Caol Ila
Well-Known Member
My friend occasionally asks if I will restart lessons, and my answer is, "Not yet."
Then yesterday, I watched another yard friend have a lesson with a different visiting trainer, who everyone raves about. She had a similar style to the other trainer - a relentless barrage of critique and instruction. "Keep your shoulders back, do x with your hands, don't let him fall on the forehand, look up, push your inside leg forward, weight your outside stirrup, ride a ten meter circle, now go across the diagonal..." All of which are totally valid criticisms of pretty much everyone's riding, and this is a standard style of teaching. I see BHS-accredited instructors doing the same thing. I remember it well as a kid (and dreading riding lessons but going anyway because I loved horses, and it was the only way to be around them until I got my own). It seems like the mainstream paradigm of teaching, the US and the UK.
But on thinking about it, this is why I stopped taking lessons many years ago and did not start for a long time, and on thinking a bit more, it may have been one of the reasons for my disastrous lesson back in August. The horse was spooking at the vending machine and weird chairs in the corner, but then I was getting very frazzled by the style of instruction. Fin does not do flustered, ever. He needs calm and cool handling and riding at all times. He is more Spanish than my Spanish horse and responds quite negatively to stressed handling/riding. When he's anxious about something on the trail, finding your inner calm, happy person who looooooves trail riding is highly effective at settling him. But when there's an external person firing instructions, I can't get near that inner tranquility, which sometimes requires me to say aloud, "We are having fun!"
The other thing is that if you ask me what I learned from the lesson or could improve on, based on the trainer's critiques, I wouldn't have any idea. I don't remember any of the instructions. It's like a sensory processing fail, and whereas some riders (better ones) can be 99% aware of what their legs, seat, hands etc. are doing at all times, I've always found that really hard, which is definitely a processing issue. Somehow, I have trained my horses to compensate and understand me, despite my shite equitation, but I just have no idea that my leg has wandered to the wrong place, again, unless I consciously think about it. But most of us can only consciously think about a couple things at once. It makes it easy to get frazzled in a lesson. "Not my left leg again!"
Another friend also found her first lesson overwhelming, and she brought it up to the trainer. The trainer said something like, "Well, you're paying for my time and knowledge, and it's my job to impart as much of that as possible."
When I was teaching riding, I had quite a different style. My first job was at a yard where we were working with kids who had all sorts of processing disorders, so you could not flood them, and then when I did it freelance here in the UK, I applied those skills to my adult students. I would try to identify the most useful thing they could fix in that moment (we all have multiple bad habits!), tell them to soften their elbows/get their stirrups under them/whatever, then talk bollocks for a minute or two, which gave them a little time to breathe and to process the thing I told them to do. I hope my students found it helpful. One of them occasionally posts here, lol.
However, not every minute of our hour-long lesson was spent on actual instruction, so you could argue it was less valuable than the above trainers. I was very cheap, though.
Mark and Crissi Rashid, who both gave me the best lessons I have ever had, worked on pinpointing one issue and focused on improving that. They were super chilled, as only Coloradans can be. Obviously in a two-day clinic situation, they know they are not going to fix everything with every horse-rider combination, so that's a smart strategy. But it worked for me, and I can still remember what they told me to do. They are both very fine communicators and horsepeople.
How much emphasis is there on actual pedagogy and learning theory (for humans!) in the riding instructor certification schemes? My guess would be little-to-none, based on my brief reading of the BHS syllabus when I thought about doing the stages for all of five minutes. I wonder if we would produce more good riders out of riding schools if riding instructors had more training in pedagogy and learning theory, instead of just shouting, "Heels down! Sit up!" all the time. On this forum, we always talk about how much horsemanship across the board could be improved. If empathy towards people could be improved, from the very start of their riding journeys, then would that filter down to empathy and sensitivity towards horses? When I was a kid at a riding school, I can remember that being screamed at to "Kick harder! and to Not let him do that!!" made me feel stressed and anxious. I doubt I was the only one. Stress makes for braced, tight riders, and horses who brace in response and then need to be kicked to go. A vicious cycle.
Just musing and procrastinating on real work and going to the barn on a dreicht day.
Ultimately, I suppose, if you want a trainer, you should be aware your limitations and the style of training that suits you. As a kid, I would ride with whoever was on offer, hating it to various degrees. As an adult, I don't have to do that, but it makes me wonder if we can do better, from the first leadline lessons on up.
Then yesterday, I watched another yard friend have a lesson with a different visiting trainer, who everyone raves about. She had a similar style to the other trainer - a relentless barrage of critique and instruction. "Keep your shoulders back, do x with your hands, don't let him fall on the forehand, look up, push your inside leg forward, weight your outside stirrup, ride a ten meter circle, now go across the diagonal..." All of which are totally valid criticisms of pretty much everyone's riding, and this is a standard style of teaching. I see BHS-accredited instructors doing the same thing. I remember it well as a kid (and dreading riding lessons but going anyway because I loved horses, and it was the only way to be around them until I got my own). It seems like the mainstream paradigm of teaching, the US and the UK.
But on thinking about it, this is why I stopped taking lessons many years ago and did not start for a long time, and on thinking a bit more, it may have been one of the reasons for my disastrous lesson back in August. The horse was spooking at the vending machine and weird chairs in the corner, but then I was getting very frazzled by the style of instruction. Fin does not do flustered, ever. He needs calm and cool handling and riding at all times. He is more Spanish than my Spanish horse and responds quite negatively to stressed handling/riding. When he's anxious about something on the trail, finding your inner calm, happy person who looooooves trail riding is highly effective at settling him. But when there's an external person firing instructions, I can't get near that inner tranquility, which sometimes requires me to say aloud, "We are having fun!"
The other thing is that if you ask me what I learned from the lesson or could improve on, based on the trainer's critiques, I wouldn't have any idea. I don't remember any of the instructions. It's like a sensory processing fail, and whereas some riders (better ones) can be 99% aware of what their legs, seat, hands etc. are doing at all times, I've always found that really hard, which is definitely a processing issue. Somehow, I have trained my horses to compensate and understand me, despite my shite equitation, but I just have no idea that my leg has wandered to the wrong place, again, unless I consciously think about it. But most of us can only consciously think about a couple things at once. It makes it easy to get frazzled in a lesson. "Not my left leg again!"
Another friend also found her first lesson overwhelming, and she brought it up to the trainer. The trainer said something like, "Well, you're paying for my time and knowledge, and it's my job to impart as much of that as possible."
When I was teaching riding, I had quite a different style. My first job was at a yard where we were working with kids who had all sorts of processing disorders, so you could not flood them, and then when I did it freelance here in the UK, I applied those skills to my adult students. I would try to identify the most useful thing they could fix in that moment (we all have multiple bad habits!), tell them to soften their elbows/get their stirrups under them/whatever, then talk bollocks for a minute or two, which gave them a little time to breathe and to process the thing I told them to do. I hope my students found it helpful. One of them occasionally posts here, lol.
However, not every minute of our hour-long lesson was spent on actual instruction, so you could argue it was less valuable than the above trainers. I was very cheap, though.
Mark and Crissi Rashid, who both gave me the best lessons I have ever had, worked on pinpointing one issue and focused on improving that. They were super chilled, as only Coloradans can be. Obviously in a two-day clinic situation, they know they are not going to fix everything with every horse-rider combination, so that's a smart strategy. But it worked for me, and I can still remember what they told me to do. They are both very fine communicators and horsepeople.
How much emphasis is there on actual pedagogy and learning theory (for humans!) in the riding instructor certification schemes? My guess would be little-to-none, based on my brief reading of the BHS syllabus when I thought about doing the stages for all of five minutes. I wonder if we would produce more good riders out of riding schools if riding instructors had more training in pedagogy and learning theory, instead of just shouting, "Heels down! Sit up!" all the time. On this forum, we always talk about how much horsemanship across the board could be improved. If empathy towards people could be improved, from the very start of their riding journeys, then would that filter down to empathy and sensitivity towards horses? When I was a kid at a riding school, I can remember that being screamed at to "Kick harder! and to Not let him do that!!" made me feel stressed and anxious. I doubt I was the only one. Stress makes for braced, tight riders, and horses who brace in response and then need to be kicked to go. A vicious cycle.
Just musing and procrastinating on real work and going to the barn on a dreicht day.
Ultimately, I suppose, if you want a trainer, you should be aware your limitations and the style of training that suits you. As a kid, I would ride with whoever was on offer, hating it to various degrees. As an adult, I don't have to do that, but it makes me wonder if we can do better, from the first leadline lessons on up.
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