Linear and logical… Or all intuitive?

Who remembers a TV series called Numbers? I used to watch it as a kid… Numbers Remember these opening credits? It always stayed with me - that understanding that some people “see” in maths, and some don’t…

When a horse and rider, especially a new combination, appear in my arena, I never come in with a lesson plan in my mind.  I see what is in front of me and make my plan according to what I see.  As a young coach, just starting out, I did my training with the British Horse Society and one of the things that was expected from us was to produce lesson plans.  We had lesson plans for mounting and dismounting, teaching the aids for stopping, starting, turning, trotting, cantering, jumping, lateral work and and and…  And so, as the good student, I wrote a million lesson plans, and then – well, then I threw them all away.  As Mary Wanless says – you have to meet your pupil where they are.  If you ask me for directions to London, the first thing I am going to ask you is, where are you now?  If you are in Scotland, South Africa, Australia or USA, I am going to start by saying you need to go south, north, west or east…  So, it’s no good me going into an arena thinking I am going to teach X, and then discovering that they, the rider (or the horse) need me to explain about a, b, c.  A while ago I had a teaching day that involved a horse with no bridle, a horse in a side saddle, a novice pony in hand learning about the bit, a long rein horse, and a rider ironing out an issue with a flying change – each lesson was the lesson that needed to be taught – but I couldn’t have anticipated the plan that morning when I headed, coffee in hand, to the arena. 

The next question then is – well how do you know what to teach?  And this is where it gets tricky to explain.  I say, I teach using 100% logic.  I understand equine anatomy – I understand locomotion and movement; tensegrity and proprioception; learning theory and structure…  Other people tell me that I teach entirely intuitively, just “knowing” what to do, how and when.  And, maybe they are right too.  But, I do think it’s a pathway that is traveled down, not a place where you begin. 

I think – (and I am deliberately, consciously using “I think”, a lot here, because all I am writing here is MY OPINION…) that first you need to learn the parameters and rules.  You need something like the British Horse Society, Pony Club etc., to say you follow these steps, 1, 2, 3, because they keep you safe and they give you a structure.  These rules need to become as innate as breathing – we talk before we approach the horse; we wear closed shoes; we remember that horses kick and we shouldn’t go behind them.  In Britain now, we learn all the heath and safety, we get certified in Child Protection and and and.

And as young coaches get more experienced, they begin to be able to break the rules – or at least know which ones are able to be bent.  Maybe this rider needs to spend some time learning to leg yield before learning to canter so they understand holding this particular horse straight – but maybe this rider should learn to canter first because they tend to keep the hand brake on…  This rider needs X lesson before Y, but this rider needs Y lesson before X.

As you develop as a trainer, you begin to understand and have a triage system – think of a medic called to the site of an accident.  Their first job is to assess who is most injured and needs immediate help, and who can wait for a while.  Someone with a huge laceration pouring blood needs more urgent care than the other person with a dislocated finger…  And in this way, you see what the first priority is.  The rider complains about the horse’s outline, but it’s clear the horse is dull, not reacting to the leg and the rider is nag, nag, nagging along.  The first issue is not the outline, but in creating impulsion to drive the horse and create the stretch into the rider’s rein.  Equally, the rider who is complaining about having wobbly hands or feet is not helped by addressing their hands or feet.  Think of a polluted river – if you complain that this corner of the river is always full of rubbish, this corner is not generally the problem.  The issue is upstream – the village who throw their rubbish in…  Wobbling hands and feet are a SYMPTOM of an issue, not cause.  Go further up, into the rider’s body and you’ll find a weak core, collapsed hip, hollow back etc... 

All of these things become almost instantaneous as you meet the horse and his rider in the arena.  And then, just like that, you know what to teach, when and how.  And this is where people will say – you don’t teach by following the rule book, you teach instinctively… 

Think of a good chef – they don’t measure, weigh, follow an exact recipe – they add a bit of this, a bit of that and they produce amazing food.  They just know how – they have learnt the rules, they know about flavour combinations, what foods are friends and what foods fight, what heat of oven will work with what meal…  And once they know that, they throw away the recipe book and… They just cook. 

People ask me what I see – I see lines, angles, shapes.  I see equine legs that are too weighted down, riders who wouldn’t land on their feet, or are creating backward forces instead of forward forces.  I see horses’ legs as if they have 3 hiking boots and 1 roller skate, and withers that roll to the side instead of staying up vertical…  Magic?  I don’t think so – I think it’s just following the rules for so long, and so thoroughly that the rule book can be thrown away and your instincts can take over instead.  You scan over the body and see where your eye lands, and that is generally the place to start… 

What do you see when you are watching a rider?