Lessons-value for money? Are pupils loosing out?

[PaddyMonty]

I teach a small number of people (mainly jumping). I dont charge them a penny for lessons. I do it because I enjoy it.
All these pupils have said they get more out of a single lesson than they have during months with their previous instructors. Now I've often wondered why that is. I haven't had any formal training as a riding instructor or to be honest very much training as a rider.
Last weekend I started teaching a new pupil. Very switch on lady (airline captain) who again made the same comment as my other pupils. When asked why her comment was that I go straight to the root cause of the problem and focus on a SINGLE element which allowed her to concentrate on that alone.
I guess this comes from being a gliding instructor where I would always focus on the issue that was most likely to kill the pupil and eridicate that before moving on.
This got me thinking about the odd lesson I have had with really good instructors. Without fail they took the same approach.
For a period of time I did charge for lessons but found I became too hung up about giving 'value for money', modified the way i taught and became less effective as a result.
Watching a lot of other instructors teaching I notice that a great many of them seem to be doing the same thing and fire so many things at the pupil to work on that they become almost overloaded and fail to achieve anything really.

So my question is....does attempting to give 'value for money' really help the pupil or is there a danger that too much information is passed over (for all the right reasons) making progress much more difficult to achieve.

Your thoughts?

 

[the watcher]

I can't comment on my lessons because it has been years since I had one. I know my son didn't progress at a Riding School, but did improve dramatically with individual lessons when he was being taught by a racing jockey - of all unlikely things.
Whether that improvement was down to her teaching style, regular lessons on the same pony, or just the individual attention is hard to say but the lesson I took away from it is that the best instruction is not necessarily always in a riding school environment.

 

[Hovis_and_SidsMum]

Its an interesting one. My hubby and I had riding lessons for over 18 months before we bought Sidney. When we moved yards one of the other liveries (another bloke) went over to hubby one day whilst he was riding and said " I hope you don't mind but I can't help but notice how behind your leg you're riding that horse and it looks really hard work!". In less than 15 minutes this guy had hubby riding better than I'd ever seen him ride. As if he made something just "click". He helps hubby out from time to time informally teaching him (for no money) and hubby has improved tenfold. It has been commented that we might as well of set fire to the money we'd spent on lessons for all the good it had done!

 

[Janah]

I have a friend who was having issues with sitting to canter. She had a lot of lessons and this aspect was completely ignored. It was all about getting the horse on the bit. How any one can achieve a good outline if they can't sit properly is a mystery to me. I helped her through this problem over one or two casual lessons, just concentrating on the problem, she couldn't manage sitting trot either.

I think a lot of instructers don't work on the rider enough, but on the horse.

I think the basic's are being overlooked with both horse and rider.

Jane

 

[trundle]

I think you are right about pupils being overloaded in lessons. I spent several months at one particular riding school, having private lessons twice a week, and kidded myself i was doing reasonably well.

Then i went and sat on my share horse, and found that actually, i had no balance, no seat and couldn't ride one side of her. I knew lots about riding slightly lazy RS horses, but not much about riding a very sensitive horse that went off seat and weight aids and rarely needed much leg.

I like my old instructor a lot, I don't actually think she was a poor instructor, but she was working within the limitations of a RS, and essentially she had to teach me to ride the RS horses, rather than teach me to ride correctly.

If you are lucky enough to have a RS full of really well-schooled serious schoolmasters, then i think you can teach people to ride correctly. If like most RSs, though, you have a stable full of "normal" horses and ponies, you really are limited to teaching people how to ride them.

 

[Baggybreeches]

I think it depends on the teacher's perception of what the pupil wants. Up here most folk are obsessed with having a horse 'on the bit' *shudder* (I hate that expression) where as the horse would benefit greatly from a few small changes to the rider. I think quite often if you can put your finger on an individual fault, then a few others are 'automatically' fixed by the same remedy.

 

[AnnaandStella]

It depends on what the customer WANTS from a lesson, though.

I had three years of private lessons on schoolmaster type horses at a good but expensive yard that was a half hour drive away. The progression was very slow as the horses did all the work for you - i just had to sit prettily and give approximate cues.

I gave up for a couple of years to concentrate on school work, then took back up lessons with my father and brother who were bitten by the horsie bug when i convinced them on a western holiday in the rockies.

We've had 4 instructors in the yard we take lessons at now, which is 5 mins away, and instead of schoolmasters you have bombproof riding school ponies.

They're not complete donkies but they are limited in ability, as are the pupils inc me, BUT this stable doesn't concentrate on a technically correct LOOK of riding, but concentrates on making sure you're comfortable and balanced in the saddle

Also, they keep it fun hence they have customers who take weekly lessons for a number of years happily

In other words, schoolmasters are nice in theory but they give you no indication of what riding "real" horses is like

Our new schoolmistress is very different from a riding school schoolmistress - ask her nicely and she'll do it for you but you do have to ask.

 

[CrazyMare]

This sounds a very familiar story to me!!

I have my lessons once a week, with a fab instructor, we acctually chat alot through the lesson, beacuse 45mins of sitting trot needs you to breathe, but the instructions as to what to correct focus on a very small fault in me or the horse, and by correcting that we are acheiving progression every single week. I try to pass this on to the horses owner in informal lessons, where she commented how I don't always say alot, but the exercises and comments I do make, make a difference.

Also a good friend has asked for help with her mare, and said how previously she was have three one hour lessons a week and going nowhere, yet in maybe 6 hours over 5 weeks with me she has gained the confidence to ride her mare, rather than sit on her, and competed in her first dressage test.

Now I don't see myself as an amazing rider, just a perfectionist at what I can acctually already do. I do think there is a problem with people wanting to acheive more than their current skill base will allow them. As a gymnastics coach I worked on the true basics before advancing as it became glaringly obvious which gymnasts had a firm base in basic moevements and linking steps when routines were performed under stress. I compare that to a good seat, good leg position and good hands, if one is lacking it will show up BIG TIME when the work gets more difficult.

Sorry, bit of an essay!!

 

[viola]

From an Instructor point of view (I work as a freelance one) I totally agree with you! I much rather concentrate on one thing and get it right before moving on. However, I can only comfortably do this with private clients. When I teach at riding schools the clients expect me to tell them more.
I sometimes meet people who are really anxcious to know more that they can physically do and mentally absorb. If I go with their wishes we end up having big theoretical debate. If they go by my terms the horses usually improve and the riders follow.
I am now testing a new system. All my regular clients get print outs on theory. They can pursue this anytime they want, they come back to me and we chat. When there is a time for a lesson we pick the single thing they most want to explore and concentrate on that.

From the pupil point of view: I had lessons off some good trainers and not so good ones. My preferred method is when the trainer observes the horse and rider and is quick with short, accurate instructions. I also like being intellectually stimulated during lessons so like the trainer to ask me questions so we can arrive at certain results together. I don't like a lecture and information overload when I am riding, that's for sure.
The best flatwork lesson I have had so far was with Anna R.-D. Very to the point and improvement in the horse spoke for itself.

I think value for money is reflected in the improvement in the rider and the horse, not in the amount of information they are given in 45 minutes.

 

[carthorse]

It does depend on the pupil ,some pupils don't realise that most problems with a horse stem from them ,they just want to blame the horse .To improve the horse they have to work on their core strength, their feel and their co-ordination ,this can take time but they usually want instant results without work on themselves.Maybe this is why I gave up teaching after seeing pupils hacking out in drawreins!

 

[Shilasdair]

I have had lessons from a huge number of instructors/trainers/blah blah over the years...and have managed to learn from most of them....you just have to have an open mind and listen.
If you are having lessons/teaching, please make sure you are insured, and have a current first aid qualification. Accidents happen, and you'd never forgive yourself if you weren't prepared properly.
S