Have you ever been taught by someone famous??

I used to have regular lessons with Katie Jerram, really really enjoyed them but she used to make me work!
 
Can't remember them all but here goes:

From ages ago - Herr Franz Rochowansky and Lorna Johnstone - famous in their day!

Jumping:
Dick Stillwell - rude, eccentric, brilliant
Leslie Law - very cool
Steve Hadley - hard for an event rider to get pure sj, but useful
Ian Sillitch (USA GP rider) - the best - inspirational!
Lucinda Green - waste of money for me
Anna Hilton - also probably a better rider than trainer
Ros Bevan (owned Horton Point) very good, patient

Dressage:
The Talland lot - Molly Sivewright, Pammy Hutton, Adam Kemp, Gerry Sinnott
Conrad Schumacher - fabulous
Isobel Wessells - great if she likes your horse
Damian Hallam - great if he likes your horse

there are more but can't remember them instantly

Person I would go back to in an instant - Ian Sillitch - trained on his horses at his yard in Virginia and revolutionised my riding in a fortnight - it's lasted 20 years :)
 
Geoff Billington, sometimes hard to ride for the laughing:D, he's such a comedian.

I sit with Ferdi Eilberg sometimes while my friend pays him to teach her. Very interesting too.

Had a course with a top 70s 80s show jumper who will have to stay nameless. Complete disaster! Got my money back, it was so bad.
 
Had a dressage lesson with Mark Todd and watched him give a jumping lesson. Nice guy, great rider but not such a good teacher.
 
My name dropping includes ;)
Yogi Breisner
Stephen Clarke
Gareth Hughes
Richard Davison (really nice bloke)
Pammy Hutton
Adam kemp
Rob Hoekstra

All great experiences
 
ihatework said:
To be brutally honest, I find it far more constructive to find a really good local trainer who you can afford to go to on a regular basis and who 'gets' you and your horse and helps you to develop. Finding one of those is far more difficult than it might first seem, especially when you are looking to move forwards from the basics.
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Very True,
When you find one keep hold of them.
I was lucky to find one and she has been fabulous with me over the years and her persistence in trying to teach me the basics and more helped me go up the levels with my old horse. Her great personality, reliability, patience and belief in people and horses is to me invaluable and of course she is local...bonus!
 
Gosh, in the dim and distant past (use a telescope it's so far away)

Lady Mary Rose Williams
Bruce Davidson
Lucinda Green
Elaine Straker
Karen Dixon
Mark Todd (for me, he was not the greatest of teachers)

More recently
Lionel Dunning (RIP) - he was all right if you had a horse that was not a complete baby but by lesson 4 I realised we weren't going to learn anything new or improve further. However, he did help me get my KWPN mare, who just could not deal with anything under a jump of any shape or form, feeling quite confident towards the end.

John Thelwall - I lurve him. In the few lessons I have had with him I have learned so much. He fully accepts that once I was quite ok on a horse, had a long break, and now am old and completely incompetent (the brain knows what's supposed to happen, how and when but the body just doesn't respond) and builds it in.

And in accordance with the above about a local trainer (JT is quite local), I have (had - horse broken) stressage lessons with Emma Openshaw who has ridden at GP and trained under Isobel Wessels amongst others. I would not swap her for the world. Her holistic approach is simply the best I have ever come across and I have never not come away without feeling a) I've achieved something; b) I have plenty of homework; and c) I've understood everything that she has asked me to do.
 
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Won a weekend with the late Kenneth Clawson, took my ex-racer and had a fantastic time, also same weekend had lessons with Tracey Robinson and JP Sheffield, all very good, came away shattered, 4lbs lighter and happy, my horse was a star. Have had a lesson with Ollie Townend and he was brilliant, very professional and nice with it. Would love to have a lesson with Carl Hester or Charlotte.
 
Auslander said:
Weirdly - I remember the horse you were riding in one of Dicks lessons - mainly because he called it a Hereford cow (Leo!). Can't for the life if me remember who I was riding though!
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That's impressive! I couldn't have told you that -he was a sluggish holsteiner that had no mouth and therefore limited brakes -jumped though. ...

I have a mental image of you on a bay horse -wouldn't have been Richard would it? ?
 
"Also had lessons for donkeys years from John Smart, not a famous name perhaps, but great for giving you confidence."

Wow, that brings back memories! I had two courses of lessons from John on Friday evenings back in the seventies on a wicked little riding school pony that could drop a shoulder so quickly at the last minute he even took John by surprise, poor bloke had to lift poles off me more than once!

Amy has had one xc lesson from Blyth Tait, a couple from Bill Levett and some arena lessons from Bill as well. Will hopefully return to bill at the end of his season, he was doing a great job with her and her young horse.
 
spacefaer said:
That's impressive! I couldn't have told you that -he was a sluggish holsteiner that had no mouth and therefore limited brakes -jumped though. ...

I have a mental image of you on a bay horse -wouldn't have been Richard would it? ?
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Probably was actually. I don't remember getting the sharp end of Dicks tongue, so I was probably swanning around on something decent!
 
Had lessons with Paul Hayler years ago...liked his style but found his focus to the lesson somewhat lacking.

Past couple of years have been training with Nick Gauntlett who has been fantastic, and changed how I approached things on the flat and over jumps.
 
spacefaer said:
Dick Stillwell - rude, eccentric, brilliant
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Absolutely, he scared the living daylights out of me as a teenager in the late 70's as I'd heard his sarcastic put downs used on others at the clinics he did up here in Scotland. He told one established rider who kept carrying his hands low to go outside if he wanted to play with himself and come back when he was finished and told another young rather skinny lad his legs were as ineffective as two straws hanging out a hayloft :eek3: Fortunately he liked my horse and I learnt loads that I still remember and use today.

Few big names ventured up to Scotland in those days so I didn't have many opportunities to be taught by famous names - I did do a clinic with Lionel Dunning but he didn't really "get" my little 15hh horse and asked if I was really sure we had qualified to go to the Foxhunter final at HOYS :frown3:

At PC camp each year we had Audrey Horn (Lady Townley) - maybe not famous as such but taught me so much.

Nowadays I think there are many more opportunities to have training famous names, my son has had lessons from:

Christopher Bartle - excellent and very encouraging
Blyth Tait - fab xc lesson
Jennie Loriston Clarke - not very approachable
Geoff Billington - depends on the day, some great lessons and a couple of truely awful ones so stopped going to him.
Kenneth Clawson - excellent
Spencer Wilton - rude and sarcastic
William Funnell - not very inspiring at all
Alan Fazakerley - helpful and approachable
John Ledingham - excellent
to name some.

Sometimes a big name can give you a lightbulb moment but generally I feel more regular lessons with someone accessible is better - son has had great help from Andrew Hamilton, David Gatherer, Jill Grant and Les Smith who may not be famous but are well known up here!
 
FigJam said:
Now see, I would call those two "top riders" rather than famous, as you don't see them in magazines/interviewed at events for tv etc? Had lessons with both and as everyone on here knows, really rate DG training.
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;)

Was lucky enough to win a lesson with Ian Stark thanks to Horse mag and that was really good. Would like to have another with him, but can't really afford him at £65-ish per lesson when there have been clinics advertised. :( He taught me all about kicking on after fences so have him to thank for our intros at the start of the year with no time faults! ;)

Also had a lesson with Jeanette Brakewell at the start of this year and thought she was brilliant. Would love a flatwork lesson with her as she had some really good pointers that made a big difference in only a small time. :)

Had a lesson with Caroline Powell this year also who was good and was kind enough to bring along a jump saddle to her next set of lessons (which I wasn't at! :o ) that she wanted me to try to prove something she'd told me about my GP saddle (at the time) affecting my jump position, I thought that was really thoughtful and I totally didn't expect it! Feel bad not being on the next lesson...!

Would love lessons with Mark Todd, Matt Ryan, Ollie Townend, Lucinda Green, Yogi Breisner if there were ever any near me/affordable! :)
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how far up north are you ?
lucinda green coming up 28th may , either to henerside park or more than likely titlington tdc
pm me for the details if your interested

i'm thinking of going to the lucinda green training although have heard mixed reports about them and its £65 so has to be 100% worth it for me to part with that amount of hard earned cash :D

i had a lesson of Pammy Hutton last week , it was brilliant and i learned loads although she was a hard tasks master and didn't mice her words ;)
can't wait til she's back in september for more
 
EventingMum said:
Absolutely, he scared the living daylights out of me as a teenager in the late 70's as I'd heard his sarcastic put downs used on others at the clinics he did up here in Scotland. He told one established rider who kept carrying his hands low to go outside if he wanted to play with himself and come back when he was finished
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Reminds me of a classic Marietta Fox-Pitt moment. We were all hacking out, and as we passed the pub, with loads of people sitting outside drinking, she bellowed "Get your hands forward - no-one wants to see a gel scratching her bush like a monkey". Thankfully she wasn't bellowing at me, but I still remember the stunned silence, and the sniggering..
 
Auslander said:
Reminds me of a classic Marietta Fox-Pitt moment. We were all hacking out, and as we passed the pub, with loads of people sitting outside drinking, she bellowed "Get your hands forward - no-one wants to see a gel scratching her bush like a monkey". Thankfully she wasn't bellowing at me, but I still remember the stunned silence, and the sniggering..
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Brilliant!!
 
When I was younger, at home in Gloucestershire had lessons with;

Paul Tapner
Polly Gundry
Adam Kemp
Angela Tucker
Matt Frost

Paul and Polly did a lot of our pony club instruction - both were kind fo event team instructors for a while. Polly was brilliant - she brought her knowledge of both eventing and point to pointing together and was just a really positive helpful instructor who could get you jumping big technical exercises with ease.

Matt Frost was based on our livery yard for a long time, so had regular lessons with him for a while - don't think he loved our big ugly ISH, but he was helpful. I would probably say that I gained more from the limited Adam Kemp lessons that I had.

More recently I have had lessons with Phoebe Buckley and Sharon Hunt, both of whom have been very interesting and given me plenty of useful advice.

I love having lessons with different people and am quite happy to pick the best of the advice I am given from each person. Wish I was able to find someone really good that could travel to me for regular lessons, but not easy to find that!
 
RachelFerd said:
I love having lessons with different people and am quite happy to pick the best of the advice I am given from each person. Wish I was able to find someone really good that could travel to me for regular lessons, but not easy to find that!
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Have you tried John Thelwall? He's not everyone's cup of tea and is a straight bat (says it like it is; and if you don't try, he walks off until you are prepared to do it) but I really loved lessons with him. I rode a baby for a few of them who had unfortunately been taught to 'look pretty' without much forward movement and not a lot of balance. He had me riding with all sorts of different weight distributions and it made a huge difference, gradually bringing everything back to the centre. When the little whatsit decided he was a bit full of himself and stuck his head between his knees, which JT knew would petrify me as my last horse was prone to this and tried to kill me on a regular basis with repeated handstands of two minute duration, JT yelled 'Boot the little b*st**d' at the top of his voice. I got such a shock I did and the horse got such a shock he stopped. I've never had a panic about a bronc again. I loved his jumping lessons. Everything he said worked for me.
 
HeresHoping - no I haven't had lessons with John Thelwall. Where exactly is he based, and will he travel to my yard (we have a 25x50m arena and full set of showjumps)? I have had a few lessons with John Adams who does a monthly monday afternoon clinic at our yard, but monday afternoon is quite inconvenient for me. Have also had a few very good lessons with local showjumper Phil Spivey, but he is very busy most of the summer with his own string.

I would love to find someone who can do the full overview of dressage and jumping rather than a bit of this from one, and a bit of that from the other. I have to be very careful who I have dressage lessons with on my current horse as he is highly over-reactive about some things and cannot be bossed around at all else all toys come out the pram and he will sulk for days....
 
He's based just outside Huntingdon, so would have thought that he would travel that way. He goes down to Sussex about once a fortnight. He was an eventer but showjumped a fair bit, too. He does the As I See It event reviews with Patrick Latham. Do you have Facebook? He's probably easiest to contact that way. If not, I'll p.m. you his number.
 
Having seen him on TV yesterday, I can now say yes I had a lesson with someone famous ;)

I had a XC session with Andrew Heffernan up at Somerford Park a few weeks ago. I can understand why a lot of people don't like his teaching style, but I thought he was great. I wouldn't have wanted to be on a horse that didn't jump well but thankfully mine is bold and genuine. We started the lesson with me saying I wanted to do some BE80s and him looking at me like I'd gone out (horse is basically an overgrown Connie, not much to look at, big head, short neck and I think he thought "oh god, what a numpty"). After 15 mins he told me I was wasting my time, his time and the horse's time preparing for 80s when we should be doing 90s, and he wouldn't have been surprised if I'd already done some 100s. I got loads out of the session and would go back for more XC and for SJ if I was closer to Somerford. What I really liked about his teaching was that before every set of fences, he made me explain how I planned to ride them and why, when and where I would adjust the canter etc. If he thought I was wrong, he told me why and what he would do. Really made me think about what I was doing and analyse it all much more. Worked a lot on my position (sit back more!). I knew when I'd done something wrong, but equally knew when it was right too.

I also had a session from Ben Hobday last year, but he's not so famous!

My normal lessons are from my YO who is a BHSAI, rode on GB pony teams in the Europeans, and ridden recently at BE Int. She teaches me for flat and SJ, and the occasional XC session if it's at a local course. I'm another one who prefers someone who can give me an overview of everything because the issues I get in DR (e.g., tending to stifle the canter so it looks pretty but doesn't really power through) translate into my SJ (not getting a big or powerful enough canter, so getting iffy jumps).
 
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