While all of you have been at it this spring. Competing, lessoning, clinicing. I've been here just loading up the trailer and hauling my kids around to lessons, clinics and XC schoolings. That's as close to a lesson that I have gotten in a long, long while. That is, until yesterday.
I finally got to pack up the trailer for me and Steady and headed to EME for a jump lesson. I had no idea how it was going to go down because I haven't ridden in a solid 2 maybe even 3 weeks. YIKES! How has time gotten away from me? I won't go into long detailed play by play of the lesson. I will say that the more lessons I take from M the more I love her. She knows exactly what my horse and I need. It was one of the most "in control" jump experiences that I have ever had on Steady. She was trying to get me to avoid getting him strung out and running at fences. It started Ok but he did start getting too excited for the tiny x bounce we were doing. She got on him and got him sorted out then told me how to ride him. It is all about straightness. I didn't even realize how crooked he would get jumping. But if he was straight and I sat and waited to the base of the jump he was like a different horse. No more holding on for dear life, pulling and dragging to the next fence. I was actually learning to ride my horse from back to front and it was amazing. There was a whole heck of a lot of right leg involved and as soon as I would forget to use it he would immediately drift his hind end right. She told me I need to bring it back down a notch and go to some shows and just do baby stuff so I can just concentrate on having a thinking ride and not thinking about jumps. So we may be hitting up the little local hunter/jumper circuit and play around in classes with little kids...lol. Maybe I'll enter the same classes as Kelcie. Watch her and Penny beat me!
On an unrelated note but something that has been bugging me.
Has anyone else noticed how nasty the horse industry can be to itself? It is disheartening. I will just say when someone bad mouths another trainer in any way I immediately lose some respect for the one bad mouthing. Not the one they were hoping to bring down. Can I just say I don't care, how you know them, if they were mean to you, what they did to you or even how much money they owe you. Whether or not you think they are a qualified to teach it is really none of your business. It is unprofessional and tacky to spread that around the horse world like it's your job to ruin them. Damaging their reputation doesn't just hurt their business but it also hurts yours. So you are kinda shooting yourself in your own foot. I have been around long enough to know that everyone pisses off someone at some point in their life. And that we all even screw up sometimes but for those screw ups to follow us around by way of our competitions mouths. Yuck. So please unless a person has abused a horse(then I am all for you telling people) then STFU! Stepping off the soap box now.
Not your average OTTB given another chance at a new life and a mostly average busy Mom who never gave up on her dream to ride again. An unlikely pair at an unlikely time, learning to event and loving life!
I've noticed the industry getting more and more nasty!
ReplyDeleteYay for lesson. M really is the Supertrainer and I'm happy you're happy with Steady more and more these days! Don't worry about late blooming, you guys always kick butt and now you have an excuse for Hubby to go to shows (children that ride).
It sounds like a very positive lesson to me. I like to think that I'm a perrenial-sort of late blooming every year.
ReplyDeleteI don't know - honestly I would want someone to tell me any negative experiences they had with a trainer. I mean, as long as it is reasonable. My last trainer was responsible for practically ruining my horse. It wasn't until I got out of there that people told me I should have never gone to her in the first place. I wish I would have been told that ahead of time - would have saved me tons of money and time. Now I have to spend more money and time trying to fix a broken horse. While I agree you shouldn't go out of your way to bad mouth someone, having legitimate concerns (as in negative reviews) is a good thing. There is a reason Yelp, etc., exists - for reviews, both good and bad. Businesses can use constructive criticism to improve. That is the only type of negativity I can accept.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you. I guess I should have clarified, personal issues with someone. Like not at all related to their competence add a trainer. If they are a shitty trainer/ horse person then I'd want to know. It feels like to me that I can't mention another horse person's name to another horse person without then hearing how much they hate that person.
DeleteGood trainers are worth their weight in gold. I do agree, I hate all the crap talking of the industry. It's kinda always been that industry at least what I've been around, I just think with social media its so much easier to be up in each other's business so easier to get material to talk crap about.
ReplyDeleteThat holding to the base idea and straightness are two things I get nailed on all the time. I'm still a OMG take a breath jumper, so sometimes my remembering to control the horse gets a little dampered by my nerves. When I went back to weenie jumps where distances don't matter, its amazing how well I could work on all that.