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‘My job is to challenge the horse but never overstep the mark’: Joe Stockdale on what a good training session should look like

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • How does a top rider warm their horse up? What do they consider a good workout – and how do they wrap up? Joe Stockdale outlines his system for an everyday exercise session in this exclusive article for H&H subscribers

    For all the trophies and laps of honour, every top rider’s success is rooted in the daily grind at home. Joe Stockdale outlines his everyday training routine, from the details of the warm-up through what he wants to achieve in a session, to rounding off with a relaxed pick of grass as a reward at the end.

    “I have a checklist to tick off when I’m warming up,” says Joe. “Essentially to jump a course, all we need is to move forward, back, turn left and right.

    “If I touch the horse with my leg, does he open up his stride? If I stay tall, think ‘slow’, does the horse come back without me having to pull hard on the reins? Through the turns, are they staying through to the outside rein both ways?

    “Once I’ve got these four things, it’s just a case of warming up the body and getting the horse’s mind on the job, asking questions so they’re listening to me rather than worrying what might jump out of the bush. It also keeps me active, rather than going through the motions trotting circles.”

    Joe Stockdale training at home with Cacharel

    Joe has a checklist for his warm-up routine to ensure he’s not just going through the motions. Credit: Peter Nixon

    Joe tends to focus on a specific exercise for each horse he is riding. For example, he might work one horse through a set-up to improve their discipline and straightness, using canter poles and tramlines, while another horse may be put through their paces on accuracy, jumping single fences on angles and landing on different leads.

    “A good session is when we’re both in sync and comfortable with what we’re doing, but it depends on the day – how they’re feeling and how I’m riding,” Joe explains.

    “My job is to challenge the horse, but not ask questions they can’t answer – entertaining them but not overstepping the mark.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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