How to Start a Mounted Drill Team

Find a Place to Practice

• 1

  Find a large, flat field or arena to practice in, even before you start looking for riders, or you will risk disappointing your fledgling team. If you plan to drill all year, find an indoor arena large enough for the number of riders you want on your team. Small indoor arenas cannot handle more than about 12 horses abreast and moving faster than a walk.

• 2

  Make sure your chosen arena has lots of room to maneuver. Not every horse turns on a dime, and riders and horses both need room for mistakes while learning the drill. The faster you intend to ride the drill, the more room you will need.

• 3

  Check on insurance at the designated site to see if your activity will be covered. You don't want to get sued if someone gets hurt.

• 4

  Plan to keep your team together year-round. If you cannot practice indoors in the winter, find a place for foot drills to keep everyone in practice, and to teach new members or new movements to old members.

Find Your Riders

• 5

  Start with friends or relatives who have horses and are interested in riding in a disciplined, organized fashion. Four riders is the absolute minimum for any sort of quadrille. The maximum manageable number for a drill team is about 24, due to arena issues and complexity of patterns. Your final number should be divisible by four, because so many of the patterns are ridden in fours.

• 6

  Advertise for riders if you are short, or put up notices in the local tack and feed stores, the library, and anywhere else you are likely to attract the notice of other horsemen and women.

• 7

  Make sure your new riders can handle the horsemanship required to ride among many other moving riders at close quarters, often at high speeds. It is not unreasonable to ask prospective team members to pass a riding test of some sort.

• 8

  Use cones, poles, or barrels to set up a simple course for new members to ride at the walk, trot, and canter to demonstrate how well they manage their horses. Observe how their mounts behave around other horses. You do not want kickers and biters disrupting the team, or horses that cannot handle being in close quarters.

• 9

  Test your prospective riders with a small section of the drill pattern to see if they can handle the movements or understand the commands.

• 10

  Make sure the riders you choose join the club so that they fall under any insurance protection the club itself may have, and have them sign a "ride at your own risk" disclaimer.

The Drill

• 11

  Determine the type of drill you want to perform. Drill patterns vary depending on the type of team, from dressage-like collected movements to fast, intricate patterns performed at a gallop. Nearly all drill patterns require horses to perform singly, in pairs, and in fours, and sometimes for brief periods in groups of eight or more. They require that horses cross each others' front or tail or pass shoulder-to-shoulder in opposite directions. These can often confuse a horse's natural instincts and spark flight or fight responses, so make sure your riders are thoroughly prepared.

• 12

  Design a drill that lasts five to seven minutes from the time you enter the gate to the time you leave. The faster you plan to ride, the shorter your drill should be, or it should be broken up into segments to allow the horses a breather. This can be accomplished by using four riders to mark the corners of the drill pattern and having them perform a separate "drill within a drill" while the others rest before the next segment.

• 13

  Assign one person to be the drillmaster or instructor. This person knows the drill thoroughly and is designated as the controller. He or she can be mounted or afoot on the sidelines, or even a member of the drill, though it is better if this person is not. If a horse or rider falls, someone outside the drill needs to be able to spot it and sound an emergency signal. The drillmaster can blow a whistle to start and stop the drill, to signal the beginning of new movements, or to signal an emergency.

• 14

  Designate a special signal to stop everyone in place if something goes wrong, perhaps three short blasts on a whistle. Practice it periodically, having everyone stop when they hear this, to ensure they remember what it's for.

• 15

  Teach your riders the drill first, preferably on foot, to avoid mass confusion, or else ride it at walk until every horse and rider understands what is happening. Riders need to memorize the drill and know every movement in advance so that there will be no crashing into each other if someone forgets which way to turn.

• 16

  Pick two strong and capable riders to be the lead riders, or the anchors, of the team. Make sure they don't confuse easily and can manage their horses well. If you are working in columns of twos a great deal, this is a good strategy for keeping everyone on track.

• 17

  Pair up your riders in the same order every time you drill. It is surprisingly difficult to ride a different position every week, requiring a quick-minded rider and a responsive horse. Your leaders should always be the leaders, and the second pair should always be the same, right back to the last pair in line.

• 18

  Work through new patterns at the walk, so that you can easily determine how much space in the arena is required for movements in pairs, in fours, and in broad fronts with the whole team in line. You may have to adjust some movements for to make the routine work better.

• 19

  Practice crossing on the diagonal from opposite sides of the arena in singles, pairs, and fours. This is called "threading the needle" and is the basis for much drill work. Start by dividing your pairs and lining them up nose to tail on opposite sides of the arena, all facing the same end of the arena. Make sure you designate which rider will cross first, and which second. At the walk, have the lead riders turn and start diagonally across the arena toward each other, headed for the opposite end. Each rider will cross through the other file in succession.

• 20

  Make sure you leave at least a horse length between each rider to give the horses lots of room and to avoid any panic as they cross through each other.

• 21

  Practice this maneuver at faster speeds as the horses and riders get more comfortable with the maneuver. Do it in pairs, then fours, at the trot and canter. Once all horses and riders have mastered threading the needle, you can graduate to more complex maneuvers.

Things to Keep in Mind

• 22

  Many drills are set to music, and some even have a "caller" to explain the pattern to the crowd or recite the movements to the music. Make sure to practice with the music, as it adds a level of excitement for the horses to get used to. Use a PA system to get the sound levels you will encounter during a performance.

• 23

  Always practice new maneuvers at the walk until everyone knows them thoroughly and the horses understand what is expected.

• 24

  Beware of horses learning the drill so thoroughly that they anticipate or try to second-guess the rider. This can be disastrous if you have excitable horses, or if you try to change the drill without sufficient practice. They may try to turn in the old direction, dumping an unwary rider.

• 25

  When working with children on drill teams, ensure that all the movements are easy to understand and within the capability of your least-experienced riders. Work at the slower gaits to teach control and precision rather than focusing on speed.

• 26

  Distribute copies of your drill patterns to all team members to study on their own, and post changes promptly. You might also post a full copy at the arena during practices.

• 27

  Use your imagination to design your drill patterns, watch other drill teams, or hunt for drill patterns on the internet. So long as you have sufficient room to turn and your horses and riders are all well accustomed to maneuvering around each other, you can do some pretty, spectacular, and crowd-pleasing movements that are fun for all concerned.