3 reasons why elite coaches struggle to help lower level riders
I remember back in 2015 talking with a fellow student on our lunch break at an Equine Massage Course, and she was showing me photos of a fancy Warmblood horse they were about to buy for their 20yo daughter.
She said something in that conversation that has stayed with me forever. Has that ever happened to you? When someone says something so powerful that you never forget it?
The daughter had done really well with her riding, she was working with a Pony Club coach and had moved up through the levels quite quickly on her Thoroughbred. She was serious about her riding and highly competitive, she wanted to go all the way to the top, but had been told the Thoroughbred would never make it.
The mother was telling me once they got the fancy new horse they’d be looking for a new coach too. I asked, what about the Pony Club coach who brought her up through the levels so successfully?
This is what she said to me, “Oh, but she’s never ridden Grand Prix. We’re putting all our savings into this horse, we only want to go to a coach that’s already at Grand Prix, and already winning.”
Less than 12 months later I saw that very same horse advertised for sale, the ad reading “selling as rider getting out of riding”…
there’s a problem with elite level coaches, and there are 3 huge reasons why they struggle to help lower level riders.
#1 A professional rider might ride as many as 12 horses a day, spending up to 40 hours a week in the saddle. (Read that again to let it sink in… 40 hours a week in the saddle!) They’ve reached an expert level and riding comes so instinctively to them, through muscle memory, making hundreds of tiny unconscious adjustments that they do it with such a an effortless ease. You can spot a rider like that from a mile away, they’re just magic to watch.
What this means for them as coaches though, is they can’t relate to their students. They can’t explain exactly HOW they do something as it’s become so automatic that they can’t put it into words. For sure they can tell you what to do, or what they would do in the same situation but as for the “how to” you’ll need to be a mind reader!
#2 They are elite athletes. They’re incredibly fit, with super strong cores, amazing posture, and have a cat-like finesse over their fine motor skills. When their coach tells them to “put your leg back” for example, they do, and they can, and it stays there, and it’s effective.
When a novice rider is told “put your leg back” first they have to wonder how exactly they’re going to do that, and when they do it de-stabilises them so they tighten the muscles around their hips to re-stabilise. This makes them tip to one side, so they have to brace their back to compensate, and that makes them start bounce in the saddle…
which takes them to the point of total loss of balance they have to bring that leg forward again to save from falling off!
All the while the elite level coach is thinking, “come on; it’s not that hard, just get on with it!”
#3 They aren’t afraid to push a horse. The elite level coach is used to riding big moving horses, powerful horses with huge strides and explosive transitions. They aren’t afraid to push the horse because they can ride extravagant movement; a Grand Prix level collected walk-to-canter transition can have the same kind of power to it as a horse bucking, so when the horse does buck it’s not even a big deal.
Lower level riders have a much smaller comfort zone, and for those with frayed nerves even getting close to the edge of that zone triggers alarm bells! Which bring me to my 3rd Rule of Horse Training.
Never push a horse to a place beyond what your are capable of riding
(Which for me, as a coach/trainer extends out to “never push a client’s horse to a place beyond what they are capable of riding when you give it back to them!”)
I don’t know the full story of what happened with the 20yo daughter who “outgrew” the coach that had guided her to such success with her previous horse. I don’t know who the new coach was once they got the fancy Warmblood, and I’ll probably never find out, but I can guess what happened, and why in under a year this up and coming rider was “getting out of riding”.
What I do know though, is the best coach for any rider is one who knows what they’re going through and how to help them in the place they’re at now, with the issues they’re facing in this very moment.
Personally, bringing on young and green horses carefully, and setting them up with the solid basics that the need to become calm and reliable riding horses is my specialty. This is where my pupils will get the most out of me as a coach, as this is what I’m doing daily.
Jump to the Young Horse page to see more.
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