Does riding need to be so complicated?

Goldenstar

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On jumping years ago I went to a very good well known trainer for help with my not good show jumping .
I just can't see a stride I said hanging my head .
You know that really uncomfortable feeling you get in front of a fence said he
Yes I said.
Great , he replied that's you seeing a stride now I'll teach you what to do about it I will never ever forget that feeling of hope and excitement that lesson gave me that's what good training should do.
 

SpottedCat

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It is a peculiarly British thing to mock our friends and be painfully polite to people we dislike - I haven't come across it anywhere else in quite the same way, and it makes for some real confusion! In much the same vein, it took the person I trained with in the USA several weeks to work out what time I'd be arriving when I said 'half nine' as they don't use that type of expression there, and this column always makes me laugh as it is so true: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/05/euphemistically_speaking
 

Wagtail

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On jumping years ago I went to a very good well known trainer for help with my not good show jumping .
I just can't see a stride I said hanging my head .
You know that really uncomfortable feeling you get in front of a fence said he
Yes I said.
Great , he replied that's you seeing a stride now I'll teach you what to do about it I will never ever forget that feeling of hope and excitement that lesson gave me that's what good training should do.

Brilliant. What a good way of putting it. I always found the more conscious I was about seeing a stride, the worse it got. It didn't help that my mare was the worst horse I have ridden for seeing a stride. If I adjusted her so that she was set up just right, she would lengthen and balls it up and I'd end up trying to put her right and we'd have the fence down :eek:. Bless her, she did get better and listened more as we progressed. My other mare (not mine, but I had the ride) was the best jumper I have ever sat on. You didn't have to do a thing. She would get her stride 100% right every time and could jump a 6 foot oxer. Shame my friend sold her. :(
 
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ihatework

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On jumping years ago I went to a very good well known trainer for help with my not good show jumping .
I just can't see a stride I said hanging my head .
You know that really uncomfortable feeling you get in front of a fence said he
Yes I said.
Great , he replied that's you seeing a stride now I'll teach you what to do about it I will never ever forget that feeling of hope and excitement that lesson gave me that's what good training should do.

I've never heard that before, but what an excellent example!
 

Molasses

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I loved this:D
Its so true
I'm so polite to people i dislike, you can feel the air freeze around me:eek:

But what is with the horse-sport for endeavouring the make us feel inadequate, i've never come across it in other sports. Is it because we’re less than half a century away from the time when riding was incredibly linked to class and the military and that still permeates through the teaching?
 
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FfionWinnie

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Interesting thread :) Originally I was going to pile in with the "of course it doesn't need to be complicated" argument, but having read through all the responses I've realised that the answer is, er, a bit more complicated :p

I guess riding, and any sport at a high level, is indeed quite complex and there is no doubt that we never stop learning, which - given the age of some of us - suggests there is a lot to learn ;) I think the issue is one of simplicity (or the opposite) of communication rather than simplicity of technique. So some of the techniques you need to master to ride successfully at a high level are quite complex, however the skill of a good coach is in expressing these ideas in a clear, easy to understand fashion. I'm not just talking about when we are standing in a cold school teaching a client, but also when conducting discussions like the ones on this forum. It is very clear to me in reading the threads that some of the participants are far more skilled than others in this important respect. It is a shame, because what are possibly useful and valid ideas become lost in a fog of unnecessarily multi-syllabic, ridiculously verbose statements. It is inevitable that a large proportion of the audience get turned off, and another proportion get wound up. I think some of the problem is a cultural one: here in Britain we tend to seek to express complex ideas as simply and concisely as possible; my perception is that on the other side of the pond there may be a greater respect for verbosity and grammatical gymnastics :D

I have to say, Neigham, I too found the videos you have posted unhelpful in proving your veracity as a correct, higher level trainer - I understand that the context may well be more complicated and there are mitigating circumstances, but you didn't provide us with them to start with so we must be forgiven for drawing our own conclusions.

Really good post TD and sums up my thoughts more eloquently than I could manage!

Neigham, I'm not being rude but your posting style is highly difficult to read with all those ... Proper punctuation is used for a reason, makes it easy for people to read fluently.

When I asked for the videos I was hoping to see the riding with little or no need for the reins you mentioned in another post as I am trying to develop this with my youngster at the moment. Do you have any videos which demonstrate that please.
 

TrasaM

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I think we all now realise why riding Can seem so difficult. :D
Thread started off simple enough then got mired down in excessive detail leading to disagreement about what exactly was meant by what phrase. then everyone realises that it's all getting far too confusing and revert back to keeping it simple. The story of my riding journey:D
 

FfionWinnie

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*IHW cries as she cannot claim to be an international rider*

She did however ride a British champion under an fei judge and beat a British medal winner - that sounds pretty cool - can I have that on my cv?

My horse is an American! So she is an international horse! Ooh actually my other two are Welsh living in Scotland therefore :eek::D
 

TrasaM

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My horse is an American! So she is an international horse! Ooh actually my other two are Welsh living in Scotland therefore :eek::D

I ride an Arab cross AND an ID x Dutch WB I am doubly international. AND I once went trekking in Wales and regularly ride in the UAE and Ireland. And I'm Irish ;) :D
 

TarrSteps

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That's a great anecdote, Gs! It's so true and explains that little 'ah ha' moment when you come out of the corner and there is a jumpabled distance right there waiting.

I'm just chuffed TD's OH agrees with me! ;)
 

Littlelegs

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I think riding is only complex in a mental way if you haven't grasped the physical side. Very basic explanations suffice before you actually physically feel what's happening or not, & once you can physically do it, the more complex explanations are no longer complex. Over xmas my daughter was obsessed with a YouTube film of totillas gangnam style. She's just turned 8 so its not as though she has any concept of riding at that level (& neither do I) but upon asking me how they got him to do x,y,z movements, she could follow my basic explanations. Whereas my non-horsey, but very intelligent boyfriend couldn't. And I think that goes right through the levels of experience. GP dressage & scoring is unbelievably complex to explain to a beginner or the non-horsey, even in basic terms. But to someone riding at psg, even the more technical & complex aspects are mentally, (if not physically!) very easy to grasp.
 

Kat

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Crikey and people were worried yesterday that the forum changes would mean that there would be less "good arguments" on HHO!


ETA
*fewer* good arguments not arguments of lesser quality.
 

Caol Ila

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My horse is *actually* an international horse. Born and bred in Colorado and now living here in Scotland. I competed at a schooling show near Edinburgh a few years ago (I quit real dressage shows many years before moving across the Atlantic), so I guess that makes us international competitors. Woohoo!!!!

Was I the only HHO person who found Neigham's analogising the Canadian/US border to the English/Welsh/Scottish border, well... completely wrong. Unless Scotland and Wales got independence while I wasn't looking, they're still part of the United Kingdom. While many Scots and Welsh might like to be their own sovereign states, this is not the case at the moment (bring on 2014). Canada, as I'm sure you all know, is in fact a sovereign state and all the Canadians I know would be mortally offended at the thought of being part of the US.

The better analogy is that the constituent parts of the UK are more like American states, a federalist-ish system if you will. They have some powers devolved to them but ultimately are still beholden to the national government in Westminster.

That's today's geography and politics lesson. Carry on.
 

TarrSteps

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To be fair, CI, in horsey terms the border is pretty porous! Lots of people do just go for a month or two, or even just a single competition.

But yes, your point is valid, of course. Although I think Canadians are getting more relaxed about that, given the way the world has gone. We are not so much looking like the poor relations these days and the Americans not even knowing where we are stings less as they increasingly become international laughing stocks. :)
 

Caol Ila

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I recall crossing the border as a student and getting *grilled* by Canadian customs. And there was me thinking Canada was this nice, smiley friendly place! It didn't feel like a very porous border.

In fairness, they were probably fed up with the deluge of American students coming over to take advantage of Canada's lower drinking age.
 

TarrSteps

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Or, in the case of the Vietnam war, coming in, signing up for socialised medicine, low tuition etc then scooting off home the second they were pardoned. ;)

Anyway, we are polite, we are not friendly. There has been some confusion. . .
 

Caol Ila

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Different eras.....

In the early 2000s, it really was just to drink. No draft avoidance, conscientiousness or higher ethics and morals about it.

Did you hear about the Republicans who were threatening to move to Canada if Obama's "socialist" healthcare legislation passed?
 

PapaFrita

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On jumping years ago I went to a very good well known trainer for help with my not good show jumping .
I just can't see a stride I said hanging my head .
You know that really uncomfortable feeling you get in front of a fence said he
Yes I said.
Great , he replied that's you seeing a stride now I'll teach you what to do about it I will never ever forget that feeling of hope and excitement that lesson gave me that's what good training should do.

Brilliant :)
 

PapaFrita

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This is from post 208 and this is what I wrote




Quote:
Originally Posted by nieghham
On the bottom of this large continent is the South American one....I do not go there....it is a bit unsettled unless one is going to a caribean location


no where do I mention anything about countries only that Iwill not go onto any of the South American continent unless it is a caribbean location which is vacation locations like Jamaca or St.Pauls....where 10,000 of people go every year

And to compare the shootings of those children with what the ones in South America suffer daily....to them...that would be trivial....street gang fighting...the cartrell forcing them to work in the cocaine factories

Understand I am not trivializing the shootings or lives lost...but if you want to compare the Latin American part of that continent...you need to go to another country like say India o rAfrica/Hatia.

Outside the "tourists" areas is far worse than anything the US suffers....even the tourist islands poor make only a few dollars a day..and they do not have welfare of government assistance

Oh...and I base my information off my daughter who taught as a missionary there.

If one is truly interested just google South America Cartel/children sex trade/cocaine market/child labour

Then google the tourist places like Jamaca and see the difference

Oh my GOD you are going to make my head explode.
Please do us all in South America (yes, I DO LIVE HERE) a favour and DO NOT come and visit with your ignorant ideas and narrow mind. Your generalisations are exactly the same as me saying that in North America you are all Rednecks, gangs, drug dealers and child murderers.
Get your head out of your own backside.

And thank you TarrSteps for being so tactful :)
 
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TrasaM

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Uumh :confused: not sure that Jamaica is the wonderful safe place she's making it out to be. Just more familiar. The statistics on USA citizens who have passports is quite interesting. It seems that the vast proportion don't travel out of the USA very much.
PF I'd happily visit you :D
 

Goldenstar

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I give up, I am going to watch the GP at the sunshine tour and ask everyone I meet how to leg yield.

Oh please report back later, I suggest you shout out during the tests during the half passes so the riders can tell you what they are doing,
Ps I am a wee bit jealous.
 
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