Teaching new things.
It is unlikely I am teaching my horse new things (besides developing our
communication skills). At this stage, I
am the one being taught by my horse; I am trying to learn all the things he
already knows and trying harder still to learn to be an effective participant
with him as I explore his knowledge. Teaching
him new things, knocking some rust off some older things, and building his
confidence for bigger challenges I am not yet ready for, will be left to my
trainers, Tom Waters and Kerry Blackmer.
Trainers are great resources for giving horses experience, "putting
some miles on" and positive ones at that.
I'm not sure any horse can have too much positive, successful
experience. And for me, it makes sense to
continue keeping my horse's learning curve ahead of mine. It will keep him from getting bored with the
massive amounts of lower level work that I need, and it will keep his
confidence in expansion mode, which will in turn keep my confidence in
expansion mode.
Young and/or green horses.
It is my opinion trainers should always be heavily involved in the
teaching/training of green horses. This
falls in line with one of my fundamental rules:
between the two of you, horse and rider, someone has got to know what
the hell they are doing (see blog post Who is Jumping that fence again?). I'm not saying the green horse + green rider
scenario can't work out, but let's face it, no one can call this the best case
scenario. I can certainly attest from
direct, futile experiences (yes, plural, experiencesssss) the green + green equation
should only be used as a last resort. I
am not sure what a "last resort" situation would be in this case,
maybe you are a green rider transported to wild west times, you just robbed a
bank and need to make a quick getaway and your trusty reliable steed was stolen
from the O.K. Corral and the only other horse available is a young green horse,
so you throw caution to the wind (which you've probably already done if you
just robbed a bank) and make a go of it, hoping for the best. That sounds like a pretty reasonable green +
green last resort. Outside of that I'm
just not sure. Feel differently? Then send me your stories of how a green
horse was the BEST option for a green rider and convince me. Otherwise, I'm sticking to my guns on this
one. (See what I did there? Played on my little western theme from
above. Cute. Or stupid.)
Teaching you to horse whisper. Not really.
But thank you Robert Redford for this 1998 classic and affording me a
lifetime of ridiculous references. My
favorite trainer function is, well, them teaching me how to ride, but my SECOND
favorite trainer function is them teaching me how to develop, define and refine
the communication between my horse and me.
Trainers can help you create a more effective language with your
horse. Trainers see A LOT from the
ground. They see you doing things you
don't realize you are doing and they see your horse's reaction. They see things you aren't doing, and your
position, but most importantly they see the dynamic interaction between you and
your horse, while the rider is relegated to trying to feel the
interaction. Great riders can very
acutely feel this dynamic interaction. I
am not a great rider, I still have to look down to make sure I am posting the
trot correctly. (Maybe I should work on
that.) Until I develop a better sense of
feel with my horse, I rely heavily on Tom and Kerry to give me feedback. Tom sees me hesitate and then sees my horse
suck back behind my leg before I feel it happening. Kerry sees my left leg slipping back over a
fence and I'm not aware of it until she tells me. (I have to put a lot of focus on keeping that
left leg in place over fences). Often
times I can feel my horse doing something evasive, but don't realize I'm
causing it. Small example: when asking
Bernie to give me a bigger, more forward trot, he would consistently give me a
"canter depart" step before trotting on. I tried to work through it, with little
progress. In a lesson with Tom, he was
able to identify the problem from the ground.
I didn't have enough outside contact and Bernie was able to "slip
through it" and give me his canter depart step to avoid work. Add some
outside contact and voilá, no canter depart step into a bigger trot. These small corrections are part of something
bigger, they are helping you to better communicate with your horse. Every time you purposefully do something with
your horse and get the appropriate response, or correct something and get the
desired reaction and then reward for that response/reaction, you are building a
language with your horse. The better the
communication, the better the results, trainers can help you get there.
So, is there anything trainers aren't good for? Yes. Trainers
cannot be expected to resolve every issue that will arise with your horse. You cannot hand your horse off to a trainer
and expect him/her to come back to you and be perfect. Your trainer cannot be solely responsible for
solving whatever is going wrong between you and your horse.
Irish Morning Mist was, probably still is, a handful. Okay, at 17.2 H more than a handful. He was my first experience on a rearing
horse, Bernie being the second. I
contacted the previous owner about Irish's rearing and she was flabbergasted. "He hasn't reared in years, so I never
thought to mention it, I thought he was over it." Huh.
Okay, I can't blame her, there was a problem and she thought it was
corrected, you can't expect the seller to go through every issue, resolved or
not, the horse has ever had. This also
leads to yet another one of my fundamental rules/beliefs of riding: horse and
rider are a UNIQUE team and partnership, and as such will develop their own
unique language/communication and understanding of each other. Change one of the partners and all the rules
change. The communication and trust building
process starts anew. This also means
each unique team will have to resolve their issues TOGETHER. It is easy to think "my horse is being
bad, or does this wrong, or won't do this" and then hand him/her off to a
trainer for correction. Trainers, don't
be mad, I love you, but I feel like this system rarely works. What is corrected
for one rider is not necessarily corrected for another (rearing example
above). It goes the other way too, what
one rider has a problem with, another rider may never have a problem with. Half the time your misbehaving horse won't
misbehave for the trainer, so the trainer can't "correct" it.
Trainers are trainers because they are great riders. Great riders get different
responses/reactions from the horses they ride than mediocre riders. Trainers!
I have not abandoned you, and here is where I think your expertise is
crucial: have your trainer ride your horse so they can understand/correct the problem
and THEN they can better help you to correct it. See how that works? You need to be involved WITH your trainer to
correct issues for the you/your horse partnership to work. It does no good if your horse behaves
perfectly for your trainer, he/she needs to behave for you too. And that will never happen unless you are
involved with correction.
Okay, before you give me the stern gaze, the accusatory tone
and charge me with being contradictory (completely reasonable, btw) YES, I did
hand Bernie off to Kerry and her working students to try and solve his
rearing. However, I have always known
Bernie and I would have to, at some point, resolve this together. I was hoping to go about this after some more
light had been shed on the subject, i.e. why he does it and what can be done to
overcome it. Last I checked he is still
rearing (or they have given up trying to hack him across the street), which
means my courage can rest comfortably in the ring and I don't need to super
glue my whip to my hand and my ass to the saddle and tackle a rearing Bernie
just yet.
Its okay to cheat. Sometimes. Most of us have our regular trainer, as
eventers you might have a trainer for jumping and a trainer for dressage. I work with Tom Waters, my original trainer
(whom I adore) and Kerry Blackmer, my resident barn trainer (whom I also
adore). Obviously Tom and Kerry are
different people and have different methods and I find benefit from both. It is nice to focus on something Tom finds
offensive and switch gears to work on something else Kerry finds offensive. (I can be REALLY offensive). I also gained a lot from my single lesson
with Steuart Pittman, which I hope to repeat in the future. There are a lot of excellent trainers out
there and I think clinics, specialty lessons and workshops are a great way to
soak up some of their knowledge. Trainers
are a resource and you don't have to limit yourself to the knowledge of
one. I'm not saying abandon your current trainer, I
never want to leave mine, they have done so much to improve my riding and my
confidence and my horse "situation"; but a new set of eyes and a new
perspective or a new philosophy can be useful and enlightening. If you can't afford a professional, then I
suggest you watch every video of William Fox-Pitt you can find. I have two trainers and I still analyze his
form. I mean seriously, does his lower
leg ever move?!? No, no it doesn't.
