It’s so sad when I see that “I am sooo bad” thing happening

I have been privileged to watch some seriously brilliant horsemen and women over my life and the one thing that is common to most of them, is that some of their skills are so darned automatic that they have no idea why they are so brilliant at what they do.

And because of that, when they try to teach those of us who do not have those skills and natural talents, sometimes we are left feeling sooo… bad that we can’t do it as well as they do.  I remember this feeling well from before I started on this particular path with my horses.

I watched a nice young woman recently, a gentle rider on a beautiful Caretaker horse with a world class horseperson teaching, who got some of the most beautiful work from this horse.  And I mean world class – we are seriously lucky to have someone of that calibre in this country.

She left that lesson struggling to contain her tears of sadness and frustration because she couldn’t remotely achieve what this teacher wanted her to achieve.

I watched this lesson, yearning to pluck her off that lovely little horse, yearning to sit her down in a chair and resolve whatever was causing the arch in her back, to resolve whatever was causing the stiffness in her pelvis and spine that was getting in the way of her being able to achieve what this teacher was telling her to do freely and easily.

It might have taken one riding seat lesson with me or it might have taken three of four to completely resolve the arch in her back that was the fundamental problem with her riding position, so that when she sat in the saddle, she could just sit in a perfect position automatically, so that when they asked her to do this or that with her horse, that her riding position was stable enough to actually do what they asked.

I find it sooo…. sad that we are left in lessons feeling like we are sooo… bad at being a good rider, when there is such an easy solution.

You can fly out to Australia and do one of my stunning afternoon private lessons and transform your riding forever or you can save yourself a fortune and just get the Foundation for Riding Excellence program.  At $140 for 20 interactive, on line audio and video lessons, they are seriously good value.

Click here to read more about them.