My equestrian life (and in fact my whole life) is driven by one big major equestrian goal. It's to do with Eventing. At a high level. A very high level. (There's more detail to it, but I'm not quite willing to share that with the world just yet.) Everything I do I try to align towards that goal.
For a while now, I have been asking the question "to get to my goal, do I need to coach?" Do I need to teach other riders? Will that get me towards my goal? Or will it be something that distracts me from my own riding journey? Am I better off just focusing on my riding, my competing, my lessons? Or will coaching other riders give me more flexibility? Will it teach me something that lessons on my own horse cannot? Will it equip me better to compete? Will it give me another perspective? An extra dimension?
Well, the answer came rather unexpectedly, and rather like a steam train.
One beautiful sunny day last year, we had organised two instructors to teach at a pony club rally. One was our usual instructor, and the other was a well respected dressage instructor. On the day our usual instructor rang in sick, while it turns out that there had a been a communication error with the other instructor and she actually wasn't coming.
So there we were, a beautiful day, eight kids mounted on ponies, and no one to teach them. I mulled over the issue in my mind. We must give these kids an instructor. No one was taking a step forward. There was no backup plan for this situation. I wondered how the insurance side of it worked. I wondered about this and that, and in the end I suggested that if everyone is happy, then I will teach the kids. There was a resounding "YES PLEASE!" from all the parents.
Gulp.
Eight kids from total beginner and wavering between on the lead/off the lead, to 14-year olds, capable of jumping grade 3, and everything in between. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end. Well, as they say "throw me to the wolves, and I will come back leading the pack". And that is exactly what happened! (Not that our kids are like "wolves", but you get the drift.)
We started off with flatwork. I ran the kids through a set of exercises that I do myself to establish a correct position on the pony, and to establish that the pony is travelling correctly. Within two strides the ponies all improved, relaxed and moved better. Within two strides!!! My jaw dropped! Then we did some other work that was basic enough for the beginners, but still beneficial for the intermediate and advanced riders.
In the second session we did poles and jumping. Well, at the start of this class two were keen to jump, and the remainder were only going to do poles on the ground. By the end of the session everyone bar two riders (one was a youngster and a beginner, the other was on an elderly pony that shouldn't jump) was jumping. Everyone! In fact, as the jumps went up, I had to step in and tell some riders to stop jumping because it was getting too high for them.
Then lunch.
After lunch we played some games. It was just a fun relaxing session. Oh, but so many smiles. So much team work. Such great friendship.
All the kids had a really good time that rally. All the parents were very happy, because they could see amazing improvements in the way the kids were riding. But most important of all, I had a really good time! It was kind of like being at a party and doing lots of talking and having lots of fun. I just loved it.
I think my question has been answered.
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