12/12/2025
Does the way you choose to school your horse suit you and does it suit your horse?
This may feel like a controversial question, and I think it takes a certain type of honesty to answer it truthfully.
When I first meet a horse and rider, they are not always familiar with the School of Légèreté. Often they have contacted me for a completely different reason. In these situations, I have learned how important it is to be clear from the outset: the principles of Légèreté do not suit every person.
However, after fifteen years of working within this school, I have also come to realise something that may sound like a bold statement……. It does suit all horses!
This brings us back to the real question: are we schooling our horses in a way that genuinely suits them, or are we choosing methods because they suit us because they feel familiar, comfortable, or easier?
A situation I see repeatedly is when a particular horse pushes their owner out of their comfort zone. The owner may have trained in a certain way for many years, and that approach may have worked reasonably well with most horses. Then a different type of horse comes along one who questions that system, doesn’t understand it, or cannot cope within it.
These horses are often labelled as difficult, sometimes even dangerous. At that point, the outcome depends entirely on the individual owner.
Do we acknowledge that what we are doing doesn’t suit this horse and look for a different way forward? Or do we decide that the horse is simply unsuitable for our needs and pass them on?
There are times when finding a more suitable home for a horse is the right and responsible decision, particularly where confidence or safety is compromised. That can be the wisest choice. But it also takes real strength for an owner to pause, reflect, and consider changing their own approach not just to look for a different way, but to commit to it wholeheartedly.
Many years ago, I was riding and schooling a black Lipizzaner stallion belonging to Asoka Stud. I thank that horse for pushing me to dive much deeper into the skills of in-hand work. At that time, I had no formal in-hand lessons, but I did have a thorough understanding of clicker training. This helped me learn how to break things down into the earliest stages and shape them gradually towards the end result and this is where my in-hand work truly began to develop.
I must add that this horse also taught me every mistake that can be made when clicker training a horse, so I am doubly grateful for him.
Fast forward several years. I was schooling horses to a high level and helping people around the UK. Then I took on my mum’s horse, Jen a story some of you will already know. What might have taken me six weeks with another horse, I was still struggling with two years later.
And then came Philippe Karl.
I was very fortunate to be accepted onto the first teacher training course. I’ll be honest I drove away from that first clinic thinking, what on earth have I signed up for? Not because anything was wrong, or because I disliked what I’d learned, but because I felt completely stripped of everything I thought I knew.
Groundwork and in-hand work were already my niche, and Philippe added depth and refinement to exercises I was familiar with. That fitted naturally within the principles of Légèreté. But the ridden work was another matter entirely. I had to let go of what I believed I knew about riding and begin again truly learning to ride from the beginning.
I trusted Philippe, and I trusted the process.
Between that first clinic and the second, I practised at home what I had learned. With each schooling session, Jen became better, and better, and better. She was my confirmation. She was my feedback. She was the reason the system made sense.
Listening to my horse is what fully brought me on board with the principles of Légèreté.
If I hadn’t been presented with Jen an Irish Sports Horse, completely different from anything I had schooled before if I hadn’t been faced with the difficulties we worked through together, would I have applied for the teacher training? I’ll never know.
Perhaps I would have continued my career with the knowledge I already had, refining it through teaching and schooling more horses. Who knows.
But I do know this: I thank Jen for pushing me towards the School of Légèreté.
And bold as it may sound, I am certain of one thing the School of Légèreté is for all horses, but not for all people.
And finally, I want to say this: regardless of how inexperienced a rider may be, if they are genuinely dedicated to learning, what they can achieve is often quite remarkable.
You do not need to be a perfect rider when you begin this way of schooling. As the horse becomes more balanced, the horse in turn helps the rider become a better rider. When the rider begins to master the art of communication through the hands, correct posture and balance improve as a natural consequence.
This is not about riding better it is about communicating better.
