To coach or not to coach

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.

Perception

I had just bought some new jump stands.  A set of red, blue and yellow ones.  This is the first set of professionally made jump stands I have ever purchased.  Up until now I have used tyres, or aluminium brackets mounted on plastic drums at best.

My aluminium brackets have a maximum height of about 1.2m, so by the time you are jumping 80cm you feel like you are rapidly running out of room.  In comparison my new jump stands are 1.6m tall.  When we start running out of room I'll be very pleased indeed.

So I setup my new jump stands, put up a couple of cross rails in a grid, and a straight bar separately, and proceeded to jump Dingo.  We played around with the grid for a while, and then I eyed off the straight bar.  I had no idea what height it was set at, but I perceived it to be about grade 4 - 60cm or so.  I jumped it.  Dingo just touched it.  I jumped it again.  It felt good.  It felt smooth.  It felt "right".

When the jumping session was finished, I wandered out into the jumping paddock and admired my new stands again.  Out of habit. I measured the straight bar.  Whoa!  It was set at about 75cm.  I had been jumping grade 3, not grade 4.  The higher jump stands made the jump look smaller.

Had I known that this jump was 75cm tall I would have been biting my lip on approach, overriding in a thousand ways, and gnawing at myself inside with trepidation at stepping into the unknown.  But, because I perceived the jump to be 60cm tall, I rode it in the same way that I have ridden numerous courses, calm and confident that Dingo can easily nail this.  And easily nail it he did.

Perception is everything.

My best year ever? (2013 wrap up)

Have I just had my best year ever?

In a nutshell - I went to 10 competitions, I had my first go at Intro, I got over issues with taking two horses to a competition, and I brought home some ribbons.  My daughter established herself as a worthy strapper and companion at competitions.

In addition to my horse riding outings I managed a week's family holiday and six family weekends away.  I also managed to take my daughter to 7 pony club rallies and one showjumping competition.  And let's not forget Tornado's visit at my daughter's birthday party, and her school!  Is there even that many weekends in a year?

But wait, that's not all.  We also had three different sets of family visitors from overseas.  They stayed either with my parents, or with my parents-in-law, but they were all here for an extended period of time, and while it was wonderful to see them and spend time with them, it did make schedules rather tight.

I also did some wonderful projects at work, and my health held up.

So, ok, it's definitely been a busy year.  But, success, is not measured by being busy.  Success is "the accomplishment of an aim or purpose".  Hmm.  It helps if the aim or purpose is easy to "measure".

My aim for the year was NOT "to be busy".  My equestrian goals were:

• compete successfully at Intro level on Dingo,
• get Lil upgraded to Level 4,
• get more professional at going to competitions,
• compete on two horses at the same competition,
• have more coaching sessions - with at least one lesson learnt per session,
• get my daughter walking and trotting independently on her pony.

The first goal has been a bit of a miss.  Yes, I did compete at Intro level on Dingo.  I competed three times, and I was eliminated on all occasions.  More about that another time.

All the other goals have been achieved.  In fact, the more I think about these goals, the more I realise that in some cases I have surpassed my wildest expectations.

Keep in mind, that life and all it's associated ups and downs got in the way many times - what with all those family visitors from overseas, a major car accident, health issues that almost made me quit my job, and family issues, stresses and disappointments.  When I look at the downs, the stops and the spills (yes, falls off my horse), 2013 is certainly a year I would rather forget.

When I look at the ups, the competitions that I attended, the ribbons I won, the scores that improved, the confidence I gained, the lessons I learnt, the way my riding has improved, the team that my daughter and I have become, then I feel that it has definitely been my best year so far.

Bring on 2014!