So I found out Lauren Kieffer is offering virtual lessons- no more than 15 minutes of video, she reviews for $25 I think and provides feedback. Can use old show video, or new if you can ride now.
I’m wondering who else is offering this, and also if anyone has tried it out and found it helpful or not?
Yep! Although not video, yet because there is no one to take one —instead, I’ve sent the on-line trainer still shots and a video of the horse before I bought him. I’m a little tentative about this --I know Lauren Keiffer’s reputation as a great rider --but the on-line trainer I’ve found (via YouTube) isn’t well known to me —I did watch her training videos on YouTube and tried what she suggested --it did seem to help my horse with his irregular cadence at the trot, and me as a rider (old fox hunter --never did count strides) --learn to count strides! But as I said, I’ve only tried two of her videos --on a whim I sent her an email --and she replied --clearly having read the email --and asked for more information. I sent that, she replied, and, yeah, I think I want to work with her —she’s in NZ, I’m i USA so only way that’s going to work is by video.
So far, the only discussion of $ has been “visit my patron page.” Because I’d used/viewed four of her free videos, I felt a patronage of $5 was good —but now that she’s answered 4 emails and looked at two videos (one of my horse and one of the country I hunt in to see what kind of jumps I’m trying to conquer), and written 4 thorough, encouraging emails on how to help Will improve, I may punch that patronage up to $10 . . .
Anyway —it’s nice to talk horses with someone, even if they are in NZ – I’ve become a little leery about posting too much on the COTH board --it can become addicting!!!
Right now, it’s me alone on the farm with three cats and four horses . . .and DH but he never wants to talk horses.
I’ve been sending my trainer videos and she gives me some feedback. She also sends me things to work on each week. I have found it not as helpful as an in person lesson (obviously) but much more effective than me just riding at home. It gives me little goals to work on each week.
I sent a ride to another biggish name trainer offering this option about a month ago. The video was filmed with an iphone 11 so it was a high quality video but I used a Pixem so overall it was a bit zoomed out. The challenge I ran into is that there were some critical subtleties that did not come through in the video. This ride has some chronic mouth issues we are working through so I am highly cognizant of a forward hand and not blocking at all with the hand. From a zoomed out ride it looked like a pleasant intro level horse with a bit of a passive rider. Her feedback was very “time to get going” “start upping the expectations” yada yada because that’s all she could see from this snapshot in time. Even with some background that this was a horse with far more training stepping back to address some holes, it isn’t the same as having seen the horse through the highs and lows over several months. Once I weeded out the information that was irrelevant for us at this stage, it left a helpful point or two for a decent amount of $$$.
If I had a regular trainer, I’d be more inclined to send them a video. Yes, they may not be as big of a name but they know the history of the horse and whether something is improving or sliding backward.
We live in a fairly remote area and several of my friends have invested in the Pixio/Pixem system. They are then able to do real time lessons with trainers that are far away through a camera, phone, tracker/zoom, etc. the trainer just needs to be on a computer. It’s pretty revolutionary for those of us living hours from a good trainer. I hope to get the system too!
Jonty Evans is offering live video lessons for £30; sounds like he’s already done a few successfully via the various video messenger apps, you just need someone to do the filming for you. I like that it’s real time vs just sending a video and getting some comments back on what to fix next time.
Idk about you, but I can’t even ride with a local no name trainer for the equivalent of £30, nevermind an international competitor and Olympian.
If my pony wasn’t greener than the grass and had the last 4+ months off, I’d be signing up. Hopefully more of these kind of opportunities will be offered, and maybe some of them will consider continuing it after things open up again.
My friend and I are going to try a facetime group call where the rider has a phone her pocket with an earpiece, #2 holds an Ipad to film, and the instructor is the 3rd on the call. The earpieces don’t have the range to do more than a 20m circle and while I’m a good friend, I’m not running along side her so it can be close enough to do with 2-way call. Will let you know how it goes. This is a regular instructor, so knows the horse and rider - I think it would be very difficult to get nuanced feedback with someone who doesn’t know you/horse.
An update on the virtual lesson - we used zoom - you can’t have a 3-way video on Facetime. She rode with earbuds and her phone on her, I held my phone to video, and the instructor sat in his house in Florida. Or maybe he was at the pool, we don’t know. 
It worked really well. I could hear what he was saying and see her make the adjustments and it sounded like a regular lesson. She was thrilled. I am not sure the instructor was totally sold. And we were appropriately distanced.
There were issues that needed to be worked out.
Phone batteries do not like the cold. It was 50-55 degrees and windy, so my 3 1/2 year old iPhone 6 went to "low power mode’ after about 25 of the 40 minutes. Her newer phone did the same at 35 minutes. When that happens you need to stop filming and click the “low power mode” button.
Sound - we had rider on mute, because otherwise there was feedback if she talked. When her phone also got cold the earbuds sometimes didn’t work, so I would hear the instructor, and have to shout to the rider, which reverbed twice which was annoying. Plus it’s hard to repeat a long instruction in time.
We needed a signal when she could/couldn’t hear so I’d know when to start/stop repeating.
We have different service providers - older phone/better service (using data, not wifi) provided a steady video but less crisp. The other option was super clear picture but choppy video. Instructor preferred the former.
Also I got a fair amount of exercise - I marched up and down the centerline to keep the horse in the frame, but at one point instructor had me just stand at A for some centerline work.
So totally try it but be prepared for some glitches.
Bumping this up - wondering if folks have more experiences as COVID has dragged out? And with the security issues with zoom - anyone using other platforms for virtual lessons?
www.virtualeventing.com managed an entire 3DE in June - for fun and charity fundraising. It is worth looking at how well everyone managed with basic technology of phone and friends. The dressage was judged by FEI judges and the commentary is useful, informed and hilarious. I think people have discovered the possibilities of remote teaching during Covid19 lockdown. Not as good as being up close and personal but nonetheless an extremely useful tool.
https://m.facebook.com/HackettEquine100/
Is great. I’ve found her feedback to be super helpful and she has a really encouraging way of teaching.
I did a video, sent it to her and she watched it and recorded comments over the top.
A blogger I follow did a virtual lesson/clinic with Lauren Sprieser via https://www.onlineriderscollective.com/. Her feedback seemed to be that it was a very useful addition to her toolkit, but not a true replacement for an in person lesson.
Doing the virtual lesson approach similar to what @Hilary described. What we found works for audio is that the rider is on the phone with headphones on a regular call (not in the Zoom). Then the trainer is watching the video through the iPad and talking into their phone. Keeps the audio quality much higher.
We do have issue with battery power in the cold / hot that we haven’t 100% cracked but other than that we’ve had amazing success. Even now that regular lessons are permitted again, I’m sticking with my new-found trainer in the UK as I’m finding hte lessons more effective!!
It does require a longer block at hte barn as we do reciprocal videoing (person 1 rides while person 2 films then switch - but requires tacking / untacking between so 2 lessons requires ~3 hrs at the barn even if the second rider’s horse is brushed / prepped in advance).
One of my clients (Courtney Cooper of C Square Farm) started offering virtual lessons while everyone was on lockdown from COVID. It turned out to work out really well for some of her clients that live in more remote areas of the country, so she’s continued to offer it while things have opened up again. She’ll even send course maps for people to set up which a lot of people like. You can learn more about what she’s done here: https://www.csquarefarm.com/virtual-lessons/.
On the surface, these sound like a cool idea - people offering them should be aware that their liability insurance may not cover them. My coach actually asked her insurance provider during the tighter Covid days - and that is what she was told.
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