Trish Hyatt & Working Equitation Simplified Present:

Bet you can't ride the same number of strides five times in a row.

Or stand quietly beside the gate, then flow through it smoothly.

Or nail the direction change at the Pen.

(without thinking "ya, that should've been better")

And I bet you'd like to.

The Double Slalom, Gate, & Pen
Diagnostic Challenge Week.
Five days, three obstacles, and a week of finding out what your horse will actually give you.
Starts August 1.

Join the Challenge for $32

About a dozen cones or markers, a piece of rope, and two uprights. That's the whole week.

The Double Slalom can be three cones in a 50 foot space. The Gate can be a rope between two jump standards. The Pen can be cones marking the middle, and two more for the entrance. Soccer markers work, and they're cheap.

You don't need the real obstacles. You need to see what happens when you ride them.

The Real Problem

Your horse has a preferred way to go.
And he's been subtly, or even blatantly, using it.

Not out of stubbornness. It's just easier for him, the same way you have a hand you write with. But it means some of what you feel in a ride is your horse's habit, and he needs your help.

  • You ride a circle each way and one of these things is not like the other. It could be bend, tempo, or symmetry.
  • You think you asked for the change of bend at a certain spot. But your horse has been picking the spot for a while now.
  • He'll go consistently all day at a trot. Ask him to stand still for four seconds and something else shows up.

The trouble is that on your own, with nobody on the ground, and especially at speed, it can be impossible to diagnose and start to correct.

The Fix

So we slow it down and let three obstacles ask him the same question three different ways.

Over five days you'll get all three. The Double Slalom, the Gate, and the Pen. Not to polish them. To use them.

Ride all three if you want to. Or pick the one or two you and your horse need most. It's not a competition, and there's nothing you need to keep up with.

Each one asks your horse for the bend and the tempo you chose. And each one makes it obvious when you get his instead.

  • The Double Slalom asks it on the move, at whatever tempo suits your horse. Half turns the same size both ways, changes on the line between the posts, and the same number of strides between each one. You can count it, which means you can hear the answer.
  • The Gate asks it standing still, with one hand committed to the gate from the moment you lift the latch until it's shut behind you. Wait. Move the end that needs moving. Back a step. And your horse has to stay with you while your attention is somewhere else.
  • The Pen asks it in a small space at a walk, both directions, with a turn on the haunches outside to change direction. It's also the one the rule book judges on serenity and confidence, which is a polite way of saying you can't muscle it.
  • Then you run the self-check. A short set of questions about what actually happened, so you're the one making the diagnosis. Not waiting on someone else to make it for you.

Three obstacles, one question. Moving, standing still, and in a small space, does your horse hold the bend and the tempo you set, or the one he prefers?

You've been feeling it. Let's find out what it is.

Who This Is For

This challenge is for you if...

  • You've got a suspicion about your horse's two sides, and you'd like to stop guessing about it.
  • You've done the lessons and the videos and the exercises, and you can still feel there's something in there you haven't put your finger on.
  • You'd rather work out what your horse needs than wait for someone to tell you.

Ridden or in hand, walk, trot, or canter, real obstacles or a handful of cones. You fit this to where you and your horse are today. Not the other way around.

What You'll Come Out With

By the end of the week:

01

You'll know where your horse is unbalanced. Which way bends, which way argues, and what that resistance looks like when it happens.

02

The spot where it goes wrong, not just the feeling that it did. Whether it's the bend, the tempo, or the moment you asked.

03

One or two specific things to work on that will help your horse. Not a notebook of exercises that don't apply.

04

Your own read on your own ride. The thing that keeps working long after this week is over.

How the Week Works

A clear week, with built-in time to ride and reflect.

Day 1

Training 1 drops, the Double Slalom. Ride it, film it if you can, and run the self-check. Live Q&A tonight.

Day 2

Training 2, the Gate. Slow, precise, and nothing moving fast enough to hide behind. The Member Demos begin, two rides a day reviewed in detail in the community for everyone to learn from. Live Q&A tonight.

Day 3

Training 3, the Pen. Small space, both directions, and the turn on the haunches outside. Live Q&A tonight.

Day 4

No new training and no call. A day to ride, to go back to whichever obstacle you want more of, and to post what you're seeing.

Day 5

Our final live Q&A, where we pull the three together and look at what showed up across all of them.

Day 6

The last day to post a video for a Member Demo. And a good day to catch up on the recommendations in the community.

Day 7

We wrap.

What's Included

Everything you need for the week.

  • Three trainings, released Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. Watch them whenever it suits you during Challenge Week.
  • A downloadable self-check diagnostic for each obstacle. The questions that turn what you just rode into your own diagnosis.
  • Four live Q&As, on Days 1, 2, 3, and 5. Recorded so you can re-watch.
  • The Member Demos. Two rides a day reviewed in detail from Day 2 to Day 6, for everyone to learn from.
  • A private, supportive community where you post what you rode and what you noticed and get help with it.
  •  BONUS  The printable diagrams for all three obstacles, so you can set them up and ride them whenever you want.

Everything lives in the community for Challenge Week.
There's a way to access it for longer, free, and I'll show you that as soon as you've signed up.

What You'll Need

You probably already have everything.

You are more than welcome to ride actual obstacles, but otherwise, here's the minimum you need:

  • For the Double Slalom: three cones or markers, in a space about 50 feet long. Five if you want the full obstacle.
  • For the Gate: two uprights or jump standards, and a piece of rope between them.
  • For the Pen: cones to mark out the middle circle, and two more for the entrance.
  • To film, if you want to: your phone, and something to prop it on.
  • A sense of curiosity.

That's it. Soccer markers from Amazon are cheap and work fine.

The Double Slalom, Gate, & Pen Diagnostic Challenge Week

August 1st - 7th, Live

The Challenge

$32 USD

One-time.

  • All three trainings, released across Days 1, 2, and 3.
  • A downloadable self-check diagnostic for each obstacle, yours to keep.
  • Four live Q&As across the week, recorded so you can re-watch.
  • Two Member Demos a day from Day 2 to Day 6, real rides reviewed in detail for the group to learn from.
  • The private community for Challenge Week. Post what you rode, ask your questions, and learn from each other.
Join the Challenge for $32

What last month's riders said

Straight from the challenge community, in the riders' own words.

Meet Your Guide

I'm Trish Hyatt.

I've spent over 40 years working with horses. Most of that time I was the person other trainers, coaches, and vets called when something had gone wrong. The job was to figure out what the actual issue was, and fix it.

What I noticed over and over was that the problem usually wasn't the horse. It was something in the communication, the timing, or the rider's understanding of what they were actually asking for.

That's why I teach with diagnostics rather than fixed methods. So you can read your own horse, on your own, without needing someone standing beside you every ride.

Working Equitation pulls all of that together. The flatwork, the obstacles, the precision, the communication. You can't hide in Working Equitation. The obstacles tell you exactly where you are.

International Coach & Clinician · National & International Top 10 Competitor · Retired Technical Delegate & WEDU Judge of Working Equitation

Frequently Asked Questions

A few things you might be wondering.

No. All four are recorded and posted, so you can watch during Challenge Week. Live just means you can ask your own questions and we can go deeper on your horse.

Yes. Walk is fine for all three, and plenty of this can be introduced in hand if your horse is green. The Pen is at the walk for everyone this week anyway.

I review two rides a day as Member Demos from Day 2 to Day 6, chosen for what the whole group can learn from. So it might be yours and it might not. But the self-check diagnostic is the part that matters most, and it works on every ride you do, reviewed or not. Learning to read your own ride is the point.

No. Filming shows you things you can't feel from up there, so I'd encourage it. But the self-check works from what you felt as well, and plenty of riders do it that way.

Everything lives in the community for Challenge Week. Once you've signed up I'll show you how to get access for longer, at no extra cost.

No. The obstacles are from Working Equitation, but bend, tempo, and standing still when you ask are the foundation of every discipline.

Registration closes when we start. 
Once the community opens and the first training drops, that's the group for the week.

What Riders Are Saying

Real feedback from real riders.

"Saying the Challenge has helped a ton is definitely an understatement!" 

Brenda: "We've really enjoyed the Reverse Gate Confidence Challenge!!"

Trish: "Had you ever done a reverse gate before?"

Brenda: "We gave it a try last summer, but it ended up causing my horse a lot of anxiety and anticipation. So, saying the Challenge has helped a ton is definitely an understatement."

Brenda B.

"From anxious to confident: I improved my horse's performance!" 

I knew the basics of the pen obstacle - to enter and circle both directions.  I was missing was how to achieve a smooth transition at the pen entrance, maintain bend and tempo, re-enter while maintaining correct bend.

Trish broke it down into separate pieces to practice, then put together. The teaching process led me to successfully achieve my goals to fine-tune the pen.

Monica Falk

Thank you, Trish~it makes perfect sense now that you have explained how to work with the horse's drift, keep their trust, and get them to realize you are working together as a team.

Vicki Webberley

You already suspect one of these 'sides' is not like the other.
Five days, and you'll know which. And where to start.