Transforming Your Riding Habits: The Power of the "Rider Shopping List"

How to Use Intentional Self-Assessment to Improve Your Body Mechanics in the Saddle

If you’ve ever caught yourself gripping the reins too tightly or tensing your shoulders while riding, you’re not alone. Bad habits can sneak up on even the most experienced riders, often going unnoticed until they start to affect your comfort and communication with your horse. But what if there was a simple tool to help you reset those habits and ride with more awareness? Enter, what I like to call, the “rider shopping list”—a straightforward, practical way to assess and improve your body mechanics every time you ride. Working towards practicing for permanency.

What Is a Rider Shopping List?

A "rider shopping list" is a personal, short words, checklist of body cues and positions that support good riding. Like a shopping list you’d take to the supermarket, it reminds you of the essentials you need—only in this case, they’re the building blocks of effective, relaxed riding. This approach is especially handy for pinpointing and changing stubborn habits, as it encourages you to check in with your body in a structured, mindful way. The key is to use one to two small words that act like a visualisation reminder to draw attention quickly to the area of focus.

Why Use a Rider Shopping List?

It’s easy to fall into autopilot in the saddle, letting old habits take over. The rider shopping list serves as a mental reset button, bringing your attention back to the details that matter. It helps you:

• Develop greater body awareness

• Break down complex riding skills into manageable steps

• Transform negative habits into positive muscle memory (for automation in your riding)

• Stay calm and focused, especially when you feel tense or distracted

How to Create Your Own Rider Shopping List

Start by identifying the specific body mechanics or habits you want to work on. For example, if you tend to ride with tightly braced forearms, your shopping list might look like this:

• Breathe down to my belt – Deep, relaxed breathing from the diaphragm to promote calmness and loosen tension.

• Pelvis neutral – Ensuring your pelvis is not tipped forward or back, supporting a balanced seat.

• Spine stacked – Maintaining a long, tall posture with your vertebrae aligned.

• Lats to take bra strap – Engaging your lat muscles to gently draw your shoulders back, rather than pinching them together.

• Spongey elbows – Keeping a soft, elastic feel in the elbows to avoid bracing.

• Hands following horse’s head – Allowing your hands to move with the horse’s motion, not against it.

The rider's shopping list might be:

1. Belt

2. Level

3. Stacked

4. Lats

5. Spongey

6. Following

Specific Example: Improving Turning from my 7-Point Seat

Say you want to be able to turn your horse efficiently around a corner, without using the reins, and you aren't sure what might be causing your horse to look and move the other direction! So frustrating! Your rider shopping list might be (at the walk) - bolded words are the list key words:

1. Belt: are you breathing down to your diaphragm and filling out your belt area?

2. Un-squish boobs: are your arms so locked against your side you are squishing your chest?

3. Lats: thinking of using those muscles where your bra does up to actively draw the shoulders down, opening the chest (we want to be able to shimmy our chest and give the space needed to breath and carry ourselves)!

4. Spongey elbows: are your elbows softly by your side (not out in front) and are the spongey enough to absorb moving your forearms up and down?

5. Look: use your eyes to look to where you want to turn, not your head

6. Headlights: turn my nipples/boobs, like directional headlights on the car shining the light ahead, into the turn?

   1. Magically, your outside thigh will come onto the horse softly and they should start turning (without the need for use of the rein)

   

   Left hand side: rigid, squished headlights vs Right hand side: visualisation of directional car headlights

7. Follow: allow your body and hands to follow the horses head movements in the walk and swing with the horse's ribcage

Using Your Shopping List While Riding

Here’s how to put your rider shopping list into action:

1. Start at the Walk: As you set off, mentally run through your list. Don’t rush—spend a few moments focusing on each point. For example, as you walk around the arena, think: “Am I breathing down to my belt? Is my pelvis neutral?”

2. Check In Regularly: Every few minutes, or whenever you change gait or direction, revisit the list. This keeps your focus sharp and helps you catch creeping tension before it becomes a problem.

3. Reset as Needed: If you notice a bad habit creeping in—say, your forearms are starting to brace—pause and cycle back through your list. Use your cues to release tension and re-establish a relaxed, effective position.

4. Progress to Other Gaits: Once you’re comfortable at the walk, apply the same checklist at trot and canter. Adjust as needed based on what you feel.

Turning Bad Habits into Good Ones

The beauty of the rider shopping list is its consistency. By checking in with your body regularly, you can catch and correct bad habits before they take hold. Over time, your new, positive habits become second nature. For instance, by repeatedly reminding yourself to keep “spongey elbows”, you’ll train your muscles to stay soft and responsive without conscious effort.

You will find that when you first work on a rider shopping list it may take you one to two 20m circles to get through them all. As time goes on, this will get shorter and shorter, until it becomes muscle memory and becomes autonomous through practicing into permanency.

Tips for Success

• Keep It Short: Focus on 5–7 key points per ride. Too many cues can be overwhelming.

• Adjust as You Improve: Your list will evolve as your riding does. Swap out old goals for new ones as you progress.

• Say It Out Loud: Some riders find it helpful to verbalise their list as they ride, especially when learning a new habit.

• Stay Patient: Changing habits takes time. Celebrate small improvements and keep using your list consistently.

Building on This

You can use rider shopping lists for everything during a ride or even when you are doing in-hand groundwork. Even more amazing, is you can also do a "horse shopping list". When I ride, I will switch between my "rider shopping list" and my "horse shopping list". This then continuously builds my ability to feel in what my horse's body is doing, how I can influence it for improvement using my 7-point seat, and how my body is going during the ride and if there are any opportunities to work on.

You recognize your progress toward autonomy and efficiency in executing your shopping lists when you can seamlessly switch between them while making specific movements and biomechanical adjustments. I refer to this as the proactive rider, and their ability to proactively influence themselves and their horse. Interested in learning more about the "horse shopping list"? Take a look at this blog post to see what it entails.

Final Thoughts

Using a rider shopping list is a simple yet powerful way to become a more mindful, effective rider. By breaking down your goals into actionable steps and checking in with yourself as you ride, you can transform bad habits into good ones—one ride at a time. Next time you’re in the saddle, give it a go and see how much more in tune you feel with both your body and your horse.