Book By Anne Buchanan
Review by Ellen Broadhurst, Lehigh Valley Dressage Association
USDF Book Club Overview
The USDF Book Club invites members to engage with dressage through the written work of leading professionals and authors in the sport. Each quarter, USDF selects a book and hosts a live webinar with the author, including audience Q&A. Participants can earn USDF University education credits, while Regions and GMOs compete for prizes based on participation.
For more information on past sessions available on demand and what’s coming next, please see the USDF website.
This quarter’s selection was How To Ride The Horse You Thought You Bought by Anne Buchanan. The webinar was presented by Cat Morgan, USDF Education Administrative Coordinator, and hosted by Reese Koffler-Stanfield and Megan McIssac of The Dressage Radio Show on the Horse Radio Network.
The Book
There is a particular skepticism that comes with being an adult amateur rider who already takes regular lessons: why, exactly, would one need a book to explain how to ride? I have a trainer and my trainer works with me diligently to improve my riding. I approached How to Ride the Horse You Thought You Bought with precisely that mindset: “Is this book really for me?”
I have often described the sport of dressage as being like a massive curtain that I occasionally get a glimpse behind. How to Ride the Horse You Thought You Bought offered another peek behind the “I didn’t know I didn’t know this!” curtain, answering questions I hadn’t even realized I should be asking. I was transfixed as I thumbed through the pages, recognizing myself in them and quickly seeing how it could become a valuable part of my dressage journey, both as a journal and an ongoing reference.
What Buchanan does especially well is translate the language of live instruction into a clear, systematic primer. She unpacks the concepts that riders hear delivered as staccato corrections to execute in the saddle every day, like contact, connection, half halts, straightness, and timing, into full chapters, with straightforward explanations and supporting videos that feature ordinary riders (like me!).
The result is a kind of bridge between live lesson experience and deeper understanding: the same ideas, but organized in a way that allows riders time to study and digest.
At its core, How to Ride the Horse You Thought You Bought is a book about attempting to give riders structure around “invisible” concepts. Good riding is often defined by feel, an elusive quality that instructors intuitively use and understand themselves, but struggle to articulate. I equate teaching feel to teaching smell; these are experiential things. You can talk about half-halts, contact, and balance all day, but feel only clicks when the rider experiences it in their own body.
Buchanan takes on the ambitious task of putting that “feel” into words. She breaks down not just what riders should do, but how, when, and why they should do it, and perhaps most valuably, how to tell whether it’s working. For riders who have watched others produce seamless transitions and uphill balance while not seeing the “how” in order to replicate it, this book offers a practical roadmap.
The structure of the book reflects Buchanan’s background as an educator and reinforces its usefulness as a reference tool. Recurring elements, such as cautionary notes about common pitfalls, exercises that extend learning, and cleverly drawn “this” versus “not this” sketch comparisons, help sharpen the rider’s eye and judgment.
Buchanan also emphasizes a set of foundational principles that operate simultaneously in any effective ride: forward energy, connection, consistency, transitions, flexion, and the half halt. These are presented not as isolated skills but as interdependent building blocks that, when combined, create reliability and clarity in the horse. And the concept is presented in both words and a simple diagram that is easy for riders to understand and internalize.
Again reflecting Buchanan’s background as an educator, one of the book’s most distinctive strengths is its focus on the learning process itself. The included study guides encourage riders to take an active role in their education by organizing ideas, assessing progress, and – in a brilliant stroke that literally made me gasp, “Of course we should be doing this!” – working collaboratively with your barn mates.
Buchanan suggests that group study can be a powerful tool, and she’s right. For many adult amateurs, the barn aisle is already a place where after-school learning happens. This book gives those discussions direction, helping like-minded riders turn casual horse talk into meaningful, structured learning.
Another fascinating piece of Buchanan’s background also adds a unique dimension to her perspective. Based in Lexington, she has worked most recently training riders on Racewood Equestrian Simulators, mechanical horses designed to help riders develop feel without the variability of a live horse. Buchanan advocates for their use as a way to experience correct movement and position in a consistent, repeatable way. While no simulator can replicate the full complexity of a living horse, her argument is compelling: these machines function as tireless schoolmasters, offering riders a clearer sense of what they are trying to achieve on a live horse.
Ultimately, How to Ride the Horse You Thought You Bought succeeds because it meets riders where they are. It does not replace instruction but enhances it, reinforcing lessons in a format that can be revisited again and again. For the adult amateur, and especially one juggling limited riding time, inconsistent access to coaching, or simply the desire to understand rather than just execute, it is an exceptionally valuable resource.
It turns out that even when you have a trainer supervising your rides, there is an enormous value in diving deeper into what they mean.
