What does your trainer focus on during lessons?

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I’ve not had loads of lessons and not for a few years but just started having them again and interesting how people have different techniques.

I can ride as in can ride most things and they tend to go ok but I’m by no means at all correct, flat work or jumping. I’ve had lessons with 2 very successful eventers (they just happen to be in my local area, not that I need someone that good!) and they both seem to have completely different approaches. One doesn’t seem to comment on my faults at all unless I’m doing something specifically wrong (e.g. crossing hand over neck) but not more obvious things / bad habits like thumbs on top. But she focus’ more on how the horse is going. The other one was really focusing on getting me to ride more correctly.

Have you found this and which did you find most useful?
 
My instructor that unfortunately just moved away generally focussed on me, commenting on the horse's way of going as illustrative of the consequences of what I was doing or not doing. I found that really useful.
 
The horse won't go consistantly well until you are riding properly. I hate instructors who can't see/won't point out my faults. It's just a total waste of my money!
I see so many instructors not pointing out the glaringly obvious, and the rider learns nothing. The horse may go slightly better temporarily but they've not fundamentally changed anything
 
As a trainer rather than instructor I tend to focus on the horse's way of going. After all riding is fundamentally about the horse, I kind of assume that the rider wants the horse to go better?

Some riders, of course, far prefer for a lesson to be all about THEM (they are paying for the lesson...), and that isn't really my method or style. I see lots of (really popular) instructors who focus on small areas of position, but the horses are still going round really unbalanced (and unhappy, often)...with delighted riders :-)
 
Surely they are both related? If you aren't riding well then your horse won't go well. If your trainer/ instructor wants to improve your horse's way of going, they have to improve how you ride the horse otherwise nothing will change.

It's been years since I had a lesson with anyone who didn't work on me as well as the horse. IME how effective the lesson is just depends on how well the teacher can explain to you what's wrong, why/ how that affects the horse and how you put it right. Mine works on both of us. She talks about what is right and wrong/ needs improving with the horse, and tells me why my riding is causing that then we work on putting it right in order to improve his way going.

Maybe I'm being really naive but I can't see how you can work on one without the other? In order to improve the horse, you have to look at how you can improve the rider so they can improve the horse.
 
I always correct faults I happen to notice whilst I teach. I don't care if you're doing a halt, leg yield or change. You keep your shoulders up sit on your ass and have your thumbs on top and don't let your reins get long!!!!

The things that I find most people struggle with, is the habit of repetition. If I'm standing yelling shorten your reins, they shorten them. Then, it becomes second nature to correct them selves during lessons. Then, they don't need correcting during lessons. Then, they are correcting themselves at home :)

I teach a young lady who doesn't give herself half the credit she deserves. She has become a very neat rider indeed, I barely have time to think shorten your reins thumbs on top sit up shoulders back because she's already doing it! She's gotten into the habit of riding correctly. And her horse isn't easy, so her sitting up and with quiet hands helps keep the energy contained and we can focus on the horse.

It means that the rest of the work we do is far more effective. Some people are naturally neater, some people are naturally effective. You can definitely combine the two. Fixed piano hands does effect the contact, no doubt about it. Why wouldn't you correct it? Reins too long means the energy escapes, the outline is not always consistent and thus the horse can fall out of balance and the right frame.

In my first lesson with Mike E he yelled at me to sit on my ass during the changes. A well timed yell I deffo needed!
 
chestnut cob said:
Surely they are both related? If you aren't riding well then your horse won't go well. If your trainer/ instructor wants to improve your horse's way of going, they have to improve how you ride the horse otherwise nothing will change.

It's been years since I had a lesson with anyone who didn't work on me as well as the horse. IME how effective the lesson is just depends on how well the teacher can explain to you what's wrong, why/ how that affects the horse and how you put it right. Mine works on both of us. She talks about what is right and wrong/ needs improving with the horse, and tells me why my riding is causing that then we work on putting it right in order to improve his way going.

Maybe I'm being really naive but I can't see how you can work on one without the other? In order to improve the horse, you have to look at how you can improve the rider so they can improve the horse.
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Yeah so obviously all people giving a lesson are going to tell you to do stuff differently or it wouldn't be a very productive lesson!

What I mean is someone who focus' more on way of going might say things like slow down the trot a little / less neck bend / sit more quietly into a fence / use corners to balance canter more etc. Where as someone more focused on rider might say things like shorten your reins / you're on the wrong diagonal / open your hip more / thumbs on top etc. Does that make sense?

I think generally to have a bit of both is best and intentions of rider / amount of lessons to be had needs taking into consideration. If someone's having 1 lesson to improve their test next week probably not much point hammering on their position.. But if someone is wanting to really improve and stick at it then worth drilling it in.
 
I have two. One who i know gives me a lot of confidence, she is very young, but shes the only one who has got me over jumps. She focues on the horse, which is probably why, cause i'm not focusing on myself! The other is a dressage rider mostly, so i get her to work on me. I think thats a good balance, cause i can work on myself while the other instructor works on the horse and vise versa.

Both generally have the same ethos and technique so to speak, but its the way they instruct that differs. So i'm basically doing the same things, just putting more "brain" into one or the other, so eventually it all comes as one.
 
Bit of both but I have found in the past that some do focus too much on the horse and not be helping my position which is either influencing or being influenced by the horse not going right. I've had some great bio mechanical type lessons which very much focus on rider position and I've really enjoyed those bit for every day lessons a mix is best for me.
 
chestnut cob said:
Surely they are both related? If you aren't riding well then your horse won't go well. If your trainer/ instructor wants to improve your horse's way of going, they have to improve how you ride the horse otherwise nothing will change.

Maybe I'm being really naive but I can't see how you can work on one without the other? In order to improve the horse, you have to look at how you can improve the rider so they can improve the horse.
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Totally agree
 
It was a revelation for me when I started having lessons with a trainer with a really good eye for correcting my position, having previously had lots of lessons with various people who would focus more on how I should have the horse going.

My instructor is so precise in correcting me (e.g. bend in left elbow; relax shoulder; think of having bottom of your ear closer to your right shoulder; more bend in left knee; look at the horses right ear on the left rein so you don't collapse to the inside). I have never had someone scrutinise so closely to make me straight and correct, and then, as if by magic, the horse goes 10x better!!

Thinking about it I don't get nagged on the above anywhere near as much now as I did a couple of years ago. I had lessons for years where I clearly was not straight or correct in my body, and was trying to focus on making the horse straight and correct as this is what the instructor was focused on.

That said, if I had an instructor who went on about my position and I didn't feel immediate improvement in the horse I wouldn't trust their eye!
 
I do wish I'd had someone more position orientated a few years back rather than concentrating more on the horse it would have made me much more effective at influencing the horse.
 
Hmm, yes I see what you're all getting at, and obviously if the rider isn't sitting properly or is in the wrong position then that would be corrected, but I have taught some very "pretty" riders who have no feel, no timing and no idea what the horse is supposed to be doing, or how to achieve it. I don't teach in the UK, so perhaps the basics are more taken for granted where I am......

ester said:
I do wish I'd had someone more position orientated a few years back rather than concentrating more on the horse it would have made me much more effective at influencing the horse.
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Maybe, it is just that I see that difference now, but maybe I wouldn't have been able to get that difference without going through the journey we have anyway I'm not sure!

Jumping wise I definitely needed someone to sort me out and by the time I found the right person the pony had got a bit old/broke etc so that is still a project for the future.

Overall I wish the pony was 10 years younger as I ride him an awful lot better now than I used to and I wonder if we could have got their quicker.

Slight case in point, he is learning half pass (because what else would you do at 23) right is fine, left nope! and said to current instructor I suspect it is me, well no he said, maybe not.... he changed his mind a few minutes later :D. I think a lot of it is about awareness about your body and how you then influence the horse which requires a certain amount of body and core control that I perhaps didn't have a while back.
 
I have two trainers who focus on slightly different things. The first is very focused on the horse and his training and for him it's about the horse and his way of going. However, he doesn't ignore my position and will constantly make small corrections but it is all about the correct training of the horse. My second trainer is more focused on me riding the horse I have so that I get the best from him at his level of training. It means I do more advanced movements and I have a lot more fun but it wouldn't necessarily help the horse to become more collected or balanced. The lessons with trainer no 1 are often quite repetitive but my goodness, he's brilliant at what he does and I have a much more established horse that is more rideable!
 
Whatever I ask him to focus on, but usually a mixture of both me and horse.

We normally start the lesson with him asking how things have been going since our last lesson, and I say what I want to work on/what our aims are. Sometimes, I'll say "I'm very wonky, can we concentrate on my position today?" and we'll focus more on me. Sometimes, I'll say "I need to do this dressage test in 2 weeks, HELP ME" and we'll work on that :D
 
My instructor focuses on me but very much in relation to how the horse is going, if that makes sense. He's been doing a lot of work on my position, which really was quite poor, but the horse's way of going is important too. Though most of the time, once he gets me correct, she goes well too!
 
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