In other parts of the world where horses live in stables/Barns the Barn will often have a Trainer (or multiple Trainers and riders) on their staff. Horses kept in stables need to be exercised daily and it’s common for the Trainer or Barn staff to ride/lunge privately owned horses several days per week to assist with the exercising.
More than just providing exercise, in these circumstances it’s normal for owners to engage a Trainer to school their horse for them on a regular basis. This ensures the constant advancement of the horse’s education and helps it move up through the levels consistently. This notion seems to be a foreign one to most riders in Australia who prefer to ride their horses themselves. Instead we engage an Instructor/Coach to teach us riding skills as most Australian riders prefer to train the horse themselves and practice on their own in between lessons.
A recent experience I had with a client’s horse has convinced me that they might be on to something the way they do it overseas, and perhaps in Australia a shift in our thinking would be of benefit to us all. Here’s what happened…
I borrowed a horse from a rider I teach weekly so I could attend a clinic with my Coach. (Yes, I have a Coach and here are my thoughts on why every Coach should have a Coach of their own!) I have been working with this horse and rider combination regularly for nearly two years and know what the horse is like. I have seen her fall in on the left shoulder around turns and circles, and we have worked really hard in our lessons to get her to the point where the horse will lift the left shoulder and rebalance without losing the bend or the line around a circle.
I am also familiar with her weaknesses in the canter and know that she doesn’t like too much contact. In the week before the clinic I was offered a test ride on the mare and nearly turned it down, thinking “I know how she goes, I’ve seen her often enough to know exactly what she’ll be like to ride.” I decided to take the test ride though, as I thought the owner might like to see us work together for peace of mind before I take her horse 150km across the state for four days! I’m really glad I did, because this is what I learned:
- Your Coach needs to know what your horse FEELS like to ride
The interaction of two vastly different bodies that we call horse riding is a very complex thing. The horse’s movement contributes hugely to our ability to ride it, for example a rider may be able to sit to the trot quite easily on one horse but find another’s gait so bouncy they can’t sit to it comfortably at all. Until your Coach has experienced your particular horse, how can she be sure whether you’re rising too high or your horse is propelling you out of the saddle?
- Horses go DIFFERENTLY for different riders
I got on my student’s horse expecting to have to support her on the left rein. Having seen the horse fall in on the left shoulder every lesson I thought I would constantly be having to lift the left shoulder and shift her balance over as my student does. However; the horse had no problem going left with me in the saddle at all…and then I changed the direction.
Going to the right I found the horse less balanced, heavier on the inside shoulder and harder to keep in correct bend. The right is my weaker side as a rider, the left is my student’s weaker side. This particular horse is easily influenced by the rider’s balance and goes differently under different riders!
Now, as her Coach, I realise I need to focus more on my rider’s asymmetries/posture and less on teaching the horse to shift her balance between the shoulders as that will resolve itself as the rider improves!
- Your Coach needs to know how your GEAR is influencing your riding
Another thing I learned while riding my student’s horse is that her off-set stirrup irons were causing her ankles to collapse inward. The collapsing had not gone un-noticed in our lessons but now I realised that it was being caused by the gear, therefore; no amount of reminding (aka nagging) would ever have had a lasting influence on correcting it! Yet once we changed the stirrup irons it was gone, like magic!
It’s not just seemingly little details like off-set stirrup irons, I have ridden other people’s horses before and found their saddle to be tipping the rider forward and other minor things which we may not notice for ourselves when using the same gear every day. This can be extended to how the shape of your horse can influence your riding. A narrow horse will sit the rider’s hips differently than a wider horse, as will a wider twisted saddle versus a narrower one and this will affect the way our leg hangs from the hip socket and around the horse. All things a Coach can accommodate for if only she knows about them!
- It will SAVE you time and money
Say you’re having a particular issue with some movement, your Coach may have two or three tricks up her sleeve that might work to resolve it. If she is sitting on the horse herself she may be able to try each method and figure out the best one for this horse in a matter of minutes; or even come up with something that she hadn’t previously considered.
If your Coach has to work this out the long way, by teaching you each of these methods one by one and practicing them with you for a while to be sure you’re doing it right before eliminating it as the best solution to the problem this could take several lessons or many months to arrive at the same conclusion. It could also lead to frustration on both sides and perhaps the rider moving on to take lessons with someone else.
- You can learn from WATCHING (some people learn better this way anyway)
Sometimes the things we do when riding are so well ingrained and sub-conscious that we’re not even aware we’re doing them. Being able to watch your Coach riding gives you the opportunity to ask questions like, “what were you doing just there?” or “how did you get the horse to do that”. Things may come up that your Coach assumed you knew already or hadn’t thought to mention and that may be very relevant and useful information.
Even more simply, a demonstration of something the rider has been working on can really help it to sink in. If I’m teaching a beginner rider to rise to the trot and they’re just not getting it I will often hop on to demonstrate and it suddenly makes sense to them. Not all of us learn best by listening to verbal instructions or explanations, and even for those of us who do there can be a difference in the intended meaning of the Coach’s words and the interpretation of them by the rider.
Next time it’s feeling like progress is a bit slow, you’re not sure if you’re doing it right or or you can’t ride yourself but don’t want to cancel your lessons, just ask your Coach to ride instead, and see what happens!
