Taking the Long Route in the Beginning Saves You Time in the End

The Spring/ Summer season is always full of horses coming to our barn be Started or Restarted. At our venue here in Oxfordshire, we can take up to twelve horses at a time, and every year, especially with the young horses, I’m reminded how much the beginning shapes everything that comes after.

Starting a horse is one of the most important parts of their education. It sets the tone not just for the first few rides, but for their entire working life. When we take the time to get it right — to lay a solid foundation, to build their confidence, and to give them the tools to thrive — everything that follows becomes easier.

Foundation work has always been at the heart of my practice at Confident & Connected. So much of what we do here is about helping horses develop the mental, emotional, and physical skills they need to succeed, and helping owners see just how much this matters.

I couldn’t agree more. My ideal would be that every horse is started by someone with the feel, skill, and patience to set them up for success — someone who can stay calm and be adaptable when things don’t go to plan and help the horse remain confident as they take their first steps under saddle.

But too often, that’s not what happens. Horses are rushed, pressured, or misunderstood. Gaps in their early education are left unaddressed, and those gaps often grow into bigger challenges later on. Sometimes they’re labelled difficult, naughty, or even dangerous. But the truth is, they just weren’t given the chance to learn in a way that made sense to them.

And, much like us, horses carry those early experiences for life.

We “start” horses instead. Because that’s what it is: the beginning. The start of an education. The start of a partnership. The start of a horse’s journey towards becoming relaxed, responsive, and confident in the world.

Starting a horse well isn’t just about getting a saddle on their back or a rider in the stirrups. It’s about preparing them for life — giving them the tools to handle the world calmly, curiously, and safely. It’s about teaching them:

 • That they are safe.

 • That they can trust us and their environment.

 • That pressure has meaning and can be released.

 • That they can regulate their emotions, even when the world feels overwhelming.

A good start gives a horse the skills to cope, think, and stay connected when life gets complicated. And when you give them that, you give them skills they can fall back on and save years of frustration later.

Before we ever think about riding, we focus on one thing: getting the horse into a place where they are ready to learn.

Think of a child walking into school for the first time. We wouldn’t throw them into advanced Maths on day one. We’d let them settle, explore, and get comfortable in the environment. Horses are no different.

Some arrive quiet and shut down. Others are loud, playful, and full of energy. Two Irish Sports Horses we started one spring made this contrast crystal clear.

They were the same age, had the same breeding, and had lived together their whole lives. But one was soft, shy, and internalised everything. The other came charging in like a bull in a china shop, knocking over cones and chewing on rails.

The quiet one needed days of simply being in the space, doing almost nothing, until he felt safe enough to lower his head, blink, lick, and finally start exploring. The boisterous one, on the other hand, needed a job straight away to help him find focus and balance.

Same start. Same place. Completely different approach.

And that’s the point. There is no single process that works for every horse. What matters is meeting them where they are and helping them get into the mental and emotional space where learning feels safe.

Sometimes people ask if all this time at the start is really worth it. After all, couldn’t you just “get on with it” and figure the rest out later?

In our experience, rushing now only slows you down later.

If you skip over helping the quiet horse feel safe, you might find years later that he struggles to hack alone or loses confidence in new environments. If you push the bold horse without helping him regulate, you might end up with “behavioural issues” that are really just the result of stress and overwhelm.

The cost of taking shortcuts at the start is almost always paid back later. Sometimes in frustration, sometimes in retraining, and sometimes in physical injury.

Taking the time now saves you time — and heartache — in the long run.

That means setting them up for success, recognising when they’ve tried, and rewarding the thought before the action is perfect. For example, if a horse struggles with forwardness, we’ll take them out into bigger spaces, where following another horse or riding patterns makes going forward feel natural.

If a horse is worried about pressure around their belly, we introduce it carefully and reward frequently. One Cleveland Bay mare we started was ready to rear or buck at the slightest touch around her sides—whether from the girth tightening or a rider’s leg. We took our time, gave her space to process, and released the pressure the moment she even thought about moving forward. The day she felt ready to be asked for canter, we marked the smallest shift in her intention with big praise, hopped off, and took her grazing. Within days, she was offering relaxed, happy canter transitions on just a thought.

When we start horses, our philosophy is simple: make it easy for them to learn.

The goal isn’t to get it all done quickly. It’s to make sure the horse understands, feels safe, and starts to associate learning with relaxation rather than stress.