Riding with two different instructors?

[JustMe22]

I recently had lessons with two different dressage instructors on my young horse. While I think I know what route I will go down, it brought about an interesting question.

Horse is an ex-racer who is 4. He's gone out at Prelim with decent scores but is ready to start doing some more serious work now. I've not had lessons in ages, but am aware of a few bad habits which are preventing both me and him from progressing as fast as we could. He came to me straight out of racing and was quite nappy and would buck at the leg and nap towards the gate etc. I think partly it was just lack of understanding of what the leg meant. We did lots of hacking, some schooling and jumping, and went forward at all costs. He is now easy off the leg and goes forward quite happily in all three paces.

Instructor A used to event to a very high level but then switched to pure dressage after her event horse got injured and could no longer event. Lesson with her was great in terms of sending the horse very forward into a still hand. All stuff I know but obviously by riding alone for ages, bad habits have come out. I enjoyed the lesson and felt that he started to work quite nicely and into the contact, but I did feel that he was a little stiff on the left and that I had to use a bit more weight in the reins than I would like, though not pulling.

Instructor B came and straight away said the horse is lovely and forward and straight, but the rhythm is too fast for him and gives him a trot that looks choppy. She says he overarches his neck sometimes (true) and needs to slow down although still be responsive to the leg, learn to develop more rhythm and cadence etc. She says we must not lose sight of the forwardness, but get him to use himself correctly and then build the more active/forward trot from there. We spent a lot of the lesson in walk and trot and the horse was in a longer frame (although with the poll still as the highest point) but beautifully soft, and I could feel him really looking for the contact and trying to find the right answer. She is, however, the only trainer who has ever told me that the horse is too forward - jumping instructor wants everything going very forward immediately. I feel that slow is fine, as long as the horse remains in front of the leg.

Instructor B for me feels like the kind of instructor who is going to almost change the way he goes, but I think it will be a case of back to basics for a couple of months followed by a vast improvement. She has students competing very successfully on multiple horses PSG/Inter/GP and rides GP herself. I want to go with her (but it is a bit awkward as Instructor A is trying to organise my next lesson!)

My question though is theoretically, can you ride with two instructors like this? Of course instructors who are complementary can work together, and I'm sure a lot of us have different instructors for dressage and jumping, but if the basic school of thought on how the horse should be going at this stage is so different, can it ever work? I do plan on probably just going with Instructor B, but I'm interested to know what people think in terms of whether trainers can work together or not.

 

[PaddyMonty]

I've used two instructors before but they worked on pretty similar lines but focused on different aspects so all worked well. However, in your situation I would be very wary as the odds of confusing the horse and yourself seem high. Personally I would go with one instructor but keep an open mind for the future

 

[Cortez]

Basically you have two instructors who are telling you to do opposite things. I don't see how this will work and will result in confusion, and not only for the horse. Being more of an "Instructor B" type myself, I'd obviously say go with that school of training. Eventing dressage is not the same as "pure" dressage though, so if your ambitions lie in that direction (eventing) then learning from someone who specialises in it would be to your advantage.

 

[paddi22]

i had an exracer that went similarly and battled with the same trot/speed issue for years. Even when he felt lovely, we still had an overarched neck issue at times and I hit a wall on his dressage over it, I just felt that while it was fine, it could be much better.

Went to a new trainer and she took me straight back to basics on everything and changed his way of going completely. At the heart of it though was finding the horses natural rhytmn and working from there. In my horses case, it was slowing it down more. Whereas in older lessons it had always been to push him forward. But he went 100% better witht he new instructor and our contact and how he worked through his back was so much better. So you are right to go with B.

Like you I was stuck juggling the 2 instructors due to politics. But I just made very clear in my head what instructor B was developing with me and I never went off track if instructor a told me to speed up etc. Instead I would focus instructor A at the start of the lesson and say I wanted to work on leg position, my shoulders, polework etc, stuff that wouldn't contradict what the other instructor was getting me to do.

 

[paddi22]

that's a really good point by cortez. If you are planning to concentrate on eventing later on, you are better to work mainly with a dressage instructor who understands that sport.
I find pure dressage teachers great for a bootcamp, but you need to have an instructor who understands that event horses have different temperaments, different muscle development and a different mindset.

This is a completely different point and nothing to do with the post but It is an awful sight now seeing more and more horses that have been 'over-dressage' developed on cross country courses.

 

[JustMe22]

Basically you have two instructors who are telling you to do opposite things. I don't see how this will work and will result in confusion, and not only for the horse. Being more of an "Instructor B" type myself, I'd obviously say go with that school of training. Eventing dressage is not the same as "pure" dressage though, so if your ambitions lie in that direction (eventing) then learning from someone who specialises in it would be to your advantage.

As I mentioned in the post, I personally will be picking one instructor in this scenario. It did make me think about it in a more general sense though, so was interested to see what others say. Of course, more than one road leads to Rome. I don't plan on doing any serious eventing whatsoever, though might play around at the lower levels with him

I've used two instructors before but they worked on pretty similar lines but focused on different aspects so all worked well. However, in your situation I would be very wary as the odds of confusing the horse and yourself seem high. Personally I would go with one instructor but keep an open mind for the future

This was the case with my jumping instructor. He has great flatwork and wants the horses to always be forward but in a relaxed rhythm. With previous horses, his jumping instruction has always complemented my dressage lessons really well. In this particular case I think I would probably take a break from the SJ until the horse is established in his rhythm and ready to ask for the level of forward-going that the SJ instructor requires before confusing him with two different ways of riding.

i had an exracer that went similarly and battled with the same trot/speed issue for years. Even when he felt lovely, we still had an overarched neck issue at times and I hit a wall on his dressage over it, I just felt that while it was fine, it could be much better.

Went to a new trainer and she took me straight back to basics on everything and changed his way of going completely. At the heart of it though was finding the horses natural rhytmn and working from there. In my horses case, it was slowing it down more. Whereas in older lessons it had always been to push him forward. But he went 100% better witht he new instructor and our contact and how he worked through his back was so much better. So you are right to go with B.

Like you I was stuck juggling the 2 instructors due to politics. But I just made very clear in my head what instructor B was developing with me and I never went off track if instructor a told me to speed up etc. Instead I would focus instructor A at the start of the lesson and say I wanted to work on leg position, my shoulders, polework etc, stuff that wouldn't contradict what the other instructor was getting me to do.

that's a really good point by cortez. If you are planning to concentrate on eventing later on, you are better to work mainly with a dressage instructor who understands that sport.
I find pure dressage teachers great for a bootcamp, but you need to have an instructor who understands that event horses have different temperaments, different muscle development and a different mindset.

This is a completely different point and nothing to do with the post but It is an awful sight now seeing more and more horses that have been 'over-dressage' developed on cross country courses.

It was an interesting thing! I wouldn't say I felt like I was going backwards per se, but while she said he was going how a young horse should at his stage, it was clear we had some refining to do before things could really progress. I don't think I have ever had quite such an enlightening lesson and I feel now is the time to establish that work rather than late when, as you say, I feel I'm likely to hit a plateau. The horse has a very well set on neck and I feel will come up in front correctly and quite easily, if I get the basics right.

I'm definitely not planning to concentrate on eventing! I like to showjump up to 1.20ish (at home rather than at shows preferably!) and do some smaller XC for the fun of it, and for general athleticism and cross-training purposes, but I cannot ever see myself willingly galloping down to a solid 1.20 fence or an enormous ditch!

 

[nikkimariet]

The instructors clash. There's no way around it.

Your gut already tells you B will help shape your horses training.