A coach's guide to the Ridden Horse Performance Checklist

"There are studies from Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK that show that >50% of the sports horse and leisure horse population in normal work & considered by their owners to be OK are in fact lame.”

Sue Dyson, 2025

What this means is that as a coach, more than half of the horses you work with are highly likely to be experiencing musculoskeletal pain, even if they are not overtly lame. Read that again – more than half!

The Ridden Horse Performance Checklist is a tool that lists 24 behaviours, the majority of which are greater than ten times more likely to be seen in a lame horse versus a non-lame horse. A score of 8 or more out of 24 has been shown to reflect the presence of musculoskeletal pain, even if the horse is not obviously lame.

Let’s be clear, these are abnormal behaviours and yet we see them all too often.

Research shows that the high frequency of lameness in sports horses and riding school horses means that many of us, who started out as riders, have been over exposed to these abnormal behaviours. So much so that as coaches and riders, we have devised strategies for overcoming them – a noseband that keeps the mouth closed, poll pressure bits to keep the horse’s head down, opening the hands to keep the head straight, using stronger leg / whip aids to ‘encourage’ lifting the feet more energetically off the ground, riding the horse through it (whatever it is). These abnormal behaviours have in the past been labelled as resistance, evasions or disobedience.

Now we know better, we must do better and coaches are at the heart of this change. It is our job to notice these abnormal behaviours in the horses we work with. This is both a welfare issue and a performance issue. Horses assessed during the dressage warm up of 5 star three day events showed that those with a score of 7 or above out of 24 were more likely to be eliminated or retired in the cross country phase, had higher dressage penalties and lower finishing places than those who scored less than 7/24. All these horses had passed the vet inspection and were deemed not to be lame. In contrast the winner of Badminton in the year of the study scored 0/24 on the checklist.

Starting today, we must look out for the behaviours the horses are showing during our coaching sessions – it’s feedback. The following are just a few of the more common of the 24 abnormal behaviours that I regularly see and the questions we need to ask:

Are there repeated changes of head position - up / down not in rhythm with the trot. (If it's in rhythm with the trot that's an indicator of lameness).

Is the head consistently tilted? Does it move from side to side repeatedly? (If the head moves side to side in the trot but is still in the canter have a look at the riders hands as this could be the cause).

Is the head in front of the vertical or behind the vertical consistently? Are you (or the rider) tempted to suggest the use of side reins, draw reins or a bungee to counteract this?

Are the ears rotated back behind the vertical for more than just a few seconds? Does this happen repeatedly throughout the work? (This may be seen in more demanding work such as transitions, small circles or higher level skills and suggests the horse is struggling physically with what is being asked of them).

Is the mouth opening and shutting repeatedly - not just the lips but clear separation of the teeth / the tongue is visible.  Does the horse wear a flash, grackle or similar noseband to avoid this?

Is the bit being pulled through the mouth on one side? Perhaps you've suggested the use of a fulmer bit or similar to resolve this?

Is the tail clamped tightly to the horse or held to one side? Does the tail swish repeatedly up and down or side to side particularly during transitions?

Does the horse regularly strike off on the wrong leg in canter?

Is the horse prone to changing gait without being asked? E.g. from trot to canter or canter to trot.

Does the horse stumble or trip regularly? Are they crooked in trot or canter with the hindlimbs not following the forelimbs? Do you notice the hind limbs dragging the toe particularly in harder movements like 10m circles. It’s helpful if you have a good surface as you will be able to see the sand being kicked up.

Is the horse reluctant to move forward and needs quite strong verbal encouragement or leg aids to go forward? Are they particularly spooky? Are you (or the rider) finding yourselves suggesting / using a whip, spur, growling or clucking noises on a regular basis?

Does the horse rear, buck or kick out backwards? Even just once during ridden work..

All these are abnormal behaviours and indicators of the presence of musculoskeletal pain. If you recognise a number of these in your horse, or horses you are coaching or training, particularly if they are a regular occurrence then we need to consider that the horse is experiencing pain / discomfort. Some horses are more stoic than others. These behaviours don't have to be big and loud to be significant. If we consider that good welfare is the balance of having more positive experiences than negative ones and we know that pain or discomfort is a negative experience then we need to notice what our horses are telling us through their behaviour and do something about it. On a positive note, if we resolve whatever is causing these behaviours, it is also highly likely to improve our clients competition performance – a win, win, win for us (as coaches), the riders (their competitive goals) and the horses (their welfare).