective reframes preparation from “doing more” to “doing what supports long-term progress.”
The most productive preparation, according to Teall, comes from breaking down the pieces of a course and practicing them individually. Rather than repeating full rounds, riders should work on the specific skills they will need in the ring, like straight lines, turns, diagonals, broken lines, or the questions found in Handy classes. This keeps the schooling thoughtful and controlled rather than repetitive.
This approach also protects the horse. When riders limit how many times they school full courses, they reduce unnecessary pounding and the mental fatigue that comes from drilling the same questions repeatedly. The horse stays interested, responsive, and ready to rise to the occasion.
Purposeful practice allows both horse and rider to arrive at a show prepared, not depleted.
📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/12/16/how-to-avoid-over-preparing-before-a-show/
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