[QUOTE=wcporter;7102418]
Seriously?
I think my eyes just rolled out of my head and fell on the floor.[/QUOTE]
Ages ago I read on her blog that she came up with “Rita” so that she could feel like she was talking one-on-one with someone and make it more personal. No idea why she picked the name “Rita” though.
[QUOTE=suzy;7102540]
There is nowhere in CHS’s blog that she says she doesn’t like teaching these people…[/QUOTE]
Umm…
To show up for training with an accomplished rider before you are ready to benefit from his or her knowledge is bad form and disrespectful. I am often taken aback when clinic slots in the United States are filled with riders who can’t even put their horse on the bit.
What finally irked me …
Sadly, a large portion of my days away from home are spent teaching the most rudimentary fundamentals of riding to people who have already been in the saddle for a number of years.
So, my trainers, don’t wear me out…
I did not fly half way across the country to do YOUR job for you.
There is nowhere that she says she doesn’t like teaching these people?
Take off the rose colored glasses, people.
YOU (all of those “yous” who lessoned with her who weren’t the “occasional” canter pirouette pair) ARE WHO SHE IS COMPLAINING ABOUT HAVING HAD TO TEACH.
YOUR TRAINER IS THE ONE SHE THINKS IS “PASSING OFF TRAINING PROBLEMS TO VISITING CLINICIANS.”
Just because she smiled at you and made nicey nice over your haflinger does not mean she didn’t leave that driveway thinking, “Man, does that trainer ever run a deluded sh*t show. What an awful display.” And any trainers/facility owners who sent lower level riders in to ride with her to fill the clinic up? You’re on the list too.
Ok, folks – that’s it!! What a bunch of hypocrites! So let’s hear it: how many of you “pros” swim with beginners?
Any CPA’s who like to teach bookkeeping to beginners? Race drivers who like to teach Driver’s Ed? How about established, BN artists who teach regularly at the community college? Virturoso violinists who adore taking the beginners through those first years of squeaking & yowling?
The woman prefers not to teach rank beginners. And some people are still bad after YEARS of trying…where is it her responsibility to fix this when the student’s trainer could not? She doesn’t mind going back and sharpening up basics w/ the more advanced rider, but she is bored o/o her skull teaching “how to hold the reins”.
As a teacher, there is nothing wrong with that. It does NOT make her a snob or ego-ridden or anything else. She is not OBLIGATED to teach you just because you can afford to write the check.
Go to one of the pros who LIKE to teach rank beginners…or who really don’t care what they do with you as long as they get paid (like the one who literally spent 45 mins saying “inside rein. outside leg” over and over and over again…I asked my friend if that $150 she paid was worth it…;)).
And then you have someone like CH who feels the $$ is just not worth it…she has better ways to use her knowledge and time.
For goodness sake, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE.
When did the Horse World become so f-ing whiney, anyway?
BRAVO and AMEN!!!
[QUOTE=staceyk;7102410]
Amateurs, and specifically lower level amateurs are pretty much the foundation of the sport. And we don’t get no respect, it seems…[/QUOTE]
I didn’t interpret this blog as an attack on ammies at all, but as a frustration at the volume of riders in this country who haven’t learned solid basics from their own instructors and also frustration with instructors who don’t do anything to further their teaching skills. I don’t think Catherine Haddad is the world’s best communicator and she seems to have a way of sticking her riding boot in her mouth when she talks about stuff sometimes, but IMO the gauntlet she’s thrown is at the feet of trainers rather than ammies. I’d imagine some of the frustration you can hear in her blog comes from the sheer volume of running across instructors that, in her view, don’t seem to be doing their jobs on a basic level.
Her comment about “come by if you need a lesson on throughness” sounds to me like it’s not that we all need to be piaffing to be worthy, but that the basic-basics of equitation, riding forward into contact, etc., should be there in a larger proportion of the clinicing population than they are. It would be one thing if the occasional rider had a problem with these basics, but if it is happening over and over and over and over, what does that say about the system for learning dressage in this country? I think that’s the point she’s trying, however sensationally, to make. It’s not the existence of beginners so much as it is the lack of riders who are able to make it out of the beginner ranks.
However, I do think meupatdoes’ counterpoint is very valid. How better to learn to teach than by watching a teacher better than yourself?
Kyzteke,
Easy to answer. THIS is not the horse world, this is cotherland, big difference.
When I go to shows or the barn I don’t see people giving a fig about these supposed issues in the grander scheme of things. Most hard knocks don’t have any trouble nodding and moving.
To be offended in the regular horse world is much harder… Because it means you have to stop looking between the horses ears long enough to 
Here’s a clinic ad for a clinic with her for this year. Note that it says BEGINNERS are welcome.
[QUOTE=Kyzteke;7102549]
Ok, folks – that’s it!! What a bunch of hypocrites! So let’s hear it: how many of you “pros” swim with beginners?
Any CPA’s who like to teach bookkeeping to beginners? Race drivers who like to teach Driver’s Ed? How about established, BN artists who teach regularly at the community college? Virturoso violinists who adore taking the beginners through those first years of squeaking & yowling?
The woman prefers not to teach rank beginners. And some people are still bad after YEARS of trying…where is it her responsibility to fix this when the student’s trainer could not? She doesn’t mind going back and sharpening up basics w/ the more advanced rider, but she is bored o/o her skull teaching “how to hold the reins”.
As a teacher, there is nothing wrong with that. It does NOT make her a snob or ego-ridden or anything else. She is not OBLIGATED to teach you just because you can afford to write the check.
Go to one of the pros who LIKE to teach rank beginners…or who really don’t care what they do with you as long as they get paid (like the one who literally spent 45 mins saying “inside rein. outside leg” over and over and over again…I asked my friend if that $150 she paid was worth it…;)).
And then you have someone like CH who feels the $$ is just not worth it…she has better ways to use her knowledge and time.
For goodness sake, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE.
When did the Horse World become so f-ing whiney, anyway?[/QUOTE]
Let me preface this by saying that I am a pro, a trainer, and probably would be one of the riders that Catherine would to teach. I have absolutely no issue with her saying that she doesn’t want to teach beginners. That’s absolutely her right as long as that is communicated clearly to the clinic participants and organizers. My issue is with her blaming the poor local trainer, who probably thought she was doing a good thing by inviting some her training/First level ammies to participate in the clinic, thinking that they could all learn from CHS (both the student and the trainer). Unless the clinic was specifically advertised as being for FEI riders only, I don’t see how the local trainer was being lazy or ignorant by encouraging the lower level students to participate. Maybe the local trainer has been struggling for 6 months to get the student to keep a correct contact and is hoping that CHS can explain in a different way and maybe the student will have a lightbulb moment? Maybe the trainer thinks they can improve their own coaching by watching CHS work with their student? I don’t see how this make the local trainer a bad trainer. Now if the clinic was specifically advertised as only for higher level riders, then yes, it would be tacky for a trainer to put their lower level students in the clinic.
[QUOTE=Kyzteke;7102549]
For goodness sake, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE.
When did the Horse World become so f-ing whiney, anyway?[/QUOTE]
When CHS holds clinics, takes people’s money (and lots of it) and then disrespects them and their trainers publicly on her damn blog, that’s when!
Really, although there are a FEW people here who say that she should just suck it up, teach everyone and smile, MOST people here have said that all she needs to do is state up front who is eligible for her clinics. Then there would be no need for her to b*tch on her blog. This is HER fault for not publicly stating eligibility criteria, not the students who don’t understand that she doesn’t want them there.
Suzier,
You make some good points. I don’t think CHS is a poor communicator, rather I think we are turning into a society that wants everything sugar-coated, and we get our knickers in a twist when someone states something outright instead of wrapping it in a pretty, easily digestible package. 
I had an even different take on the article. The clinics she doesn’t enjoy are those that are subsidizing the trainer’s one or two rides with a lot of amateurs who aren’t yet ready for that level of instruction. The trainer, rather than traveling or recruiting more like-minded lesson riders, fills the schedule with his or her clientele to make the income worth Haddad-Staller’s travel, regardless of the readiness of the beforementioned clientele for a clinic of that caliber.
She is apparently doing a “Get Connected” tour. (Because that sounds upper level…)
Some poor schlep already can’t wait to bring their old horse and their awful hunt seat habits to her.
Perhaps someone should FB message that person a link to the blog.
http://londonhorsesport.ca/classifieds/ads/dressage-clinic-with-catherin-haddad-staller/
Here’s another ad for a CHS clinic here in Ontario. It says that “riders at any level will benefit”
Interesting, I did inquire about riding in one her clinic in Ontario last year. I got no response from the clinic organizer, despite the fact that I am a pro on a nice horse. Then just a few days before the clinic I got an e-mail inviting me to audit (too late, I already had plans). If she wants advanced riders so badly, why wasn’t my inquiry about riding in the clinic responded to?
What I fail to understand is why she feels the need to write a whole article on this instead of stating that her clinics are for riders 4th level and up. She can pick whatever level she wants and say that she simply does not teach riders under that level.
However, I think she will quickly see that she is no longer in Germany, and she may have MANY empty spots in some of her clinics if she does this. I think having beginners who cannot get their horses on the bit lining up with big fat checks to write is a problem I would love to have LOL!!!
Imho the best way of improving all the riders is to illustrate to all good basics at ALL levels. This is especially true when doing clinics: show how the progression happens from beginning to end. Head riderS from the srs accept all comers. Yes, it would be nice to only have to work with the details of upper level riders whose equitation/timing are more easy to effected. But perhaps the best way to have good basics is to offer it to all.
Since she spent years in Germany, perhaps she should head a group which employs the same methods. Teaching of theory/stable management/passing certain tests before showing (much like pony club does).
Or perhaps the clinic should be paid for a professional, and the lessons should be ‘teaching the teacher’ (which also necessitates work on learning channels/etc as well0?
[QUOTE=Eclectic Horseman;7102610]
When CHS holds clinics, takes people’s money (and lots of it) and then disrespects them and their trainers publicly on her damn blog, that’s when!
Really, although there are a FEW people here who say that she should just suck it up, teach everyone and smile, MOST people here have said that all she needs to do is state up front who is eligible for her clinics. Then there would be no need for her to b*tch on her blog. This is HER fault for not publicly stating eligibility criteria, not the students who don’t understand that she doesn’t want them there.[/QUOTE]
I don’t normally quote just to say “EXACTLY”- but yeah, exactly.
She need only state “X level and higher only, please” and she wouldn’t have anything to complain about. Define where the bar is, and be done.
To bitch about people who paid good money and thought that you were pleased to be there, is something sorta like prostituting yourself and pouting about it later. Hey, it was her choice to consort with mongrel dogs.
If trainers are not teaching the basics appropriately then a clinic would be a good opportunity to show them how it is done and would contribute to long term advancement of the sport. Work with the lower level rider and train the trainer.
If the trainer is watching their student being taught and can see for themselves where the holes are, is that not a good use of an upper level riders time?
Besides which, if she believes she is best used for 2nd level and above types…she is going to be pretty lonely at a lot of clinics that are not in dressage hot spots…
[QUOTE=Mozart;7102653]
If trainers are not teaching the basics appropriately then a clinic would be a good opportunity to show them how it is done and would contribute to long term advancement of the sport. Work with the lower level rider and train the trainer.
If the trainer is watching their student being taught and can see for themselves where the holes are, is that not a good use of an upper level riders time?
Besides which, if she believes she is best used for 2nd level and above types…she is going to be pretty lonely at a lot of clinics that are not in dressage hot spots…[/QUOTE]
Be careful what we wish for LOL
Perhaps she will bring help to lunge everyone who has no independent seat from now on.
When I was learning contact with elasticity, my trainer at the time put her hands on my hands and walked us around the ring… I still do this to help people myself.
What would people think if she did that with a clinic full of auditors? I was a bit embarrassed having ridden so many years myself, but dunno that Id have wanted an audience at the time.
Hmmm…welll…I haven’t noticed that Lilo Fore (newly-named International Judge, long-time exhibitor and trainer at all levels), or Kathleen Raine (former Olympian), among others, have any issue with allowing TL/1st/2nd level riders to participate in their clinics. I once observed Steffan Peters give what amounted to an up/down lesson to a young man. It was done graciously, and by the end of the session, the kid and horse looked great. That being said, it’s CHS’ right to limit clinics as she please, and if she prefers to instruct 4th level and above professionals ONLY, they SHE should so specify. HOWEVER…
Just because someone is riding at a lower level doesn’t mean they are a rank beginner. Perhaps they have ridden to higher levels, but have a new horse and would like some critique from a “higher-up” or evaluation of the horse and perhaps some new ideas if the animal has “issues.”
Does she define “lower level” merely BY the level, without any thought of what the rider knows or may have done in the past? She wouldn’t want to be bothered with a pro who has a FEI level horse AND several young horses at lower levels? She wouldn’t want to deal with an ammy who has ridden to a high level, but also has a lower level younger mount they are bringing along?
Why the assumption that if a rider is doing TL/1st level, they MUST be incompetent?
[Hedging here in that I am going by what has been posted. Haven’t had a chance to read the article/blog yet, but the tone is…eh…“interesting?” from what has been said here.]
[QUOTE=Mozart;7102653]
If trainers are not teaching the basics appropriately then a clinic would be a good opportunity to show them how it is done and would contribute to long term advancement of the sport. Work with the lower level rider and train the trainer. [/QUOTE] Absolutely
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