Here is how to make the most of riding lessons, clinics, and training--for both students and instructors.
1. Videotape your lesson and review it later. Oftentimes, seeing what your trainer is seeing while she gives you verbal instructions produces an "aha" moment for the learner. Your trainer may tell you to bring your legs under your hips or to be careful not jump ahead of the horse, and you think "But I'm already doing that." Then you look at the video and say, "Oh, now I get what he was talking about."
2. Devote the first quarter of a lesson to working on things that are solidly in the student's comfort zone. The middle half should be new stuff that puts them in their stretch zone. The last quarter should be more comfort zone stuff so that both horse and rider leave the arena feeling confident, not stressed or defeated. Homework should be whatever was done during the middle half of the lesson. After a few lessons, that stuff becomes comfort zone stuff, and the student really feels that progress was being made. (As in, "This used to be hard for me! Now it's part of the easy stuff!")
3. In dressage, do NOT fool around when it comes to the geometry of a dressage arena. Get it clear in your mind. Get it accurate. Or suffer the consequences in your dressage scores.
You will not not only lose points if you aren't sure e.g., how far a 15 meter circle spans into the arena, you will also be late or early on your transitions, and will find yourself making constant micro-corrections to your horse while riding the movements--which totally annoys your horse and ruins his movement and flow.
Hilary Moore, dressage instructor, FEI competitor, and USDF associate instructor stressed the importance of DRAWING your dressage tests, especially at the lower levels. "Draw your test movements", she states, "so that you know what each should look like, including the exact geometry of the arena. You need to know exactly where your figures hit each point."
Why does this matter? Janet Foy, an FEI "I" and USEF "S" dressage judge explained that the most common errors riders make at the lower levels is riding incorrect figures. She often asks riders how many meters are between the letters, and is dismayed to find they have no idea. She points out that it isn't possible to ride accurate circles if you don't know this.
The best way to do this is to draw your tests on drawn-to-scale dry-erase dressage arena boards until you get a clear visual image and "feel" for the way the figures flow through the arena, and precisely where they must be ridden. You can find the best ones here.
Good luck!
Copyright Denise Cummins December 15 2015
2. Devote the first quarter of a lesson to working on things that are solidly in the student's comfort zone. The middle half should be new stuff that puts them in their stretch zone. The last quarter should be more comfort zone stuff so that both horse and rider leave the arena feeling confident, not stressed or defeated. Homework should be whatever was done during the middle half of the lesson. After a few lessons, that stuff becomes comfort zone stuff, and the student really feels that progress was being made. (As in, "This used to be hard for me! Now it's part of the easy stuff!")
3. In dressage, do NOT fool around when it comes to the geometry of a dressage arena. Get it clear in your mind. Get it accurate. Or suffer the consequences in your dressage scores.
You will not not only lose points if you aren't sure e.g., how far a 15 meter circle spans into the arena, you will also be late or early on your transitions, and will find yourself making constant micro-corrections to your horse while riding the movements--which totally annoys your horse and ruins his movement and flow.
Hilary Moore, dressage instructor, FEI competitor, and USDF associate instructor stressed the importance of DRAWING your dressage tests, especially at the lower levels. "Draw your test movements", she states, "so that you know what each should look like, including the exact geometry of the arena. You need to know exactly where your figures hit each point."
Why does this matter? Janet Foy, an FEI "I" and USEF "S" dressage judge explained that the most common errors riders make at the lower levels is riding incorrect figures. She often asks riders how many meters are between the letters, and is dismayed to find they have no idea. She points out that it isn't possible to ride accurate circles if you don't know this.
The best way to do this is to draw your tests on drawn-to-scale dry-erase dressage arena boards until you get a clear visual image and "feel" for the way the figures flow through the arena, and precisely where they must be ridden. You can find the best ones here.
Good luck!
Copyright Denise Cummins December 15 2015