A musing, "Housewife" trainers, egos, and safety...

Halfstep

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I haven't read all this tread but there are some interesting nuggets here. My feeling is as follows (and this is dressage focused because that is what I do):

Firstly, dressage done properly is fooking hard, and you need to be fit and strong and have a lot of coordination. Many people don't want to put that sort of work in, or don't have the time to get that fit, so they are always riding at half power. As a trainer you can't force someone who physically can't, to do. So you make allowances, accept that they might only be able to get something 60% right but for them that is sufficient and what they are aiming for. You can sort of hope that maybe they will feel the potential for better and work harder over time. Or not.

Secondly, to learn how to ride properly you really do need to feel what it is like to ride a correctly trained horse. On the lunge, without reins or stirrups. But that is hard work too :rolleyes:. But people get on a schoolmaster and expect to be able to ride it - often because they are uncoordinated they can't get it out of walk, or to canter without doing tempi changes, or to trot instead of piaffe......so they get frustrated and angry and accuse the trainer and horse....
 
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Agree with Halfstep, especially in relation to schoolmasters. We have been asked by someone on the same yard, who can't sit to the trot or execute a direct canter transition, to have a lesson on our horse (which is working GP and competing PSG).

This novice rider says she wants to feel half pass and do some tempi changes. She doesn't understand that if she can't sit on her own horse or ride a direct canter transition, she won't be able to sit on ours, she won't be able to ride the movements and she's not going to have the experience she thinks she's going to have.

She believes that riding advanced movements requires nothing more than getting on a trained horse and that if the horse knows how to do it, it will do it with her on its back. She's not the only person we know who thinks that. :rolleyes:
 

martlin

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I teach a variety of riders/horses, and I suppose I do certain amount of ''arse patting'', it makes business sense. I'd rather all my pupils were super keen to learn, ambitious and dedicated, but.... they aren't.
Sometimes, a little part of me dies inside me when some of them want to book a lesson, because it is disheartening to try to teach somebody who essentially does not want to learn, they just want their (more or less suitable) horse to jump clear for them.
The bottom line is, though, a girl has to make a living, and if I turn ''unteachables'' away, there sure as sure can be will be someone else out there to take their money and praise them.
From the other side of the fence - I went to a clinic with a local ''name'' who is well respected, shared a lesson with one other, it took an hour and what must have been hundreds of jumps, all I heard all this time was ''Lovely, come again'', regardless of what me or the horse were doing. Funny thing is, everybody else taking part in the clinic seemed absolutely delighted :eek:

So, there is a market out there and plenty of people are willing to pay for praise, it would be foolish from a business point of view to not cater for that market.
 

JustMe22

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Happy to, I've mentioned it a few times on here, I am VERY anti secrecy about things 'good riders do'.
Basically you just exaggerate the way your pelvis moves as the horse walks, really let it go up and down and side to side, and then freeze it in a fairly exaggerated way, just stop moving it totally. Most horses will go 'ooh' and stop immediately too, some need a few goes and maybe a 'whoa' or a touch on the reins... but it does need to be a touch, because the whole point is that you're teaching the horse to listen to your pelvis and torso, not your hands.
obv praise the moment it works. repeat a few times. eventually you don't have to emphasise it so much, just the 'stop' is enough. works like a charm canter to halt too... tbh there's no way you can do canter-to-halt on the hand imho, you need to engage with the legs and then stop with the pelvis/seat to get the transition soft, balanced, and in 1 stride.

another 'thing good riders do', i think: weighting the seatbone they want the horse to travel towards, in lateral work. a big (but subtle-looking) aid. 99% of horses will try to step under your weight. that's what i was taught anyway, and it seems to work!

Thank you! I already sort of knew about stopping the moment of the pelvis, but I have neglected to really test it in the slower paces first - and I get so caught up in collecting up the canter that sometimes it just goes a bit wrong! Will try this next time and really work on trying to stop my pelvis (which actually sounds quite hard!).
 
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