I was reading a very old book recently...
I was reading a very old book recently – the 1952 Pony Club Annual – which was mostly just a little bit of entertainment… Would you know how to judge the yearly horse against tractor ploughing match? But, one article made me think.The subject was, “Judging a Showing Class”. It was explaining what the judges have to do, how to behave, how to judge a class keeping good time, being fair, acting professionally. And he made a comment that I think too many people nowadays forget.When faced with a large class, he said, it’s all too easy to pick out the top 5 or 6 ponies going around and ignore the rest. But, everyone has paid the same amount of entry fee, everyone has put in the effort of training their horse, grooming and plaiting him, getting him loaded or riding him to the show ground and trying their best, while being there. Everyone is showing respect to the judge by being properly turned out and following the rules, and so, everyone deserves equal treatment. Every horse or pony in the class should be inspected, they should be watched walk, trot and cantering around the arena. Their conformation and movement is judged as they come back to walk, and they stand in the lineup. You cannot ignore someone because their horse is smaller, or younger, less polished or the rider is a lower level, they’ve all tried. They all deserve to be seen.
And so, I think about lessons. So often a rider will walk in and apologise because they are a novice, or “only hack”, or don’t want to compete. Being a visiting clinician, people often treat me as some all-knowing, all seeing oracle, who’ll judge them and find them wanting. So often, the first words that I hear are – I’m sorry, I honestly think I’m probably wasting your time, but I thought I’d come along…Every person who comes into my arena has taken the same steps…. They’ve thought about the fact that they are willing and interested to learn or change; maybe they’ve researched who I am, read some of my blogs; that they’ll take the risk that someone new will be honest and fair to them, and not tear them down; that they’ve organised to borrow a horse, or to get themselves and their own horse ready and to wherever I am; they have often taken extra time to groom and polish their horse, tack and themselves, to present an attractive and professional appearance; to hand over the cold hard cash…. Whether they have an Olympic quality warmblood, an off the track thoroughbred, a little borrowed riding school pony, they have all invested time and effort to be there, so surely, they deserve equal care and attention back?
I’m reminded about a saying that my own mentor often uses – A rosebud is no lesser than a rose. Every horse and rider are on their own journey, and being on the first few rung of the ladder is no better or worse than being 100 steps further along…
One of my absolute pet peeves is walking into a yard, a riding school, wherever, and seeing the coach sitting on the fence, staring at his phone, yelling out, “yes, yes, well done, that was good, do it again…” The rider is hearing the voice float across to them, and are focusing and doing, and the coach is…. Staring at his phone. Even worse, with the surge in use of wireless walkie talkie radios, is the chatting to the peanut gallery. The rider has an earpiece and is doing their thing out in the arena. The coach has the microphone and possibly another receiving earpiece. All of which is fine, and often so valuable, until the coach has a circle of adoring fans around them. The coach turns on the microphone and says “ok, good, use more leg, do it again”, and then mutes the microphone, and chats with his groupies – “yes, great, so dinner tonight, the new restaurant sounds good, who is the designated driver, because you know, it’s not going to be me…” And turns the microphone back on to say, “yes, better, do it again and add more leg”. This often happens with that newer, lower level rider who is demanding less of his attention. They’ve invested the time, effort, and money to be there, don’t they deserve the same respect?There are so many, brilliantly fabulous coaches and trainers out there, more often than not doing amazing work. So, to riders who are accepting less attention, less help, less focus – please, please, stand up and be seen! Just because you “only hack out” or “only borrow a riding school pony” you are important, you are just as deserving of good training, you should be seen…. Find one of the many brilliant coaches who really will invest time and care into your training, you’ll certainly feel the benefits…