How do you define BNT?

[rockonxox]

I’ve actually never used the word coach!

[MHM]

@blondewithchrome

There was a thread about this not too long ago, I think - “trainer” vs. “coach” on entry blanks. Trainer is i think everyone’s go-to for who is teaching you and training your horse, but IIRC, that is technically a ‘coach’ and ‘trainer’ is the person responsible for the horse’s care and point person for horse at the show.

For the purposes of signing the entry blank at the USEF shows, the trainer is the person who is in charge of the horse’s care at that show. And the person who will be penalized if the horse has positive results on a drug test.

A coach is the person at the USEF shows who signs if they are teaching the rider at that show without being involved in the horse’s care. So if the horse has positive results on a drug test, the coach is not penalized.

I believe the title of coach evolved for people who might meet a customer at a show to teach them, but had no control over what the horse might be given without the coach’s knowledge.

[Scribbler]

Outside of the legalities of shiw forms, I understand coach and instructor to be basically synonyms. I would use trainer for either a coach who also sat on my horse to some extent, or for someone who primarily trained horses but didn’t give lessons to people (like a colt starter). I would use coach or instructor for someone who only gave lessons and didn’t ever ride the clients horse.

But really all the words are interchangeable and possibly I would use one over the other in describing the same person more for how it sounded at the moment. Also I think you can say my coach and my trainer implying a more substantive relationship when you’re unlikely to say my instructor in the same way.

But I bet because the words are interchangeable any person or local social grouping might go through phases of using one over the other to describe the same person or relationship.

I wouldn’t call someone who was primarily known as a competitive rider a BNT even if they were schooling their own horses and even coaching a bit on the side. I would call them a BNT once they were running a substantive training program.

But then there’s going to be a transition phase. Charlotte DuJardin is obviously a world champion rider, but still under the tutelage of her own coach. Now she is travelling giving expensive clinics world wide. Is she a champion rider or a BNT? Presumably in ten years she will be definitely a BNT with a successful roster of protégés.