Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation. Geoff Teall
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Teaching helps you to understand a particular exercise: both in theory and in execution. In many respects you haven’t really learned something until you can talk about it and teach it to somebody else.
Venturing Out on Your Own
Many instructors—myself included—have a tendency to be “control freaks.” As I explained earlier, at the beginning of your riding career, this is a necessity. The instructor must be in complete control and demand your absolute compliance to everything he says. Your life literally depends on it.
At some point, however, you must learn to think for yourself—to take responsibility for your actions. If you don’t, you run the risk of becoming too reliant on your instructor to make any significant progress.
Every instructor must realize that as students improve, they should be allowed to do more on their own. When you have gained a foundation that will allow you to have some success making your own choices, your instructor should recognize your abilities and encourage them.
Becoming a thinking rider doesn’t just happen. It has to be planned. As a teacher, I am constantly trying to create a rider who doesn’t need me. I want to produce a competent trainer who is self-reliant and who doesn’t require my input for every phase of the training process.
The way to become a thinking rider is to gradually do more and more on your own. Maybe you will begin by warming the horse up on your own. That might lead to doing a complete schooling session without the instructor’s input. As your skills improve, your instructor may ask you to school a green horse or analyze a part of a course by yourself.
Gradually accept responsibility for more and more difficult things. You must start to build experiences handling such things as course analysis, schooling problems, flighty horses, and training concerns on your own, without the instructor there to guide you every step of the way.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…
While it is important that you are not completely cut loose all at once, when you do try something by yourself, you should be allowed to make your own mistakes. It doesn’t do you any good if your instructor tells you to work on your own and then watches you and spits out comments the whole time.
You will inevitably have a few failures. Remember that your mistakes— even the spectacular debacles—are not luxuries. If you learn from them, you will ultimately become a better horseperson.
4
Goal-Oriented Riding
Ride with Purpose
When working on your riding, you owe it to yourself, your horse, and your instructor to do the best job you can. That starts with the basic assumption that your practice will ultimately lead to improvement. In other words, you must believe that you can actually meet (and eventually exceed) your goals.
Though a preoccupation with ribbons is detrimental to your riding—not to mention your enjoyment of the sport—I encourage all my students to set goals for themselves (figs. 4.1 A & B).
Once you know where you would like to end up, then you have to backtrack, break that goal into pieces, and develop the skills you will need in order to achieve your end. This process will determine your course of study. It will give you a “map” for systematically learning all the pieces that will enable you to attain your goal.
The trick is to know what you want in the end. But, don’t let your ultimate destination blind you to the steps that must be taken along the way.
Don’t Ride for Results
When setting goals for your riding, beware of focusing only on results. I have seen many riders concentrate so intensely on their ultimate goals that they completely destroy their chances of achieving them.
4.1 A Goals challenge you to grow.
B They infuse your riding with purpose.
The best argument I have against concentrating only on results is simple: it doesn’t work. With too many riders, a single unforeseen setback can so derail their “Master Plan” they never recover their momentum.
I have an older student, a woman in her sixties, who has ridden with me for over twelve years. She is always saying to me, “I just want to be consistent.”
This student is typical of many riders. She is not a bad rider, by any means. But, the more she worries about being consistent, doing well, and winning, the worse she performs.
I tell her over and over again, “If you obsess about consistency, you won’t have it. Forget about measuring up to what you have done in the past. Concentrate instead on what you are doing right now. Enjoy it and do it to the best of your ability.”
When I can finally get her to relax, forget about her “results” for a little bit, focus only on what she is doing, and enjoy the ride, that is when she masters a new skill or wins her class.
Preoccupation with being successful is no guarantee that success is just around the corner. Often, concentrating on your riding at the moment, instead of worrying about winning or placing, is what brings the best results.
What It Takes
The most important thing for any rider is interest. In order to succeed in anything, you have to really want to.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt if the rider is tall, thin, and athletic. If you are graced with the ideal body type, count your blessings. As for talent, hand-eye coordination, depth perception and so on—all these are important attributes. But, none of them outweigh interest.
Competitive riding can be very challenging, especially as you move up within the ranks of your discipline or division. To ride well requires a long-term commitment. It is ultimately very satisfying, but you have to be interested in making the most of your abilities.
In any case, realistic expectations are essential. In the case of my older student, her dream of consistency was as unrealistic as riding in the Olympic games. I had to tell her that she was being completely unreasonable. She will never be consistently in the ribbons. She will never be a great rider. And that’s fine.
After thinking about her situation overnight, my student came back to me and said that for her, studying equitation was like going to college and never being smart enough to pass, but enjoying the parties anyway.
This student knows that if she studies very hard, once in a while, everything will come together. When that happens at a show, she will ride well, she will receive high scores, and do well in the placings. If it happens at home, she will still have great personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.
I believe every rider needs a certain amount of competitiveness to survive. A good rider will want to be able to push and give everything he has when it counts. But, you only set yourself up for failure if you ask yourself to do something that is completely beyond your ability. Realize that everybody has limitations. Just relax and enjoy the parties along the way.
4.2