11/05/2025
🐎Horsemanship Builds Feel🐎
Geoff Case ties this back to one of his favorite teaching principles: feel. He argues that the sensitivity riders develop through grooming, handling, and groundwork directly translates into better riding.
“Feel doesn’t just come from sitting on the horse,” he said. “It comes from brushing, leading, wrapping legs. You learn how much pressure they tolerate, when to push, when to back off. That’s all feel.”
These days, everybody seems to have grooms, but “R” judge and trainer Geoff Case thinks many riders are missing the quiet time spent simply doing for their horses. “Horsemanship doesn’t just happen in the saddle,” he said. “It’s everything you do around the horse that teaches you who they are.”
Case believes that the best riders, the ones who seem effortlessly in sync with their mounts, aren’t just great athletes. They’re great caretakers.
Case came up in a generation where riders did everything—groomed, bathed, wrapped, and tacked up their own horses. He still believes those habits are the foundation of success. “When you groom your horse, you start noticing things,” he said. “You feel the muscle tone. You feel if something’s tight. You learn their reactions.”
That kind of attention builds awareness and empathy, two things that can’t be taught in a lesson. “If you only ever show up to get on, you’re missing half the education,” he said. “It’s in the details. How they stand, how they breathe, how they look at you when you walk up with the halter.”
He encourages his students to spend as much time on the ground as they do in the saddle. “The more you do yourself, the more connected you are,” he said. “You start riding differently because you understand who’s under you.”
Case recalled working with Peter Wylde, who won the World Championship and an Olympic gold medal, but still did all his own care. “Peter was the perfect example,” Case said. “He could have had ten grooms if he wanted, but he still groomed, tacked, cooled out—everything. He knew every bump on those horses.”
That level of attention was about pride and partnership. “Peter didn’t separate the care from the riding,” Case said. “He knew they were part of the same thing.”
For Case, that mindset is what defines real horsemanship. “When you spend time doing the basics yourself, you stop thinking of the horse as a piece of equipment,” he said. “You start thinking of them as your teammate.”
📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2025/11/03/why-doing-the-basics-yourself-builds-better-riders/
📸 © The Plaid Horse
