Brought to you by With Purpose: The Balmoral Standard
Ask ten riders what “feel” means, and you’ll get ten different answers.
Some call it instinct. Some call it talent. Some think you either have it or you don’t.
Carleton and Tracie Brooks would disagree.
Feel isn’t magic. It’s awareness that’s built deliberately, refined repeatedly, and sharpened through attention.
Brooks shares his journey to developing feel, “I’m living proof that you can break this habit. I was taught to look at the top rail. And I missed all the distances. I buried my horses at the jumps.”
For him, missing distances wasn’t a lack of talent. It was a habit. And habits can be changed. Feel is not something you’re born with. It’s something you train.
Feel Starts with Observation
Many riders focus only on what they want to happen. They stare at the top rail. They chase the distance. They react late. Feel begins before that. It begins with awareness of rhythm, balance, and what the horse is offering in the moment.
Feel grows when riders understand the system behind what they’re doing. It’s not guessing, but an educated response. When you know where you’re turning, what you should be feeling in your leg, and where your eyes belong, you reduce panic. Panic blocks feel. Structure builds it.
Brooks reminds readers that growth is rarely dramatic. “It’s little things, repeated over time, that make a difference. It’s not huge, difficult, intricate, or hard things. It’s simple things thought out and repeated, over and over.”
Feel develops the same way. It’s noticing that your horse drifts right in the last two strides. It’s recognizing when the canter loses impulsion before a fence. It’s sensing that the balance tipped forward before the swap.
Those observations don’t come from riding harder. They come from riding attentively. And attentiveness is a discipline.
The Role of Position in Developing Feel
If you are unstable in your body, you cannot develop accurate feel. Brooks often asks riders a simple question: “What would your position be if you just dropped your reins?”
If you depend on your hands for balance, you will always be reacting late. True feel requires independence—secure leg, anchored core, organized upper body. When your body is stable, your senses sharpen. You can feel the stride lengthen. You can feel the back lift. You can feel hesitation before it becomes refusal.
Practical Ways to Develop Feel
Feel is not abstract. It can be trained deliberately:
- Ride without distraction. Put the phone away, remove the chatter, and focus on what changes stride to stride.
- Call out what you feel. In lessons, say, “He just got heavy,” or “That felt shorter.” Naming sensations sharpens awareness.
- Break habits consciously. If you always look at the top rail, change your focal point.
- Slow the repetition. Trot transitions, simple changes, and straight lines expose imbalance more clearly than chasing height.
- Review after every ride. Identify one moment where your reaction was late—and one where it was timely.
These are small disciplines. But over time, they accumulate.
A rider with feel notices fatigue before it becomes resentment. Notices imbalance before it becomes strain. Notices tension before it becomes explosion. Feel protects horses.
It allows a rider to soften when the horse is trying. To support when the balance wavers. To wait when the distance isn’t there.
Judges may not articulate it, but they recognize it immediately. A rider with feel appears quiet, organized, and fair. The horse looks confident. The round looks easy.
But that ease is built on discipline. Feel is not talent. It is attention trained with purpose. And like every other skill in horsemanship, it is available to anyone willing to notice more carefully tomorrow than they did today.
