Train your feel

WHAT qualities make great equestrians great? “Natural feel” will come high up on your list. After all, it’s a degree of feel that allows a jockey to control their pace, a showjumper to see a stride and a dressage rider to make tiny corrections before the mistake has even happened.

This is not unique to equestrian sport – or sport overall. Good feel is also important in musicians, surgeons and pilots, to name just a few. So the question is not whether feel is important, but if it can be developed. This is where psychology has the potential to have an effect on the way we learn our craft and develop intuitive skill.

Feel and intuition are closely linked. And