My first riding lesson!!! (in Saskebush)
Okay, first off, the desire to throw my fucking computer in a skuzzy lake. Whatever the latest update my stupid computer downloaded and installed was, if fucked up my FireFox. With virtually no RAM to speak of my computer gets pretty stressed out when any large program runs to begin with, but all of the sudden my internet is downright schizophrenic. It is - in one ineloquent and barely sufficient word - frustrating. I bought 1 GB of new RAM off of Ebay, but it didn’t work, so it’s in the process of being shipped back to the sellers, who should be sending me a replacement. I’m looking forward to the day when my computer won’t cry when I have Photoshop AND FireFox open at the same time! Hell, even more than 3 pictures at one time in Photoshop makes it convert hardrive space to memory! Argh.
Anyway, moving on - lots of topics to be spread over several entries to keep things tolerable.
I did up my lesson plan the night before. I decided that since I haven’t seen these girls ride before I’ll do a simple gymnastic grid and see how they cope with it. I decided on a final grid of 3 trot poles to X, one stride - vertical - one stride - oxer. Plus one individual fence to tie in if they were doing well.
As the time got closer to the lesson I started to get a little jittery. I’m used to being the little fish in the big lake, and despite my critiques and knowledge shared on LiveJournal I’ve historically been pretty tentative and not at all confident in my knowledge. This had been compounded by only getting to babysit the little kids for Pony Club lessons until my last year or two in Cochrane, when I finally began to get a name for myself as a highly sought after Examiner (I still get calls even though I’m not even in the province any more!), and as an instructor for -surprisingly- boosting confidence in otherwise timid riders.
I say that’s surprising for two reasons. One, because as far as teaching is concerned I haven’t been very confident, and two, because I was never a timid rider, and could never understand or empathize with another person’s fears about something. The only thing that I can think of is that I have the Wendy effect when I DO have confidence in my teaching - that is, I project enough surety in what I’m telling them that they feed off of it themselves. Wendy (my longest running coach whom I completely worship) always seemed to have that effect on people. She wasn’t comforting, didn’t react to anything frightening, and was non-negotiable in what she wanted to see. She brought out the best in [most] riders, and could push timid ones farther than they ever thought they would go. I say 'most' riders because she is not an instructor for the weekend warrior, and sometimes those who are faint of heart can indeed be scared off (though I still say it's purely their own fear and lack of confidence holding them back!). With me, someone who never had fear issues, her word was law. If Wendy thought I could do it, I must be able to do it, so I did. No question, no hesitation, just unwavering obedience and the confidence that it could be done because She Sayeth So.
I digress.
So now I find myself in a new lake - now a Big Fish, relatively speaking. Problem was that no one knew I was a Big Fish, because I don’t have the weirdly coveted CEF Coaching certificate. See, back home, only full-time instructors bothered to get their Coaching certification because the CEF offers excellent insurance coverage. For the most part, no one cared about Coaching unless insurance was required.
In Saskatchewan it’s a whole different story. Coaching certification is a fucking status symbol here. The first words out of a person’s mouth if they hear that you ride/teach is “do you have your CEF? No? Oh.” Then they are promptly uninterested. you must not be any good if you don’t have your Coaching!
Kind of makes me wish I did test for it when I had the chance. The reality is that I was too unmotivated to do all the mentoring hours required. Which again, kind of sucks, because Wendy was going to mentor me, but I was too lazy - I was busy, but could have made the time if I really wanted it - to put the time in. I’ve only seen one Certified instructor in Saskatchewan teach so far, and I was quite unimpressed. The whole time she was teaching flat I wanted to scream different instructions to the rider, because what the instructor was saying was completely and utterly ineffective, and obviously so.
But oh well, hindsight is - as they say - always 20/20.
So I finally got the opportunity to showcase my ability in the form of a last minute cancellation with no one else to teach. Though I was kind of nervous about it - especially when it became clear that every parent intended to stay and watch the lesson - I decided to approach the class with that air of supreme confidence, even if I wasn’t particularly feeling it.
It worked! The first group I had were the older riders - four girls between the levels of C and C2 (so jumping 2’9 to 3’3), but some were on green or new horses. I gauged their abilities on the flat during the working session. Truthfully, I was expecting to see some barely acceptable riding for their levels, but I was duly impressed. The girls were all easily riding confidently at the C level or better - which means the basics were there but they still have a lot of work to do. The one on the chestnut had to learn to sit quiet and ride through her horse’s spookiness, the girl on the big bay had to be aware of her own balance to improve her horse’s balance. The girl on the smaller bay was more concerned about her horse’s headset and was constantly sawing the bit to put the horse’s head down. I stopped that right away! I explained to her how her horse’s headset was unimportant at this stage in the game so long as he was not evading the bit, and to learn to ride the hind end first. The head then takes care of itself. I caught the other girls (in both lessons) sawing at some points to slow down or balance and stopped it whenever I could. Someone is clearly teaching that abhorrent technique, and I won’t tolerate it in my lessons! Hopefully, if I get to give more lessons, I’ll be able to teach these girls more effective communication methods so that they make the choice not to saw when they’re in other lessons.
The girls showed a lot of weakness in their two point. For starters they were all posting it! I had to make ever single one of them shorten their stirrups, to which one of them admitted that she never changed the length of hers! But it was soooo nice to finally teach a lesson where four kids could canter together and not create total chaos.
The gridwork went well. It’s been a million years since I last set up a grid, though I was happy to see that I could still adjust striding pretty well. I’m used to walking strides according to Lightning’s massive 13-foot stride as opposed to the average 12, so I had to alter my measurements accordingly. The girls started over 5 trot poles, which turned into 3 and an X, then the vertical went up, then the oxer. I undershot the oxer striding a little bit, so the first horse through shortstrided and chipped, stumbling his way through. The girl did an excellent job staying balanced and out of the horse’s way, which I praised her for as I adjusted the oxer a little further out. The adjustment was dead on and the subsequent rides just flowed through.
Each girl had a different weakness for me to pick on, and each one showed improvement by the end. The highest jump I put them over was only 2’6, but both the horses and the riders were suitably out of shape, so I didn’t want to push them any harder than I already was. Only one of the girls thanked me though, little ingrates!
The next class was a little more diverse. It ranged from a little boy how had never jumped before to a kid in D2 comfortably jumping 2’9 on her own horse (not the one in the lesson though). There were also 4 in this class. Again I quashed sawing, and was again rather impressed with how these girls were riding. The little boy was fearless - my favourite attribute in a rider! He never jumped before but both he (and his pony) confidently cantered over a 2 foot vertical, and though the pony gave a huge leap the boy kept his balance.
It was so nice to be able to teach a class of young kids who already know the basics, as opposed to actually teaching them the basics! I was able to give them tidbits to improve rather than try to explain initial concepts. Kids who actually understand what it means to ‘go large’ or ‘change the rein’.
The parents were great too. They did not attempt to interfere with my lesson, though they did jump to help set and move jumps or hold horses when necessary. Refreshing!
What pleased me most was that after this last session, while the girls were cooling their horses out, one of them came over to me and asked for some more advice. It felt so good to have a) such a serious little rider who actively wanted something she could work on at home, and b) someone seek my opinion and truly want to learn more!
So I thought things went pretty well, but I didn’t really get any feedback at all, so I was hoping that the Club thought it went as well as I did. The best outcome I could hope for is someone asking me for lessons outside of the Club, but I think that’s getting ahead of myself! Today I got an email from the DC giving me a “HUGE thanks” for the lesson, and that all the girls said they had a blast. Woohoo!
Anyway, moving on - lots of topics to be spread over several entries to keep things tolerable.
I did up my lesson plan the night before. I decided that since I haven’t seen these girls ride before I’ll do a simple gymnastic grid and see how they cope with it. I decided on a final grid of 3 trot poles to X, one stride - vertical - one stride - oxer. Plus one individual fence to tie in if they were doing well.
As the time got closer to the lesson I started to get a little jittery. I’m used to being the little fish in the big lake, and despite my critiques and knowledge shared on LiveJournal I’ve historically been pretty tentative and not at all confident in my knowledge. This had been compounded by only getting to babysit the little kids for Pony Club lessons until my last year or two in Cochrane, when I finally began to get a name for myself as a highly sought after Examiner (I still get calls even though I’m not even in the province any more!), and as an instructor for -surprisingly- boosting confidence in otherwise timid riders.
I say that’s surprising for two reasons. One, because as far as teaching is concerned I haven’t been very confident, and two, because I was never a timid rider, and could never understand or empathize with another person’s fears about something. The only thing that I can think of is that I have the Wendy effect when I DO have confidence in my teaching - that is, I project enough surety in what I’m telling them that they feed off of it themselves. Wendy (my longest running coach whom I completely worship) always seemed to have that effect on people. She wasn’t comforting, didn’t react to anything frightening, and was non-negotiable in what she wanted to see. She brought out the best in [most] riders, and could push timid ones farther than they ever thought they would go. I say 'most' riders because she is not an instructor for the weekend warrior, and sometimes those who are faint of heart can indeed be scared off (though I still say it's purely their own fear and lack of confidence holding them back!). With me, someone who never had fear issues, her word was law. If Wendy thought I could do it, I must be able to do it, so I did. No question, no hesitation, just unwavering obedience and the confidence that it could be done because She Sayeth So.
I digress.
So now I find myself in a new lake - now a Big Fish, relatively speaking. Problem was that no one knew I was a Big Fish, because I don’t have the weirdly coveted CEF Coaching certificate. See, back home, only full-time instructors bothered to get their Coaching certification because the CEF offers excellent insurance coverage. For the most part, no one cared about Coaching unless insurance was required.
In Saskatchewan it’s a whole different story. Coaching certification is a fucking status symbol here. The first words out of a person’s mouth if they hear that you ride/teach is “do you have your CEF? No? Oh.” Then they are promptly uninterested. you must not be any good if you don’t have your Coaching!
Kind of makes me wish I did test for it when I had the chance. The reality is that I was too unmotivated to do all the mentoring hours required. Which again, kind of sucks, because Wendy was going to mentor me, but I was too lazy - I was busy, but could have made the time if I really wanted it - to put the time in. I’ve only seen one Certified instructor in Saskatchewan teach so far, and I was quite unimpressed. The whole time she was teaching flat I wanted to scream different instructions to the rider, because what the instructor was saying was completely and utterly ineffective, and obviously so.
But oh well, hindsight is - as they say - always 20/20.
So I finally got the opportunity to showcase my ability in the form of a last minute cancellation with no one else to teach. Though I was kind of nervous about it - especially when it became clear that every parent intended to stay and watch the lesson - I decided to approach the class with that air of supreme confidence, even if I wasn’t particularly feeling it.
It worked! The first group I had were the older riders - four girls between the levels of C and C2 (so jumping 2’9 to 3’3), but some were on green or new horses. I gauged their abilities on the flat during the working session. Truthfully, I was expecting to see some barely acceptable riding for their levels, but I was duly impressed. The girls were all easily riding confidently at the C level or better - which means the basics were there but they still have a lot of work to do. The one on the chestnut had to learn to sit quiet and ride through her horse’s spookiness, the girl on the big bay had to be aware of her own balance to improve her horse’s balance. The girl on the smaller bay was more concerned about her horse’s headset and was constantly sawing the bit to put the horse’s head down. I stopped that right away! I explained to her how her horse’s headset was unimportant at this stage in the game so long as he was not evading the bit, and to learn to ride the hind end first. The head then takes care of itself. I caught the other girls (in both lessons) sawing at some points to slow down or balance and stopped it whenever I could. Someone is clearly teaching that abhorrent technique, and I won’t tolerate it in my lessons! Hopefully, if I get to give more lessons, I’ll be able to teach these girls more effective communication methods so that they make the choice not to saw when they’re in other lessons.
The girls showed a lot of weakness in their two point. For starters they were all posting it! I had to make ever single one of them shorten their stirrups, to which one of them admitted that she never changed the length of hers! But it was soooo nice to finally teach a lesson where four kids could canter together and not create total chaos.
The gridwork went well. It’s been a million years since I last set up a grid, though I was happy to see that I could still adjust striding pretty well. I’m used to walking strides according to Lightning’s massive 13-foot stride as opposed to the average 12, so I had to alter my measurements accordingly. The girls started over 5 trot poles, which turned into 3 and an X, then the vertical went up, then the oxer. I undershot the oxer striding a little bit, so the first horse through shortstrided and chipped, stumbling his way through. The girl did an excellent job staying balanced and out of the horse’s way, which I praised her for as I adjusted the oxer a little further out. The adjustment was dead on and the subsequent rides just flowed through.
Each girl had a different weakness for me to pick on, and each one showed improvement by the end. The highest jump I put them over was only 2’6, but both the horses and the riders were suitably out of shape, so I didn’t want to push them any harder than I already was. Only one of the girls thanked me though, little ingrates!
The next class was a little more diverse. It ranged from a little boy how had never jumped before to a kid in D2 comfortably jumping 2’9 on her own horse (not the one in the lesson though). There were also 4 in this class. Again I quashed sawing, and was again rather impressed with how these girls were riding. The little boy was fearless - my favourite attribute in a rider! He never jumped before but both he (and his pony) confidently cantered over a 2 foot vertical, and though the pony gave a huge leap the boy kept his balance.
It was so nice to be able to teach a class of young kids who already know the basics, as opposed to actually teaching them the basics! I was able to give them tidbits to improve rather than try to explain initial concepts. Kids who actually understand what it means to ‘go large’ or ‘change the rein’.
The parents were great too. They did not attempt to interfere with my lesson, though they did jump to help set and move jumps or hold horses when necessary. Refreshing!
What pleased me most was that after this last session, while the girls were cooling their horses out, one of them came over to me and asked for some more advice. It felt so good to have a) such a serious little rider who actively wanted something she could work on at home, and b) someone seek my opinion and truly want to learn more!
So I thought things went pretty well, but I didn’t really get any feedback at all, so I was hoping that the Club thought it went as well as I did. The best outcome I could hope for is someone asking me for lessons outside of the Club, but I think that’s getting ahead of myself! Today I got an email from the DC giving me a “HUGE thanks” for the lesson, and that all the girls said they had a blast. Woohoo!