Thank you, Christina Tretter, for writing so eloquently your thoughts and approaches to dealing with fear in riders. I concur completely! As a trainer, your job is to push to the limit, but never over. This is true whether you are teaching horses or people. I have absolutely given an instruction and had a student say, Not right now, let me do x y or z first. (Usually what they want to do is more circling.) Would it be better if they were ready to just execute the instruction right away? Absolutely. Will the horse be slightly less trained as a result of their delay? Sure. But, my personal horse is slightly less trained than if Edward Gal were riding him, and still we slog forth. There are two beings whose mental state needs to be taken into account, and sometimes the best thing to do is give people their space to recalibrate so that they will continue to try for you. If you give someone the freedom to stop and regroup when they have hit 99% of their limit, you will be amazed how many more of them GO TO 99% of their limit without defensively stopping at 80% because they dont trust you. You cannot just apply pressure like a firehose with no sensitivity or feel for how it is being received. I tell my riders, the most important part of an aid is LISTENING. The aids should always LISTEN more than they talk. Dedicate 30% of your aid to telling the horse something, and 70% of it to listening to him. This is true for instructions given to riders as well. A lot of amateurs spend a great deal of their riding time pushed to their limits. It is a great privilege and stroke of luck (which could be taken away by a bad fall) if you are able to canter around serenely well within your own comfort zone. Many more people spend a lot of time persevering and continuing to show up to the barn despite the fact that, a lot of time when they are on a horse, they are afraid. Sure, I get to come to the barn and not spend 90% of my lessons battling fear or anxiety, but this is not true for everyone. They are scared but they are DOING IT ANYWAY. Half the time they would NEVER be doing what you are asking them to do of their own accord or without you there, but because they want to learn to ride worse than they are afraid they put essentially blind faith in you, rustle their brass ones together, and still try to do everything their brain is screaming at them to for the love of God not do. I feel the same way when one of my trainers put the jumps up two more and wider for the nth time, but because he is expert at pushing people to the limit but never over, the scope of my limits expand in his presence. (Meanwhile, I feel the same way rarely, when the jumps have exceeded a certain size, and those moments serve to really reinforce my respect for people who feel that way most of the time, about stuff like cantering, and still want to ride worse than they are afraid. That takes BALLS and tremendous determination, and I am not sure I would continue with the sport if I had to always ride at my limit. So I really respect those who do. You cannot be brave if you are not afraid in the first place.) When dealing with people for whom the right lead canter is a challenge, keep in mind that the scope of their limits is much smaller than yours, and they are probably already proceeding bravely and stoically despite the fact that they are near the max. They are scared but they are doing it anyway. All. The Time. They are bringing themselves persistently to 95% of the fear they can tolerate, because you are asking. So if on a rare occasion it becomes clear you have asked for something more than they can make themselves do, understand that it is time for you to dial back on the pressure a little bit. They are still trying their hardest. Youve just misread the limit. Think about what youre actually asking them to do, and recognize that it is a lot more than *just* pick up the right lead. Probably if you just give them a minute they will rustle up even more brass ones and do it for you anyway. Always remember that, while the short term goal may be the canter depart, the LONG TERM GOAL is to expand the scope of the riders limits. Sometimes you need to do different things to pursue either one of those goals, and the wise trainer opts for the long term goal. Do not pursue the short term goal at the expense of the long term one. People should ride with feel, but also teach with it, too. If a student who normally says Yes suddenly says No, that is your cue to listen three times as hard. Start doing your instructions 90/10 then, instead of 70/30.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 03:46:44 +0000
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