nervous Horse in Lessons!

[Mandapands]

Hi all, I'm quite new to this site and have made a few posts in the last few weeks but I now have a problem with my beautiful 5yr old tradional HW cob! I have now owned her for 12 weeks. She is stabled in a fab riding centre yard on DIY livery where we have instructors on tap for any help we may need. I myself have only been riding since Sept 2004. Everything is going fantastically well in the large indoor and outdoor arena, in the last few weeks we have both come on in leaps and bounds BUT I have a private 1/2 hour lesson once a week in the outdoor arena and in that lesson she turns into a little devil, becomes tense, nervous, napps bolting off down the arena, bucks etc. Then when I ride her on my own 24 hour later she is fab again. I was getting really upset as I could see we were making progress but all my instructor can see is her being really naughty and out of control. I therefore rode in the indoor on Saturday when it was the instructors lunch break (eats lunch in viewing gallery) and she was fantastic, didnt put a foot wrong! I have now indirectly proved to my instructor that she is a complete angel and we are becoming a cool team. However I am now starting to dread my next lesson on Thursday as I feel she is going to do the same. To help her relax I am now riding her every day in the outdoor where we have our lessons and she doesnt bolt but feels tense whereas in the indoor she is fine. Do you think she is scared of the male instructor/ relates his voice to hard work (even though we do a solid 1/2 hour when we are on our own). I'm all confused and dont know what to do? Any suggestions on what it could be and how we can prepare ourselves for our next lesson? I will also explain all this to our instructor on Thursday.

Manda and Megan

[laura jeanne]

I just want to say what a pretty horse you have! What's her name? Sorry, can't help with your question though.

[ajhainey]

Hmmm - Is it her or you reacting to him/lessons? How about trying the following

Ask him to give you a set of typical exercises (just 2 or 3) to do - talk to him before you go and get her. Then he sits somewhere outside the arena and just watches while you do them. If its you tensing up because it's a 'lesson' and you want to do well then everything will be the same. If shes reacting to him then with him not in the arena she shouldn't have any issues.

If you honestly think she may be nervous of him for some reason ask a friend to come into the arena and yell stuff to you instead - see if that has the same effect :-)

Also could you try getting a lesson in the indoor school?

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

aj xx

[Mandapands]

Thanks Laura, her name is Megan and she is a darling!

AJHainey, your suggestions sound great...will give them a go over the next few days. will let you know how we get on.

Thanks
Manda and Megan

[Luxie]

Could it be, do you think, that you yourself are so eager to prove how well she can go that you are tense and anxious? If so, Megan will almost certainly pick up on this. It can be hard to get round this, but you could perhaps try telling yourself either:

well, he's already seen her being so awful that it really doesn't matter what she does this time,

or,

well, now he's seen how well she can really do, and I have nothing to prove.

Hope this helps!