Quiet Riding

"...never let the enthusiasm of a young rider be undermined by harsh methods."

"...with riding lessons, psychological insight is equally as important as practical knowledge. This approach prohibits adopting a set pattern and forces the instructor to follow an individual method with each pupil."

"...he [the riding teacher] should have a thorough knowledge of the subject he is teaching and he should be capable of putting himself into the place of his pupil. In addition, with a riding teacher there should be an understanding of his assistant, the horses, whose behavior often decides success or failure."

"The riding instructor will cope most easily with his task when he succeeds in thinking from his pupil's point of view and grasps his physical as well as psychological problems."

"...it may happen that an excellent rider does not prove to be a good teacher, while another, though not able to demonstrate the art of classical riding to perfection, can convey the essence of it to his pupils."

"The ideal riding instructor will be one who at any given moment can demonstrate an exercise on horseback as correctly as he demands it from his pupil."

"Three traits of character are an absolute must with any successful riding teacher: he must have self-control, patience, and be free of any false ambition."

"Certainly every teacher should strive for progress with his pupils but not success at any cost."

"The riding teacher is expected to know and to convey to his pupils that the measure of progress will not be the same with all students."

"It is an excellent psychological tactic to bring work to an end after a well-performed exercise." This is good for both the student and the horse."

"...he [the riding teacher] should know that there is never an end to learning and be forever prepared to enlarge his own knowledge by new experiences."

"...the slightest progress should be mentioned to the pupil, giving him new impulse on his way to perfection."

"A conscientious instructor will be only too glad if he can convey the experience he has gained to his pupil and, with awareness of the pupil's capacities, make learning easy and pleasant for him."

"The instructor, too, should know the school horse, understand his movements and his temperament."

"...in the interest of the student, changing horses frequently should be avoided as much as possible."

"Pluvinel, writing in 1623, maintained that an efficient riding instructor should be capable of teaching both rider and untrained horse at the same time."

"...theoretical preparation should precede the actual riding lessons because there is not time for it once in the school ring."

"...even with a rider with some experience, the teacher should go rapidly through the preliminaries in order to ascertain the correctness of the previous instruction."

"Saddling and bridling when carried out by the pupil and controlled and corrected by the teacher represent a most effective introduction to the riding lesson."

"Having made his pupil familiar with the horse, the teacher then proceeds to the first and fundamental object of instruction: to teach the independent seat which enables the rider to sit without disturbing the horse's balance necessary for correct motion."

Ideally, a teacher should ride the horse used for instruction. "By riding the horse regularly he will also eliminate faults caused by the young and unskilled rider."

"My main goal is to help people learn that if their horse understands them, there's not much he won't try to accomplish for a person. This is the most important thing I've learned so far."

"...the first care of a riding teacher must be to impress on the mind of the rider that the mouth of the horse is sensitive, and that to pull or take up continuously on the reins is useless except to tire the rider, and make the horse insensitive to a degree which stiffens him, and eventually makes him almost impossible to stop."

"...teachers have a responsibility to teach in a way that is clear to horse and rider from the start."

"It is all very well telling pupils not to grip but once the horse is in motion the temptation can be strong. It is the action of the calves and knees gripping upward which throws the hips back so the upper body moves out of kilter."

"...it s obviously better to measure straightness or uprightness in the rider through the 'centre' of the body and not by the undulations of the silhouette."

"As teachers, one of our primary tasks should be to explain to the rider the link between the leg and the pelvis and how the position of one affects the position of the other."

"...instructors have a duty to explain how each aid feels to the horse, exactly where it should be applied and how vital it is that after every aid is given and obeyed there must be a moment of respite. This moment of release, quietly saying 'thank you' to the horse, is what the French classical school describes as the 'descente de main' [release of hands] and the 'descente de jambes' [release of legs]."

"It is very sad when one sees a trainer who is so involved with correcting the horse that they overlook and fail to correct the obvious — glaring postural mistakes from the rider which are merely mirrored by the horse."

"with certain horses, watching is not enough. We have to feel it if we are to help, and looks can be deceptive."

"To teach is not for the instructor to show his superiority; it is to bring out the best in you, the pupil and the horse. Neither will a wise teacher try to stop you seeing other teachers; quality will always speak for itself and there is nothing wrong in being apprised of a different viewpoint occasionally."

"At the end of the day, you can always tell a trainer who has a deep love of horses. The most obvious facet will be their concern for the horses in the way they teach the rider. This will be the trainer who looks into the horse's eye, who touches his neck, who moves in close to the horse and gives confidence to the whole combination. This is the trainer who watches every move the horse makes and helps him with their own body language. Such a person will always find a reason why the hose could not do something and look to the rider to bring about change, not blame the horse."

"If horsemanship is about partnership and we are expected to lead the dance, it makes no sense at all for the trainer only to work on the horse."

"They [good teachers] also know when enough is enough. They have the wit to see when the horse is tired and needs to stretch down, and when the pupil's brain is humming and unable to take in much more."

"You [the teacher] have to get inside the skull of the horse if you are to help the person in the saddle. Watching the poll, feeling his back, feeling his mouth, feeling for any tension, even although you are on the ground you can become aware of these things and then, automatically, as it were, you know what needs to be done."

"Each clinician should use whatever method works best for him or her and teach that method, but never close the mind to an alternative."

"Training the horse does little good if you don't devote equal attention to training the handler and generalizing learned behavior."

"You can't help somebody who doesn't want to be helped, especially when it comes to them and their horses."