Rules are not meant to be broken

Tessa has a great memory. Before I take her back to the paddock after our ride, I always give her cookies (mostly). The next time I see her (sometimes days later), she still remembers that the last time she saw me she got cookies. I know this because her nose goes straight to my hands to find the cookies.

Anyhow, I am trying to use her special talent to remember everything to my advantage by creating a set of rules when we ride. I do my absolute best to keep to the rules during our rides with the hope that the next time we ride she will remember the rule. It's starting to work! Not perfectly though and the list of rules is starting to get long...

Here are my current rules:

1. Wait until you have your halter on to eat grass.
2. Follow my commands and not the other horses in the lesson.
3. Hay should not be eaten in the arena, only in the paddock.
4. Get the wrong lead, we stop cantering and we try again.
5. Keep your canter until I ask you to slow down.
6. Don't slow to a trot in front of the jump.
7. Keep a canter after the jump.
8. No cutting into the center of the arena to be with the other horses right after jumping.
9. When I take one of the ties off in the barn, move towards the opposite wall to let a horse by.
10. No cutting corners in the riding ring.
11. Don't cut into the ring out of protest when I ask for a trot or canter.
12. Also, no protesting by either swinging your head back and forth or by throwing your head up.
13. Walking is not always break time.
14. Put your butt in gear when we are trotting or cantering, I don't want you to trip!
15. Don't follow other horses too closely, we don't want to get kicked!
16. Walk on when I am leading you out of the paddock.
17. Just because the horse in front of you is walking, that does not mean you are also walking!

Of the 17 rules, we are consistently following: #3, #9, & #16. We are getting close on some of the other ones though! #2, #4, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, & #17 are leaps and bounds better than when we first started working together. Lots of rules and the more we ride, the better we get at following them. It's a huge sense of accomplishment when we see an improvement!

What are your riding rules?