OK, so what would you do???

How much do you spend

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T_K

T_K

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You're in a lesson at an RC or College, you're on a young, green horse that is being trialled for the RC/College.

It seems a little confused/unbalanced and even nappy.

The instructor tells you to 'beat it', 'put the fear of god into it' and 'make it think you're going to kill it'.....what would you do?
 
tell the instructor that is the way to ruin a horse, which needs consistency, patience and firm handling plus rewards immediately when it does work well, reinforcing good behaviour. Report them to their professional body, tell everyone you know that they are not professional and do not use them again. Beating a horse is NOT the way to get it to acquiesce.
 
How amazing that over 80% of you would stand up to the instructor, but on another thread, 80% of people said that they were intimidated by their instructor and did as they were told, but wished they hadn't ... perhaps the question should have been "what would you like to do if you were not intimidated by your instructor"

I would put money on hardly anyone telling their instructor to f off no matter how brave they are on line.
 
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I would put money on hardly anyone telling their instructor to f off no matter how brave they are on line.

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Really? As the paying customer (OK this doesn't fit this thread but in general terms) I expect the instructor to adapt to my abilities and those of the horse to bring out the best in both of us. If this was not happening I wouldn't hesitate to say so - although it would have to be pretty extreme for me to actually tell them to f off.
 
I'd tell the instructor to get on it
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having a bloody minded streak and not much regard for authority I would tell my instructor no if they told me to beat something.I've done it in the past when I was a kid and more recently I asked an instructor to get off of my 4yo as I didnt care for how they were riding him and now I'm grateful to have an instructor who wouldnt put me in that position.
 
I would happilly tell my instructor where to stick it if she was making me do something I wasnt comfy with/disagreed with. And then chase her off my yard, with a lunge whip - make sure she keeps going 'forward'.
 
I would walk away.

Funnily enough psychology studies show that 100% of people predict they would do the right thing in a moral situation, but when faced with it only 40% do!!
 
Have to say I am a wuss, or very much used to be with instructors and would have likely done whatever they told me, so thats what I voted
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But I have continued a lesson (for an hour til the end) with a terrible instructor who told me I 'rode like sh*t' within the first five mins of her watching me. I should have walked out then, but was too shocked and intimidated to do anything. Now, I would tell them to get lost, and definitely wouldn't do what they said unless I trusted what they wanted me to do.
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I believe that MH and K WOULD tell their instructor what they thought. They are the 20%. I don't believe MH would even get anywhere near a situation where she would tell someone to f off! But having read several threads, they are in the minority. In real life, people are nowhere near as brave and upstanding as they like to believe.
 
I voted 'other' for a couple of reasons - firstly my 30 somthing self (now) is far more assertive than my teenage / twenty something self, and as I assume this is following on from the post further down, if I was the age of the girl in the video I'd not have said a word, but now I would. (If that makes sense)
Secondly - I am now quite diplomatic and I would probably have commented that I wasn't comfortable with the instruction - could I try.....(insert appropriate suggestion here)? I would then proceeded to do what I thought best (
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it can be very very difficult to stand up to an instructor even if you are brave and, ahem, mature and confident, on your own horse - even in a non-college situation (and that would make it worse... insubordination wouldn't be good for your reputation etc)
i was in a LG clinic at MK years ago (not the first of hers i've been on) and she built a very weird-looking skinny. i knew my big spooky wb would jump it, he was always honest, but that he'd be very wary and would balloon it like a loony (he was SJ bred and had oodles of scope), and i explained this carefully and tried to get out of jumping it. she insisted i should do it because everyone else was. sure enough, he jumped it first time, but he cleared it by about 4' with his head between his knees peering at it, and i only just clung on.
to be fair, she did come up to me immediately, agree that she should not have insisted i should jump it, and say that i didn't have to do it again... thank god!
so.... in the situation described above, as a kid at college on someone else's horse, i'd probably have done as i was told, because the instructor obviously knew more than i did...
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The thing is, if you're novice enough to need to be told how to deal with a napping horse (rather than having a discussion with the instructor about what to do), then the likelihood is you will believe that what the instructor tells you to do is the right thing - after all they are more experienced than you, which is why they are teaching you. I'm not sure it's fair to judge someone for believing a professional....

I know that now I am more likely to say no to something than say two years ago, because I now have more faith in my own riding ability. If I'm not sure about doing something now I tend to ask for the rationale so I can make my own mind up.

Equally, I had two vets out to my horse who told me he was fine and needed riding through it in 2008, and so that's what I tried to do, eventually I went to a different practice and it turned out I was right all along and there was something physical. Sometimes you make the wrong choice, there's not a lot of point in wallowing in guilt about it, or vilifying people over it, or speculating about what someone else would do in the same situation. You just chalk it up to experience, make sure you learn from it and move on. It's only a problem if the next time it happens you make the same wrong choice again.
 
As someone who refused to do what the Chief Examiner in an exam situation told me to do, as it would have been detrimental to me at the time (but probably not too much to the horse), I am quite sure that I would tell the instructor politely that I did not agree and would not be following instructions. In fact, now I'm thinking about it, I seem to remember several similar situations at school with teachers as well!
 
When I started riding or in my early teenage years I would have done as I was told. Now however if I didn't feel comfortable with what the instructor was telling me to do I would tell them so and leave the lesson. In that situation the horse isn't mine so it isn't up to me if the horse stays in the lesson or not.
 
Dismount, hand over horse, if Instructor commented then I would make a choice reply most likely (though would consider keeping my mouth closed), walk away without intention of returning.

I've done it before, would do it again. Situation wasn't quite so violent, but instructor being a cow to me, and her 'teaching' doing nothing good for my horse and scaring the life out of her. So I took her home and didn't bother going back.
 
I have been in a similar situation when I first got my horse about 7 years ago. She was refusing to jump and I was told to make her scared to say no. I am ashamed to say i did as I was told which resulted in me falling off and me and my horse completely losing confidence in each other. It was later found that she had problems with her saddle. I dont jump her anymore which is a shame but took up dressage instead which she is very good at. I have another horse as well now but i still have problems with my confidence jumping her even though she has never refused. If it happened now I would tell them where to go as I have learned to trust my own judgement. But I completely understand how difficult it is.
 
Having been to a equine college, though thankfully was never told to beat a horse, just the odd smack, I remember once being told to hit a horse till it bucked, usually twice, because then I knew it was listening. This was a middle aged RDA cob, thick skinned and thick brained
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In the 2 years I was at the college I walked out of 2 lessons. One was a jump lesson where we were being taught by a lecturer as our normal instructor was ill. I'm not sure if this lecturer was even qualified to teach but she gave me no help at all so I walked out.
And another time was a lunge lesson (us 'learning' to lunge). I was injured so wasn't allowed to lunge just watch. A girl was lunging a horse who's owners had strictly said we could not use a whip with for anything, there was notices on her stable door saying this. This girl picked up a whip and cracked it
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The horse started to panic and kicked a dressage board across the arena narrowly missing my friend and the horse she was lunging. After a heated discussion with the instructor, pointing out the no whip signs etc, which got know where we stormed out.
Back then with peer pressure and the fact we were loud mouthed teenagers we would stand up to the instructors. Now, I don't really have lessons, my boss will instruct us, but they are not lessons as such. I have answered my boss back a few times but my boss knows me well enough not to rise and just tell me to get on with it. I think if I disagreed with what someone was telling me to do with a horse I would either walk out or ignore them. But I don't no till it happens.

I will just add I learnt nothing riding or stable management wise at this college that I didn't already know. I'm not saying it was a bad college but because of the different level of people there, complete novices etc, we were taught at the level of the lowest person.
 
QR I have taken my horse and walked out mid way through a lesson because I was not happy with what I was being told to do to my horse, and would not hesitate to do it again.
 
I WOULD, tell the instructor there is something wrong with the pony (mentally/physically) that needs evaluating on a one to one!! not with an arena full of students for saftey/timing reasons, call over another person/persons, get more opinions, conclude to put the pony away, make as much noise as needed to get this done!!!


I WOULD NOT, do jack sh*t,apart from vid it, put it on public forum, to no benefit of man nor beast, 2 years later!!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
You're in a lesson at an RC or College, you're on a young, green horse that is being trialled for the RC/College.

It seems a little confused/unbalanced and even nappy.

The instructor tells you to 'beat it', 'put the fear of god into it' and 'make it think you're going to kill it'.....what would you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, grow up.
S
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ETA: I'm so bored of all these self righteous people who are so shocked, uphauled, discussted (
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) at the video. And - to answer the question, as you've probably spotted, I'm not one of the bandwagon jumpers, so more than capable of going my own way.
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I think I'd try to do what she/he said at first but then I'd feel really uncomfortable and probably burst into tears if I'm honest and then leave the arena and let them scream at me after and refuse to ride again for them.
 
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I voted 'other' for a couple of reasons - firstly my 30 somthing self (now) is far more assertive than my teenage / twenty something self, and as I assume this is following on from the post further down, if I was the age of the girl in the video I'd not have said a word, but now I would. (If that makes sense)
Secondly - I am now quite diplomatic and I would probably have commented that I wasn't comfortable with the instruction - could I try.....(insert appropriate suggestion here)? I would then proceeded to do what I thought best (
wink.gif
)

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Exactly what i would have said.
I was a WP when i was 16/17/18 and thought whatever my instructor said was the correct thing to do, 10 years later now tell me otherwise, though some things which i learnt then stay very much with me....i quite often use 'it' when referring to a naughty horsey
 
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Leave the arena with the horse and tell the instructor to poke her lunge whip where the sun doesn't shine...

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Ditto, I certainly would never have that instructor near my horse again.
 
I dont have it in me to be rude enough to tell an instructor to F*** off but I would never beat a horse like that. I've been to equine college and ridden lazy, nappy horses there. Although my instructors wernt like that one they would tell me to smack it harder than I wanted to. I wouldnt do it.
 
Regarding the actual video - wasn't it taken of pupils riding for an instructor on a degree course at a college? Who knows what the actual rider was thinking at the time... probably too worried about 'upsetting' the instructor who was inevitably also responsible for 'grading her' towards her course results. Bloody shameful situation. Wonder if the horse was retained by the college or returned to its owner - deemed 'unsuitable'. Let's hope it was the latter scenario.
 
Just had an interesting revelation - I used to go to a riding school about 15 years ago - maybe longer. There was a ploddy cob there called Melody - she was great as a beginners horse but was a pain to get into canter. There was only one thing that got Melody going, she was petrified of whips, most of the instructors knew this but one day I had a new instructor, he picked a whip to give it to me and she took off - she cantered round the arena for about 5 mins and I had no chance of stopping her until the instructor put the whip down......this has made me wonder whether the scenario in the video was similar to what made Melody that way.
 
either tell her i wouldn't do it or leave the arena.

i did this in a PC rally with a stupid dressage trainer who refused to see that my pony was tired (i had hacked there as opposed to all other kids who went in their Oakleys) and wanted me to keep trotting round and round and round.

she got huffy and asked what i would do if she wouldn't allow me to walk him on a long rein and i said i will leave the arena and complain to the DC.

looking back i;m pretty impressed i stood up for my pony when i was only 13 and no parent in sight!
 
If this happened to me now I would tell the instructor where to stick her whip but as a youngster (which the girl in that video was) I would have gone along with it.
I would have felt very guilty about it & regretted my part in the incident but when you're young & being told to do something by an older & more exprienced person it isn't easy to stand up to them.
 
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