Characteristics of a schooled horse

A well schooled horse should have the following characteristics:
1)calm
2)attentive
3)an educated mouth
4)suppleness

All of these can and should be addressed in the schooling of the horse.

Calm
What calm means might be obvious. The horse should of course not be worried, stressed out, unfocused, etc. A prerequisite for the horse's calm is that you as the horse handler or rider are calm, which also means that you should be in the moment and not mentally still at work, angry, frustrated, sad, worried, stressed, etc. Easier said than done sometimes, but an ideal to strive for constantly.

Attentive
You can of course not communicate with your horse using light aids if you don't have your horse's attention. When you ride, the communication is mainly made through touch by your hand (via the reins and the bit) and the legs.

Through your hand you can ask the horse to shift his/her weight to the front, rear, left or right, or any combination you need. Through your legs you can either allow or inhibit the horse's movement by controlling the play in the hip, knee and ankle joints.

An educated mouth
A horse with an educated mouth is a horse that does not hang or pull on the bit, or withdraw from the bit.

Suppleness
Basic suppleness in the horse means that the horse can bend his neck both towards and away from the direction of movement, which means that the horse can turn without using his neck for balance. Suppleness also means that the horse can move in his/her best gaits in walk, trot and canter: long strides and slow rhythm.