hock
Well-Known Member
So I have someone that does the yard on a Saturday morning and is doing her bhs 3 in a few weeks. She’s having 4 lessons a week with a stage 5 coach. She uses her own horse for lessons usually but she’s sled to ride one of mine in her lesson. I was very surprised and I’ll be honest I thought the instruction was very focused and attentive but the actual knowledge lacking and full of buzz words.
I train people a bit and was interested to watch, the positive I took from it is I’m very centred on the way the horse goes and I need to focus more on the rider. I don’t completely ignore the rider performance of course but il more about developing the feel etc. when I asked a few questions at the end she was so defensive and quoted “I don’t see myself as an instructor I see myself as a coach” .. pure David Brent moment. Once of the questions I asked was about maintaining a canter .. she said use your inside leg only to maintain canter. Well how does that work for lateral work, surely that teaches a horse to go faster with an inside leg? But she said it’s all about symmetry and the canter starting at the outside hind .. well surely symmetry means using both seat bones together with an open sit to go forwards more (I’m a believer in you train your horse to canter and it’s their job to keep that canter not the riders) and then close the seat to half halt/or collect etc. I watched several leg yields where the front was leading heavily and the hind running to catch up and heard a “super”. And also a you want to encourage them to go through the shoulder .. I do allow the first or second lesson to go through the shoulder on a youngster but this is a horse that has a novicey shoulder in.
I could go on and on I was just shocked. BUT if I’m way off on the new standards of teaching I am happy to be told. It was also the massive defensiveness of the “coach” at £50 an hour. I never understand this as surely we should be encouraging everyone to ask why?
Just for the record I’ve been giving the rider a few lessons as she’s a lovely girl and she’d like to ride some of mine and she does have a lovely calm way about her with the horses (for free) and I’ve had to teach her: contact (work in progress), outside rein inside leg, to sit the first few strides of walk to trot trans and vice versa, to sit going into canter, to make sure she has slight inside bend for canter. And the big one which I haven’t messed with yet before her exam is inside bend, counter flexion and straightness (on a straight line). Just for the record I’ve been using a cone for her to circle before asking for canter so the horse has bend. She asked again this week to ride my horses in lessons and I had to say no. My school master would have coped with the vagueness but why should he. Anyway sorry for the long post .. I’ve been thinking about this for days and I don’t need agreement I just want to know if this is normal? The teaching from a stage 5 coach.
I train people a bit and was interested to watch, the positive I took from it is I’m very centred on the way the horse goes and I need to focus more on the rider. I don’t completely ignore the rider performance of course but il more about developing the feel etc. when I asked a few questions at the end she was so defensive and quoted “I don’t see myself as an instructor I see myself as a coach” .. pure David Brent moment. Once of the questions I asked was about maintaining a canter .. she said use your inside leg only to maintain canter. Well how does that work for lateral work, surely that teaches a horse to go faster with an inside leg? But she said it’s all about symmetry and the canter starting at the outside hind .. well surely symmetry means using both seat bones together with an open sit to go forwards more (I’m a believer in you train your horse to canter and it’s their job to keep that canter not the riders) and then close the seat to half halt/or collect etc. I watched several leg yields where the front was leading heavily and the hind running to catch up and heard a “super”. And also a you want to encourage them to go through the shoulder .. I do allow the first or second lesson to go through the shoulder on a youngster but this is a horse that has a novicey shoulder in.
I could go on and on I was just shocked. BUT if I’m way off on the new standards of teaching I am happy to be told. It was also the massive defensiveness of the “coach” at £50 an hour. I never understand this as surely we should be encouraging everyone to ask why?
Just for the record I’ve been giving the rider a few lessons as she’s a lovely girl and she’d like to ride some of mine and she does have a lovely calm way about her with the horses (for free) and I’ve had to teach her: contact (work in progress), outside rein inside leg, to sit the first few strides of walk to trot trans and vice versa, to sit going into canter, to make sure she has slight inside bend for canter. And the big one which I haven’t messed with yet before her exam is inside bend, counter flexion and straightness (on a straight line). Just for the record I’ve been using a cone for her to circle before asking for canter so the horse has bend. She asked again this week to ride my horses in lessons and I had to say no. My school master would have coped with the vagueness but why should he. Anyway sorry for the long post .. I’ve been thinking about this for days and I don’t need agreement I just want to know if this is normal? The teaching from a stage 5 coach.