I’m a long time rider thats new to dressage and am retraining a young OTTB. I board at a barn that requires lessons with the barn owner, luckily she rides dressage and has her bronze medal. I occasionally get lessons with a more experienced higher level dressage trainer.
The problem I’m finding is they both want me to ride quite differently especially with the contact. If I try riding in a way that makes one trainer content, the other one wants me to do it differently.
People who do clinics, have multiple trainers, etc how the heck do you navigate this? As someone who’s new to dressage I’m finding it a bit confusing and just want to set my horse up for success. TIA!
Not directly addressing your question, but read this from COTH to understand the difference between riding a trained horse and training a horse, and the medal system.
Have you talked to them both about why they are having you do what they are having you do?
You don’t have to say, “my other trainer tells me to do X, so I am confused about why we are doing Y”, just simply ask basic questions and tell your trainers you want to understand why you are doing things.
You might learn that there is a good reason why they seem different but maybe they are not as different as they seem.
Silly not dressage example - a friend was frustrated because her one trainer was always telling her to get her pony moving, that it needed to be more forward. Another trainer this friend felt like was always telling her to slow the pony down. What was really happening is the one trainer taught her at home where her pony was lazy and was always behind the leg, so the trainer was trying to get the pony moving out a little. The other trainer taught her at the trainer’s barn and the pony always came off the trailer like a fire breathing dragon.
Yes ask questions. At the moment you are just following directions with no real understanding of the process.
Dressage riders typically don’t take lessons with multiple random trainers. If they go to a clinic or a BNT its often someone that their coach follows.
There are several ways of being right in dressage but there are a million ways of being wrong, so without seeing a whole lesson I can’t begin to say if either of your coaches are correct or not, or if you need a third opinion.
You may need to pick a system and stick with it. Most people only clinic with someone who has the same “system” as their trainer for a reason.
Can you explain the differences? Correct dressage is correct dressage and though there may be some variation in how people explain things or how they finesse things, it shouldn’t be radically different.
When it comes to contact, my experience is often that lower level coaches don’t really know how to explain it. They may want riders to have long, floppy reins and be constantly throwing away the contact. Somehow the horse is just magically supposed to “find” its balance without a consistent connection. The first clinic I did with an Olympian I was quite surprised at just how much weight in my hands correct contact was. Not heavy pulling weight, but solid, steady weight that didn’t vary.
I’ll echo what others have said: Ask questions. You can do it in a non-confrontational way. I’ve found that if I honestly admit that I’m a little confused, the trainer or instructor explains the concept more clearly.
I’ll add that since this is a green horse, consistency in your riding is very important. You’re not on a trained horse or a schoolmaster, where you can try different methods for the sake of your experience. At some point, your green OTTB may get confused and frustrated. Ultimately, it might be best to stick with just one dressage instructor until you and your horse are further along.
I should clarify the other higher level trainer was my trainer before I moved barns and I plan to continue to trailer out to her barn to take lessons maybe once every month or two. The barn I was at did not have a trainer so I started using her. The new barn does not allow outside trainers.
There’s a lot of differences the biggest one is she wants me to get my 4 year old steering with the outside rein and always have a contact with it and accepting it. The new BO trainer wants me to give my outside rein around the corners and if I use the outside rein to block the shoulders from falling out and it works then release it to reward by throwing the contact away with that hand.
I’m far from an expert but keeping a steady contact on the outside rein all the time seems pretty fundamental. I’m now sure what throwing it away is supposed to achieve.
I 2nd considering what “bronze medal” really means wrt achievements. They really are “riding” awards, more than they are “training” awards.
FWIW I ride with young GP trainer and also did a clinic a few weeks ago with a well reputed and experienced GP trainer (trained 15-20 horses to GP) and they both would strongly agree with your old trainer and not throwing the rein away. Rewards are one thing, but if they’re having you regularly throwing the outside rein away and steering with the inside, I’d save my money and just ride with old trainer more.
The way I understand it she wants me to give a big release for any pressure I put on. Which I agree with in most circumstances but from what I’ve learned online and from the other trainer the outside rein should be consistent. It’s just a bit confusing as I truly do not know the correct answers which is exactly why I’m taking lessons.
Sounds like someone without a lot of experience training horses up the levels. Anyone can call themselves a dressage trainer but I would perhaps look into how many horses she has trained herself beyond the low levels.
I have experienced different coaches focusing on different issues. Perhaps because you are newish to dressage or because you are on an OTTB or simply different philosophies it could be one coach is focusing on A and the other coach is focusing on B.
I learned not to ask a certain coach questions because the ‘answer’ would become the entire lesson…
OP has moved into a barn that requires lessons from resident trainer Susie Bronze Medal. OP is continuing to trailer out to lesson with her ongoing trainer, GP Betty. The instructions from GP Betty make sense. The instruction from Susie Bronze Medal contradicts GP Betty and sounds like it could be ridiculously wrong. But in order to stay at the barn, OP must take these lessons even if they are crap.
Is a dilemma. OP did you take trial lessons with Susie Bronze Medal before you moved in? Or just moved in because you liked the barn and didn’t think through the lesson requirement?
If you can’t get out of the lesson requirement you might need to move again
The old boarding barn was purposefully not feeding my 2 horses to save money and lying about it. Over the past 5 months they’ve lost over 12 boarders for the same problems. Several other unsafe things, my priority was getting my horses in a safe environment where they were getting fed. Unfortunately they are at the only barn within 1 hour of my house where they are outside 24/7 with unlimited forage which is #1 on my priority list. Along with them being fed their grain like they’re supposed to.
You ride for the feel and effectiveness.
Maybe you need to release the outside rein with trainer A bc you dont mean to but you are pulling and its bottling up your horse and stopping in the hind leg from coming through.
Maybe you need trainer b advice to keep that outside rein tight.
Sometimes you hold the bird gently. Sometimes you murder the bird, amd sometimes you let the bird fly free… all within 3 strides. Its dynamic and changing.
Questions might help but get a video of yourself amd watch it amd you will understand the WHYs better of what might be appropriate in each situation.
Ok is a dilemma. How much are lessons? Can you afford to pay but not take them?
Since one trainer is your ongoing trainer, and more experienced, and you agree with the instruction you’ve been getting from her, it might be worth having a talk with Susie Bronze Medal. Explain what you’ve been working on and why you want outside contact
Remember that a Bronze Medal is decent scores over a range of tests through Second Level. If you are a decent rider and have access to a well trained horse, especially a school master stepping down, this is not an astounding accomplishment for a coach to have. It’s a very nice accomplishment for an ammie and if they brought along their own young horse, it’s extremely admirable. But for a coach it’s not that amazing a claim to fame. Obviously a coach could have a Bronze medal but be training and showing much higher, or might be an excellent teacher or excellent at starting young horses. A coach might have gotten a bronze medal years ago, and now be riding and showing FEI and it seems superfluous to collect more medal points.
But if that’s her main claim to fame and her training seems to misinterpret dressage basics, then don’t be too impressed by it.
Have you seen her ride her own horses? Have you watched her other lessons? How do her other students ride? That’s your best guide to seeing where this is all heading. If you like the results then she might have some good ideas.
My trainer also takes from the couple of clinicians I prefer to ride with. There is still occasionally conflicting advice.
However, the clinician sees a snapshot in time, something she feels she must fix now or something that she would mark down in the show ring.
The regular daily trainer sees something we are progressing through towards the ultimate goal. The clinician can give us a clearer vision of the ultimate goal and whether we are on the right track, but we aren’t going to be able to go out and ride that way on our own next week.
But we know this because we have a dialog and because we respect each other’s skills and opinions.
