training young riders

[Nic]

I am about half way through your book and am delighted with it, mainly because I think my daughter's way of riding is very much in keeping with your ideas so I am very happy with that. She has a very light hand (everyone comments on this) and she and pony are improving really well. (When I read the bit about 'think canter', that is exactly what K has told me she does, and the pony does it).

I am worried however by the training given to young riders nowadays. She gets some lessons from pony club instructors (and has an excellent BHSI for private lessons), but we visited some BYRDS training at the weekend (not taking part, just to watch) and the way these kids ride is scary. Their hands are fixed against the horse's mouth, and it looks like a tug of war going on with the horse eventually giving way and fixing its head and neck against the hand. These are supposed to be our future dressage riders - it just doesn't seem right. Perhaps in a way we have been lucky not to have the 'right sort' of pony for this upmarket training (we have a v small and hairy M&M whose motion is not quite as fluid - but getting there). We have even given up doing PC dressage comps, as it was so disheartening and I just hated the way the kids rode. I hope my daughter can just carry on riding the way she does without it being spoilt, even if it means we don't win much.

I'd love to know where you are based Heather, and maybe save up for a visit? We are a bit far away (north of Scotland), but you never know.

Sorry this has turned out to be such a gripe but I really feel some talented riders and ponies are being wasted by so called 'advanced training'.

[fionahogg]

I know what you mean! I went on a BYRDS training course once, and the instructor I had told me I needed to have more of a contact. I asked her what she meant and she demonstrated. I was shocked. I would like to think I know Monty better than to think he would appreciate me sawing at his mouth like that!
But some of the other people I spoke to who also went on the course were really impressed. They were with a different trainer though. Maybe I was just in the wrong group.

Fiona

[Heather]

Sorry not to have replied before folks, but I have had mega computer meltdown!I am sorry to say that this is not the first time I have heard exactly this about BYRDS and I find the prospect of another generation of perfectly tslented young riders being led entirely dwon the wrong 'training' route, and not being taught to think about what their pony is feeling- just to use it as a tool for a means to and end- in other words,points or rosettes.

This is why I distance myself generally from the competition world, although I do teach competition dressage riders too. I am often asked why I don't compete- I find that too many dresage riders are control freaks, and again, see only points or rosettes as their training goal, not the training as an end in itself, to bring your horse to the peak of his performance within his own time, and for your satisfaction, not to satisfy the demands of judges who sometimes wouldn't recognise true lightness and harmony if you hit them over the head with it. Competition? I have better things to spend my har earned pennies on, like further training in Portugal riding gloriously light Grand Prix Lusitano stallions- roll on may when I next go back!


Heather

[Nic]

I am about to try and explain 'the feel', and will see if daughter will read the book for herself. I don't think she will find it that hard, as this pair have a particularly strong bond and I have learned the hard way that she usually knows what's best for them both. I have never seen a pony sulk so much when I give K a night off and do the stable - she (pony) looks at me as if to say 'i suppose you'll do if my girlie isn't here'. Our instructor has not interfered with K's way of riding at all, so long may it continue!! The pony wouldn't have it anyway. We looked back over the last year and where we are now, we just wouldn't have believed it a year ago. You progress without really noticing it, and it is a very good feeling to look back and see how far you have come.