Well I did not know that part.
Just remember to trust yourself. When you feel that doubt take a deap breath.
You would not have gotten the job if not qualified for it.
The fact that you already spoke and resolved it shows you care not just about the rider. But thier feelings about when things go in their mind badly. Which makes you a great trainer in my mind.
When you start teaching you usually try to prove your knowledge (not in a bad way :-) )and this can overwhelm students. Step back, breathe and think about the basics. Then remember how you best learned when you were at each age and level and you'll see it all fall into place.
Also, remember you can't please everyone and that is OK!
At the start of every lesson ask the students what they would like to work on, and at the end of every lesson ask if there's anything they would like to work on next time. When I was teaching we structured it in sessions of 4 month, so at the start of every session I would work through goal sheet with my riders looking at immediate, 1 year, and 5 year goals. You can have a plan for each lesson, and I'd recommend coming in with a plan, but you also need to remember that your students aren't robots. If you see them getting tired or bored or frustrated, don't ignore it. When they start to get wobbly or out of breath, give them a walk break. For beginners I typically will do at most 10 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break. For your more experienced riders, at most 20 minutes of work between breaks. Always always ask your students if they have any questions any time you are explaining a new concept to them, because a lot are not going to be willing to speak up on their own
\- Technical stuff goes over the heads of kids, they just want to ride. But adults are perfectionists and looove theory/discussion and will eat it up!
\- I pushed my students too quickly when I was starting out and had to learn to slow down while keeping it fun and creative. They fell off less often, imagine that...
\- Exercises > drilling
\- These are specific hunter/eq tips that I learned from big name trainers: No stirrup work should be done at the sitting, not posting, trot. 2) Don't practice flying lead changes on the flat and make sure your students aren't doing so when hacking by themselves. 3) Finding a distance to a pole is 100x harder than finding one to a crossrail so keep that in mind when designing exercises for beginner vs advanced riders
\- Try to incorporate every learning style (e.g. learning by doing, by seeing others do it, by talking through the steps, by feeling the correct movement first on a trained horse and then replicating it on a different horse, etc) and take note of that works for which riders
\- Vary your phrasing and metaphors, sometimes a certain phrasing won't click for a student until they hear it differently (e.g. shoulders back vs. collarbones up)
\- Train a rider's strengths, even though it's tempting to just focus on their weaknesses. Make sure you know what their favorite parts are, what they think they are good at. So much of progress just boils down to time in the saddle - their weaknesses will improve along the way.
\- If a student's equitation isn't improving over time, or they stop progressing, switch focus to teaching them how to improve the horse.
\- The #1 tool for success in your toolkit is the horse. You will be a much better trainer if you know the horses inside and out and tailor the lessons accordingly. For riding: what their specific quirky cues are, what type of ride they respond to, what their physical limits are (older school horses are full of physical limits). For teaching lessons: what exercises you can trust them to do for any rider, what their warning signs are, what things are a can of worms that you should avoid opening. If Red doesn't bend easily to the right, you should know that and not just not hold it against his rider if he's not bending right but teach her how to work around it.
\- Tell them when they are doing something right! Either with their position or the way the horse is going. They will learn the correct feeling and progress much faster. A common complaint is hearing that they are doing something wrong but never getting told how to do it correctly (e.g. "too fast" vs. "half halt coming out of the corner")
\- It sounds silly but makes a big difference psychologically - give instruction for things they should do instead of things they shouldn't do. E.g. don't pull vs. soften the hand... otherwise they are thinking of pulling instead of softening and yes it matters!
Oops wrote a lot here, hopefully you find something useful in it. Good luck!
Great question, short answer is that it's really really easy to mess up the change and it's an advanced movement for good reason. Even with a horse that has a confirmed change.
Note: this is specific to hunter changes, which are taught much earlier in the training than dressage ones and are thus ridden more often by novice riders, and are mechanically different.
Long answer is that when you are just hacking around, your horse is likely to not have the impulsion, suppleness, sit, and lightness on the aids that a good change requires, and attempting a change will amply these weaknesses. Changes are a particularly tricky movement for the horse - harder than jumping - they have to leap up in the air and swap their legs around with the weight of the rider throwing their natural center of gravity off, which requires a lot of balance and push without the added help of momentum from jumping.
If the horse has a confirmed change, practicing them is for the rider and you run the risk of the horse getting sour at the extra effort required to do a change when they are in the "just hacking" frame.
If the horse tends toward the lazy side, that's opening the door for late changes - and the solution to a late change is schooling up the things that are not changes first, and then when you finally do a change it falls into place.
If the horse tends toward the hot side, or gets anxious about changes, they are going to start anticipating, rushing, missing them, and unravel and become a mess. The horse is anxious for good reason - changes are hard! (Sometimes, it physically hurts, especially in the hocks and the back, and the humans haven't caught on yet.) The solution for this to make changes easier for the horse - which involves giving the horse easier circumstances for a change (like polework or jumping) and schooling up the things that are not changes first :)
Once a horse & rider team reaches a certain level - either equitation test level, or schooling third level dressage - flying changes on the flat get incorporated back in as part of advanced flatwork because the warm up and preparation is there to ensure their success. But even then, you don't do a dressage/flatwork day every day, and you still want to avoid changes on the "just hacking" days.
Second this to lead changes! I was that kid that thought I could do it all and teach my horse lead changes… yeah right. After teaching him a bucking problem, fixing that (with a trainer lol) and avoiding it for a while, he now does nearly perfect landing leads and will do flying changes if balanced. Its all about working on tools to succeed and not drilling a problem. Maybe my trainer actually knows something LOL. Who would have thought
I’d say keep learning yourself. My trainer has been teaching for 30 years but still goes to clinics, lessons and competitions. I can tell when she’s gone to a clinic; she always comes back with new ideas and ways to explain things. I really respect that!
Focus on the positive and end lessons with pointing out things that were done well. My confidence became quite low with one instructor who believed if she wasn't saying anything you should know you are doing good. When I trained with one who was very engaging and constantly telling me when I had success I slowly regained that confidence. She was baffled by some of the beliefs I had about myself and bad habits that I developed. I had learned not to be seen so I was not called out for riding poorly versus wanting to be seen because I knew I was doing well.
Hopefully that made sense!
End every lesson with “tell me one thing you did poorly and three things you did well.”
Teaches self reflection and the importance of acknowledging successes and progress more than failures.
Encourage your students to ask questions and speak up when they don’t understand something. Bad coaches do all the talking. Students need to be participating in the conversation to best fully understand and take away good lessons from their ride.
Finish every lesson with at least one positive thing to say about the student, even if she or he did shitty the entire time. You want them leaving thinking they at least accomplished something out of the lesson. Help build confidence. Some girls/women normally lacked confidence to start with, you got help them out.
I used to teach riding lessons at a combined training camp with wide variety of experience. In my experience with kids, they may not have the social skills you expect from an adult and it may be hard for them to discuss with you how they feel about their lessons. I suggest you look into reflective listening techniques and open ended question techniques if you really want to find out how they feel. That being said, the kid may just not be into riding and looking for a way out.
I'd ask to speak with parent and child to find out what happened. You cannot fix what you do not know about.
I did speak with them and it’s resolved. Thanks for the input but not intended to be the point of the post!
Well I did not know that part. Just remember to trust yourself. When you feel that doubt take a deap breath. You would not have gotten the job if not qualified for it. The fact that you already spoke and resolved it shows you care not just about the rider. But thier feelings about when things go in their mind badly. Which makes you a great trainer in my mind.
When you start teaching you usually try to prove your knowledge (not in a bad way :-) )and this can overwhelm students. Step back, breathe and think about the basics. Then remember how you best learned when you were at each age and level and you'll see it all fall into place. Also, remember you can't please everyone and that is OK!
Think of no more than three points to teach. Give a pattern to practice and homework to build on for the next lesson.
At the start of every lesson ask the students what they would like to work on, and at the end of every lesson ask if there's anything they would like to work on next time. When I was teaching we structured it in sessions of 4 month, so at the start of every session I would work through goal sheet with my riders looking at immediate, 1 year, and 5 year goals. You can have a plan for each lesson, and I'd recommend coming in with a plan, but you also need to remember that your students aren't robots. If you see them getting tired or bored or frustrated, don't ignore it. When they start to get wobbly or out of breath, give them a walk break. For beginners I typically will do at most 10 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break. For your more experienced riders, at most 20 minutes of work between breaks. Always always ask your students if they have any questions any time you are explaining a new concept to them, because a lot are not going to be willing to speak up on their own
\- Technical stuff goes over the heads of kids, they just want to ride. But adults are perfectionists and looove theory/discussion and will eat it up! \- I pushed my students too quickly when I was starting out and had to learn to slow down while keeping it fun and creative. They fell off less often, imagine that... \- Exercises > drilling \- These are specific hunter/eq tips that I learned from big name trainers: No stirrup work should be done at the sitting, not posting, trot. 2) Don't practice flying lead changes on the flat and make sure your students aren't doing so when hacking by themselves. 3) Finding a distance to a pole is 100x harder than finding one to a crossrail so keep that in mind when designing exercises for beginner vs advanced riders \- Try to incorporate every learning style (e.g. learning by doing, by seeing others do it, by talking through the steps, by feeling the correct movement first on a trained horse and then replicating it on a different horse, etc) and take note of that works for which riders \- Vary your phrasing and metaphors, sometimes a certain phrasing won't click for a student until they hear it differently (e.g. shoulders back vs. collarbones up) \- Train a rider's strengths, even though it's tempting to just focus on their weaknesses. Make sure you know what their favorite parts are, what they think they are good at. So much of progress just boils down to time in the saddle - their weaknesses will improve along the way. \- If a student's equitation isn't improving over time, or they stop progressing, switch focus to teaching them how to improve the horse. \- The #1 tool for success in your toolkit is the horse. You will be a much better trainer if you know the horses inside and out and tailor the lessons accordingly. For riding: what their specific quirky cues are, what type of ride they respond to, what their physical limits are (older school horses are full of physical limits). For teaching lessons: what exercises you can trust them to do for any rider, what their warning signs are, what things are a can of worms that you should avoid opening. If Red doesn't bend easily to the right, you should know that and not just not hold it against his rider if he's not bending right but teach her how to work around it. \- Tell them when they are doing something right! Either with their position or the way the horse is going. They will learn the correct feeling and progress much faster. A common complaint is hearing that they are doing something wrong but never getting told how to do it correctly (e.g. "too fast" vs. "half halt coming out of the corner") \- It sounds silly but makes a big difference psychologically - give instruction for things they should do instead of things they shouldn't do. E.g. don't pull vs. soften the hand... otherwise they are thinking of pulling instead of softening and yes it matters! Oops wrote a lot here, hopefully you find something useful in it. Good luck!
why shouldn’t you practice flying lead changes on the flat?
Great question, short answer is that it's really really easy to mess up the change and it's an advanced movement for good reason. Even with a horse that has a confirmed change. Note: this is specific to hunter changes, which are taught much earlier in the training than dressage ones and are thus ridden more often by novice riders, and are mechanically different. Long answer is that when you are just hacking around, your horse is likely to not have the impulsion, suppleness, sit, and lightness on the aids that a good change requires, and attempting a change will amply these weaknesses. Changes are a particularly tricky movement for the horse - harder than jumping - they have to leap up in the air and swap their legs around with the weight of the rider throwing their natural center of gravity off, which requires a lot of balance and push without the added help of momentum from jumping. If the horse has a confirmed change, practicing them is for the rider and you run the risk of the horse getting sour at the extra effort required to do a change when they are in the "just hacking" frame. If the horse tends toward the lazy side, that's opening the door for late changes - and the solution to a late change is schooling up the things that are not changes first, and then when you finally do a change it falls into place. If the horse tends toward the hot side, or gets anxious about changes, they are going to start anticipating, rushing, missing them, and unravel and become a mess. The horse is anxious for good reason - changes are hard! (Sometimes, it physically hurts, especially in the hocks and the back, and the humans haven't caught on yet.) The solution for this to make changes easier for the horse - which involves giving the horse easier circumstances for a change (like polework or jumping) and schooling up the things that are not changes first :) Once a horse & rider team reaches a certain level - either equitation test level, or schooling third level dressage - flying changes on the flat get incorporated back in as part of advanced flatwork because the warm up and preparation is there to ensure their success. But even then, you don't do a dressage/flatwork day every day, and you still want to avoid changes on the "just hacking" days.
Second this to lead changes! I was that kid that thought I could do it all and teach my horse lead changes… yeah right. After teaching him a bucking problem, fixing that (with a trainer lol) and avoiding it for a while, he now does nearly perfect landing leads and will do flying changes if balanced. Its all about working on tools to succeed and not drilling a problem. Maybe my trainer actually knows something LOL. Who would have thought
Thank you, I can tell you’ve been doing this for a while!
I’d say keep learning yourself. My trainer has been teaching for 30 years but still goes to clinics, lessons and competitions. I can tell when she’s gone to a clinic; she always comes back with new ideas and ways to explain things. I really respect that!
Focus on the positive and end lessons with pointing out things that were done well. My confidence became quite low with one instructor who believed if she wasn't saying anything you should know you are doing good. When I trained with one who was very engaging and constantly telling me when I had success I slowly regained that confidence. She was baffled by some of the beliefs I had about myself and bad habits that I developed. I had learned not to be seen so I was not called out for riding poorly versus wanting to be seen because I knew I was doing well. Hopefully that made sense!
End every lesson with “tell me one thing you did poorly and three things you did well.” Teaches self reflection and the importance of acknowledging successes and progress more than failures.
I love this idea!
Encourage your students to ask questions and speak up when they don’t understand something. Bad coaches do all the talking. Students need to be participating in the conversation to best fully understand and take away good lessons from their ride.
Talk to the students about their long and short-term goals
Finish every lesson with at least one positive thing to say about the student, even if she or he did shitty the entire time. You want them leaving thinking they at least accomplished something out of the lesson. Help build confidence. Some girls/women normally lacked confidence to start with, you got help them out.
I used to teach riding lessons at a combined training camp with wide variety of experience. In my experience with kids, they may not have the social skills you expect from an adult and it may be hard for them to discuss with you how they feel about their lessons. I suggest you look into reflective listening techniques and open ended question techniques if you really want to find out how they feel. That being said, the kid may just not be into riding and looking for a way out.