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Trainer, Coach, or Online Fix? · Two Point Perspective

• 0:00
  Last week we were talking about all the things we can do now to try to make our horses better and how easy it is to keep adding one more thing because somebody says it might help and you think,
• 0:11
  well, it probably can't hurt.
• 0:14
  I realized that we do exactly the same things to ourselves.
• 0:19
  If you miss a distance, somebody has an answer.
• 0:22
  If you keep looking down, somebody has an answer.
• 0:26
  If your heels won't stay down, maybe it isn't even the riding.
• 0:30
  Now somebody is telling you it could be your ankle mobility or your calf tension.
• 0:36
  If you're nervous, if you feel stuck, if you aren't moving up fast enough, there is somebody somewhere with a system.
• 0:43
  And the difference now is that you don't really have to go looking for any of it.
• 0:49
  It comes looking for you.
• 0:51
  I know because I've bought some of it.
• 0:54
  I bought a device that was supposed to help me stop looking.
• 0:58
  I bought something about seeing distances and I already have somebody teaching me.
• 1:03
  So I'm not making fun of anybody for buying this stuff.
• 1:07
  I understand exactly why we do it, but I think it's easy to get caught up in the marketing when somebody is offering an answer to the thing that's been driving you crazy.
• 1:20
  You're already thinking, maybe this will help before you've really stopped to ask what they're selling and whether it's something you need.
• 1:30
  This is two point perspective.
• 1:32
  Two riders with different viewpoints from different generations talking about the same sport.
• 1:39
  So let's start with the thing I'm working on right now, because it sounds so simple, but where do you look when you're coming to a jump?
• 1:47
  You know, I was thinking about this and honestly, I think I look.
• 1:52
  Honestly, I don't really know where I look.
• 1:54
  I look.
• 1:54
  I mean, I look up, I.
• 1:56
  I think more.
• 1:57
  So I'm like trying to be focused on the rhythm that I have.
• 2:02
  And then I'm trying to think, do I look down?
• 2:04
  I can't.
• 2:05
  I don't think.
• 2:05
  I look at the bottom rail.
• 2:06
  I think I look up.
• 2:07
  Like, I think I look past.
• 2:09
  Like I think I look up at the top rail.
• 2:11
  I'm just thinking, when you were a kid, did anybody ever tell you or teach you how to go to a jump?
• 2:17
  Yeah, but it was like counting, like focusing on a rhythm and counting.
• 2:21
  I don't know why I have this in my head because I'm not really sure I remember exactly.
• 2:25
  That was a long time ago.
• 2:26
  But I feel like I was taught in my mind to look for the imaginary line on the ground.
• 2:34
  That's, you know, the Right spot to leave from in front of the jump.
• 2:40
  And I have.
• 2:42
  Someone else told me that a trainer had told them that.
• 2:45
  They kind of called it a box.
• 2:46
  Like, if you imagined a box on the ground that you wanted to get your horse's front feet somewhere inside of that box.
• 2:54
  That was the idea.
• 2:55
  That sounds very complicated.
• 2:58
  Well, same idea.
• 2:59
  You know, here's a line, here's a spot, here's a place that you're trying to ride to.
• 3:04
  Anyway, that's where I learned to look for a spot.
• 3:08
  So I don't think I really looked down when I was younger, even though I think that's what I was taught to do, to look for that line.
• 3:17
  But things have changed.
• 3:19
  I had a horse who, if I missed badly, which was easy for me to do, would not.
• 3:27
  Never not jump the jump, but would sometimes stop on the backside of the jump.
• 3:32
  So I became a flying object, a missile, basically.
• 3:36
  I think even you witnessed that.
• 3:38
  I did.
• 3:38
  And I missed 10 years off my life.
• 3:42
  I missed often enough that I guess I started protecting myself effectively.
• 3:48
  I think I adopted the fetal position.
• 3:51
  You could say, oh, my God.
• 3:52
  I think that's slightly dramatic based on what you're saying.
• 3:56
  But I get.
• 3:58
  I get why you're upset, because we've talked about your.
• 4:01
  Your looking down.
• 4:03
  But I think that in a fair way, a lot of riders, and you included, develop protections or habits and not totally realizing that they're doing it.
• 4:12
  And so unless it's, like, corrected all the time and.
• 4:17
  And pretty, like, from the beginning, you.
• 4:19
  It.
• 4:20
  It becomes habitual.
• 4:21
  It's all the time.
• 4:22
  And it's a little bit more complicated than just understanding what somebody wants you to do to fix it, because it's sort of ingrained in, like, how you're.
• 4:31
  How you're riding.
• 4:32
  And I don't really know why it started.
• 4:34
  I don't have, like, a.
• 4:35
  It wasn't because, like, my horse was doing something interesting.
• 4:38
  It wasn't on the backside or doing any of that.
• 4:41
  I started ducking really bad when I was a teenager.
• 4:43
  Like, over the jump, I was ducking, and for no particular reason.
• 4:49
  And it wasn't until somebody told me the trainer at the time was just like, you absolutely have to stop doing that.
• 4:55
  But I do remember being told, eyes up all the time.
• 4:59
  Look up.
• 5:00
  Oh, yeah, me too.
• 5:01
  Me too.
• 5:01
  For sure.
• 5:02
  And then the sitting up.
• 5:03
  You know how they always say to us ladies, knockers up, and, oh, my God.
• 5:09
  And I would try really hard, but my version of knockers up was really just kind of leaning further back so that it lifted them.
• 5:21
  And I finally started seeing a chiropractor because I guess my posture had just gotten so bad.
• 5:27
  And I remember saying to her that everybody keeps telling me to look up, and I'm.
• 5:32
  But I am looking up, or at least I thought I was.
• 5:34
  And she said that they needed to stop saying eyes up and say chin up.
• 5:39
  Which made sense because I was still looking down, but my eyes were kind of going forward forward.
• 5:45
  And then they would kind of look back down again.
• 5:48
  But by her saying that, it made me understand something different.
• 5:52
  And she wasn't actually talking about where my eyeballs were pointing.
• 5:56
  It's just my whole head and of her body had a leaned position that I had learned to lean over.
• 6:04
  So once.
• 6:06
  Once we got the posture straighter, unfortunately, the eye habit is still there.
• 6:11
  So at some point, yes, I am a sucker.
• 6:14
  And I bought this thing that you clipped on to your helmet, and it was designed to keep.
• 6:20
  To beep at you when your head dropped.
• 6:23
  You put it on, clipped it onto the edge of your helmet, and then you set the beep.
• 6:28
  And sadly, the company that made them seems to have disappeared.
• 6:32
  But clearly my problem did not disappear.
• 6:35
  I always had like, a little bit of a lean to me.
• 6:40
  Like, I tend to be like, more forward with my seat than I probably should be.
• 6:44
  And so, like, that's something that I've always tried to pay attention to.
• 6:47
  My biggest thing, I would say is constantly I'm being told to like, roll my shoulders back.
• 6:52
  And I do.
• 6:53
  Like when I.
• 6:54
  Especially in college, like when I was doing the equitation and stuff like that, I was very conscious of it.
• 6:57
  And my college coach said to me it was really interesting.
• 7:02
  He was like, pull, like, make sure.
• 7:04
  Like shoulders, you know, shoulders back, shoulders up.
• 7:06
  Shoulders back, shoulders up.
• 7:07
  And then he was like, pull your right shoulder backwards.
• 7:11
  Like, pull your.
• 7:12
  Or.
• 7:12
  Or he was like, or likewise.
• 7:14
  Or, you know, or if you can't do that, push your left one forward.
• 7:18
  And it was at that point, and so I was like, okay, let me.
• 7:22
  Let me try to do it.
• 7:22
  Because, like, my shoulders were back.
• 7:24
  But he was like, you're still crooked.
• 7:25
  Like, why are you still crooked?
• 7:27
  So I pulled one back and he was like, there.
• 7:28
  Like, now you're straight there.
• 7:30
  Try that.
• 7:30
  So, you know, of course, at first it felt really weird, and then I was just really conscious of once I'm finally straighten him, got my shoulders back, pull.
• 7:38
  Pull this one back a little further or whatever.
• 7:40
  Well, it wasn't until, like, I.
• 7:42
  I don't know, I was home for winter break or Something.
• 7:44
  I went to go throw a blanket on a horse, and I was like, oh, my God, I can't move.
• 7:50
  And I had had, like, you know, my back a sore, blah, blah, blah, blah, like, issues, whatever, but I had, like, thrown my back out.
• 7:56
  So I managed to get myself back up to the house and was like, basically in tears and couldn't stand up straight.
• 8:01
  Went to the chiropractor the next day because they were like, we don't know what to do.
• 8:04
  And they took X rays, and that's when we saw my scoliosis was.
• 8:11
  And so I texted my coach and I was like, hey, remember when you asked me why I sit so crooked?
• 8:16
  I've got an explanation for you that is not my fault.
• 8:19
  But I was trying to figure out, like, how can I fix this?
• 8:23
  And if I could fix it, I'd pay anything to do that.
• 8:27
  So every lesson I take, and I literally.
• 8:34
  You would laugh.
• 8:35
  As I said, since all of this started with me not being able to find the jumps, I paid $25 to buy a guide for seeing how to see a perfect distance.
• 8:47
  Oh, my gosh.
• 8:49
  But I would pay real money if somebody could honestly solve something that has bothered me for so long.
• 8:56
  And I think that's why marketing actually works.
• 9:00
  Well, yeah.
• 9:00
  I mean, both of us have worked in marketing.
• 9:02
  You don't have to convince an adult amateur that she wants to ride better.
• 9:05
  Just get her attention with something that she's already frustrated about.
• 9:08
  I have gotten.
• 9:10
  I can't tell you the amount of emails that I've gotten and what the subject lines are.
• 9:15
  Find your distance.
• 9:16
  Are you anxious?
• 9:17
  Do you.
• 9:18
  It's.
• 9:19
  It's hilarious.
• 9:20
  I don't.
• 9:20
  All of the above.
• 9:21
  Thank you.
• 9:22
  If you have a bad lesson, you miss a few jumps, and then somehow all of a sudden your feed is filled with explanations of why you can't see a distance and how this method can help.
• 9:33
  Yeah, it seems like there.
• 9:35
  There are people who offer to critique videos that you send them to improve your position.
• 9:41
  This week I saw one that was basically saying, if your trainer keeps telling you heels down, maybe that isn't really the problem.
• 9:49
  Maybe it's your ankle mobility or your calf tension.
• 9:53
  And here are the exercises that supposedly fix it.
• 9:56
  Subscribe here and click, click, click.
• 10:01
  To be fair, I mean, maybe that is the problem for some people, but that's how easy it is now.
• 10:07
  Whatever is bothering you, somebody can turn it into a diagnosis and then sell you the next step.
• 10:15
  Sometimes I think having, you know, outside help, like, whether it's just like you're Reading something or a different perspective.
• 10:23
  It could be the exact same thing that your trainer is telling you or that a friend is telling you.
• 10:27
  It's just a different.
• 10:28
  A different way of looking at it.
• 10:29
  And your trainer isn't necessarily like your strength coach or a physical therapist or to bring back.
• 10:38
  Circle back to what I was talking about my trainer being like, okay, this is the best way I can tell you to fix this, but why are you so crooked?
• 10:45
  He didn't know.
• 10:46
  I didn't know.
• 10:46
  And it wasn't until I injured myself effectively that I found out.
• 10:50
  But it was really cool, if you think about it, too, that he was.
• 10:54
  Was like, all right, all right, I've told you, I've told you.
• 10:56
  Shoulders back, shoulders back.
• 10:57
  Oh, look at.
• 10:57
  This is not where.
• 10:58
  Okay, try.
• 11:00
  Let's make you more crooked.
• 11:01
  Let's see if it makes you straight, you know?
• 11:03
  Well, effectively, he was trying to go the opposite direction with your crookedness.
• 11:08
  Yeah.
• 11:08
  He's like, I don't.
• 11:09
  How do I.
• 11:10
  How do I fix this?
• 11:11
  But, yeah, you know, it's.
• 11:12
  And sometimes I think.
• 11:14
  I think it's easy talking about, like, last week's episode where we're talking about all these things that we do for horses, and I think people are probably better about it now than we ever have been in the past.
• 11:27
  But I think it was like, the mentality of, like, what can we do for our horses?
• 11:30
  Our horses, our horses.
• 11:32
  And yes, I think that's all very, very important.
• 11:35
  And riding keeps you fit to an extent.
• 11:37
  But what strength training are we doing outside of being on the horse?
• 11:42
  And what are we doing to keep ourselves flexible and our mobility going well and.
• 11:48
  And all of that, and so we're not stiff and.
• 11:50
  And we have the ability to work our horses in different muscles if.
• 11:54
  If some problems arise, you know, if you're not riding a horse that bucks all the time, that can take you off guard even with the strongest riders, because you're now having to balance in certain ways.
• 12:04
  You're not used to using muscles not typically having to engage to stay on.
• 12:10
  Yeah.
• 12:10
  I think that's where outside help can make complete sense.
• 12:14
  Yeah.
• 12:14
  If my ankle physically can't do something, then my trainer yelling heels down louder is not going to increase my range of motion.
• 12:23
  Just like your trainer telling you how to put your shoulders didn't change the fact that you had a diagnosis.
• 12:29
  Right.
• 12:29
  So maybe I need somebody who knows more about the body than my riding instructor is supposed to.
• 12:36
  And I do feel like the diagnosis still has to fit the person.
• 12:40
  Oh, for sure.
• 12:41
  Yeah.
• 12:42
  Definitely.
• 12:42
  And a message that went to thousands of writers can feel exactly like it was written for you, which is also fun.
• 12:47
  You know, you're like, wow, this really speaks to me.
• 12:50
  And then you've got a frustrating lesson and somebody else is describing exactly what went wrong.
• 12:54
  It's easy to assume that they've got to have the answer.
• 12:56
  You know, I think that's the part that feels off to me, given the advertising or business world that I came from.
• 13:03
  Marketing has always been about getting somebody's attention and making the case that you understand their problem.
• 13:10
  There's nothing new about that.
• 13:12
  Right.
• 13:12
  But when I worked at an agency, understanding the problem didn't automatically get us the business.
• 13:19
  We still had to pitch.
• 13:20
  We had to show relevant work.
• 13:22
  We had to talk about our experience, give references and explain why we were the right people for that particular client.
• 13:30
  And then the client could still say, fine, you understand what I need, but why should I hire you?
• 13:36
  Well, exactly, because describing the problem can feel like they've got the proof or the answer as to how to solve it or fix it.
• 13:44
  And so it's kind of like, and I'm over the cliff now, like, and,.
• 13:52
  And somebody can describe exactly what you're struggling with.
• 13:56
  They can sound confident.
• 13:57
  Yeah.
• 13:58
  And they've got polished content, maybe some testimonials.
• 14:01
  We don't know what those are though.
• 14:03
  And you start thinking, maybe this person does have the answer.
• 14:07
  And, and maybe they do have something useful to offer, but they haven't seen me ride, they don't know my horse or what we're already working on.
• 14:17
  So how do they know whether they're, whether what they're selling is going to help me with my particular problem?
• 14:25
  And I'm certainly not immune.
• 14:27
  I mean, for heaven's sakes, I bought the seeing distances thing.
• 14:32
  It was $25.
• 14:33
  And I thought maybe there's something in there that will help me.
• 14:36
  And it does have exercises in it.
• 14:39
  And there was structure.
• 14:41
  And I'm not saying somebody sold me nothing, but I already had somebody who was teaching me how to ride to a jump.
• 14:49
  So now I have a trainer that I work with who knows my goals and I have this PDF with a 28 day system telling me how I should be working on distances.
• 15:03
  To me, just because you, like you missed a jump doesn't necessarily mean that you can't see a distance.
• 15:09
  You know, 95% of the time there had to have been something happening before you got to the jump, or maybe there, you know, whether it was your horse or with the.
• 15:18
  It was you and Your position or whatever.
• 15:20
  I mean, I do think that the way I go to a jump, the pace and rhythm affect what.
• 15:26
  What you see.
• 15:27
  I also think that going back to what you were talking about with the videos, you can get, you know, critiques and stuff like that.
• 15:33
  I think that's where video footage comes in handy, whether you're working and looking on, looking at that with your trainer, or you submit it for fresh eyes to see just for fun.
• 15:44
  But I.
• 15:45
  I think I learn a ton off of the video because your trainer can see what's happening, but they can't feel what's happening.
• 15:54
  And I think sometimes, at least for me, where it could get frustrating is if I was having a hard time getting a distance.
• 16:01
  My pace seemed to be okay, and my turn seemed to be okay.
• 16:04
  But what happened?
• 16:05
  Like, why is it that I felt like I.
• 16:07
  I had the pace and I had the turn?
• 16:09
  Am I still just eating, Jumping into nothing effectively and having.
• 16:14
  Because your trainer can tell you on the ground, oh, well, you didn't.
• 16:17
  You didn't do this.
• 16:18
  Right.
• 16:18
  And it's like.
• 16:18
  But I.
• 16:19
  I felt like I did.
• 16:21
  So let's look at it.
• 16:22
  Can you show me on here where you think that that had.
• 16:25
  That happened and try to have a better understanding of it from that point of view?
• 16:29
  Because I think even the best of trainers can't feel what you're feeling.
• 16:33
  And if you're really in tune, you know, you can feel like, oh, my God, I just.
• 16:37
  I thought I had it.
• 16:38
  I don't understand what happened.
• 16:40
  I think that somebody standing in the ring can see that they may see the miss and say, I don't really care about the distance right now.
• 16:48
  You lost the canter six strides earlier.
• 16:50
  Right.
• 16:51
  Or that horse.
• 16:52
  Or the horse wasn't in front of your leg.
• 16:54
  Or you changed the rhythm in the turn.
• 16:57
  Maybe you thought you had it right, but.
• 17:00
  Right.
• 17:00
  It looked different.
• 17:01
  That has happened a couple of times to me where I thought I had maintained it.
• 17:05
  And we were looking at a video, and it was like, right there.
• 17:08
  That's where you're like, your pace change, your.
• 17:11
  And your canner changed entirely.
• 17:13
  And Loki will suck you into that, too if your canter changes.
• 17:16
  And he can kind of get a little bit tall.
• 17:19
  Yeah.
• 17:20
  From not being tall, you're.
• 17:22
  I mean, he'll suck you right into the.
• 17:24
  Let's add one more.
• 17:25
  The other thing that happens to me, as you said, is I get so worried that I'm not seeing the distance that I start.
• 17:34
  It was right there, but I start pulling or something like that.
• 17:38
  Oh, yeah.
• 17:38
  So I think that happens to everybody.
• 17:41
  I believe it does.
• 17:42
  But it's funny because this workbook can give you a perfectly sensible exercise, but it cannot know what just happened on that particular approach.
• 17:54
  And that made me look more closely at what I actually bought, because it wasn't really a collection or just a collection of exercises for seeing distances.
• 18:06
  There was a whole philosophy behind it.
• 18:08
  This workbook talks about riders getting stuck even though they take lessons, go to clinics, buy the gadgets, even ride with very good people.
• 18:18
  But the answer it offers is structure.
• 18:21
  A training plan with goals, repetition and a system.
• 18:26
  And then I watched one of this lady's videos later and that's where she took it another step.
• 18:32
  And she made this very specific distinction between a trainer, an instructor and a coach.
• 18:39
  And her explanation, I'm a big proponent of that.
• 18:44
  Of which thing?
• 18:46
  Well, I agree.
• 18:47
  I think that there, I have always said, I think there's a difference between those three.
• 18:52
  Well, she said that her explanation was basically that a trainer trains the horse.
• 18:57
  The instructor gives you your one hour lesson, but a coach is a different person who knows your goals and builds the plan to get you there, which I didn't really understand because seems to me, isn't that what our
• 19:16
  trainer's supposed to do?
• 19:17
  Well, I think really good trainers in the horse industry have the ability to do though, all of those jobs.
• 19:27
  Just because somebody is really, really good on the horse does not make them good at instructing you or training you.
• 19:35
  People have their strengths and maybe they're better at riding the horse and they're still good at teaching you.
• 19:41
  You know what I'm saying?
• 19:42
  Like, I'm not saying just because you're really good at one makes automatically means you're going to suck at all the rest of it.
• 19:46
  That's just not true.
• 19:47
  But I definitely think that there are distinctions between what those three things are.
• 19:53
  And you just happen to be oh so lucky if you have one that can provide all of those things.
• 20:00
  I think it depends on, like, the type of program.
• 20:02
  I think that there are some horsepower trainers who also want to be very good instructors and also want to coach you through what your goals are.
• 20:11
  I think that they have a drive and a want to do those things for their clients.
• 20:16
  And I think that there are some that are like, yeah, I'm here, I'm going to put you in the ring, I'm going to tell you what I know.
• 20:23
  Execute, don't execute.
• 20:25
  It's just instruction is not really what they prefer to do.
• 20:30
  So it's like finding the Best fit, you know.
• 20:32
  But then how do you, for example, if you're showing and you tell your trainer you want to move up, then they should know what has to happen or what has to improve before you can.
• 20:46
  And they should know what the horse needs.
• 20:48
  They should know what you need.
• 20:49
  And what happens at the show should affect what happens at home.
• 20:54
  What you're doing this month should have some relationship to where you want to be six months from now.
• 21:00
  And I don't see that as a separate product called coaching.
• 21:04
  To me, that's all part of training.
• 21:06
  I don't know if you're in a program with a trainer and I totally get your point.
• 21:12
  A lot of these younger people that are coming along really, as we've had an episode about that, just want to ride.
• 21:20
  They not really interested all that much in teaching, but they realize they have to because that's part of the deal.
• 21:26
  Yeah.
• 21:27
  So are they good at it?
• 21:30
  I don't know.
• 21:30
  But if you're still gonna ride with them and you're gonna give your money to em and you're gonna show with them, then hopefully you're accomplishing your goals.
• 21:38
  I agree.
• 21:39
  I don't think, I guess I'm not saying like that.
• 21:41
  I think that you need a separate person for all of those things.
• 21:45
  And yes, I agree that if you're in a program where all of those things are offered that the person who is the trainer shouldn't be able to offer all of those things.
• 21:54
  I think that they should.
• 21:57
  But I do think there can be a distinction between a trainer and an instructor and a coach.
• 22:04
  And you just hope that when you're program shopping or trying to find the place that fits for you or fits for your horse that you can, you can get the majority of, of those things.
• 22:15
  The best of it.
• 22:16
  The best, exactly.
• 22:17
  So I'm not trying to like make it sound like I'm splitting hairs because that's not really what I mean.
• 22:22
  I just feel like there are certain circumstances where say you go to a clinic, you're being instructed.
• 22:28
  Correct.
• 22:29
  And sometimes you can get a ton out of a clinic.
• 22:33
  Sure.
• 22:33
  From that instructor because they're really, really good at what they do.
• 22:37
  Right.
• 22:38
  And they're not training your horse, they're instructing you.
• 22:41
  And so on the one hand it's kind of like, oh, wow, okay.
• 22:45
  So I really was just taught me, they were teaching me what to do because they don't know anything about my horse.
• 22:51
  And a lot of the time, at least the clinics I've been to, they'll ask a little Bit of, what do you do with your horse?
• 22:56
  Right.
• 22:56
  How does your horse go?
• 22:58
  Little problem area here or there.
• 22:59
  What would you like to, you know, it's very brief.
• 23:01
  They get, they get like this, you know, scratch and sniff version of, you know, what you and your horse do.
• 23:08
  I think clinics are an excellent example of how to get a different set of eyes.
• 23:14
  But I think that if there's no progression, no goal, no thought about how a horse and a rider are developing together, I would question the whole program I was in before, I would automatically add another person to it.
• 23:29
  Oh, yeah, no, I agree with you for sure.
• 23:31
  In my opinion, I think it's a.
• 23:32
  It's a good way to, to sell something.
• 23:34
  You tell somebody, you know, your lessons aren't giving you everything that you need, and then conveniently, we've got what's missing.
• 23:41
  I saw actually another version of that this week that had nothing to do with writing.
• 23:47
  It was an equestrian marketing mastermind.
• 23:51
  You could sign up for six weeks.
• 23:54
  How fancy.
• 23:55
  Yeah, Six weeks to work on your brand and social media and marketing strategy.
• 24:01
  And maybe there's terrific information in it.
• 24:04
  I have no idea.
• 24:05
  But it made me think about how much our expectations have changed.
• 24:10
  We're used to being able to solve things almost instantly now.
• 24:14
  I mean, you ask a question and you get an answer in seconds, or you find a video explaining almost anything.
• 24:22
  You can buy a course for a couple of hundred dollars instead of hiring somebody for thousands.
• 24:28
  And there's nothing wrong with having that kind of access.
• 24:32
  But I do wonder whether it's also made us start expecting that we can acquire something in a few weeks.
• 24:40
  The kind of judgment that took somebody years to develop.
• 24:46
  If I have a problem, I have a problem.
• 24:48
  Give me the answer, give me the system, make it affordable, and preferably fix it quickly.
• 24:55
  Even after an agency got hired, we still had to learn the client, their business, who their customers were, and what had already been tried, what worked and what didn't.
• 25:05
  You didn't walk into a room knowing all that just because you understood marketing.
• 25:09
  Marketing.
• 25:10
  It's the same with riding.
• 25:11
  You can know a lot, but you still have to get to know the person or the horse.
• 25:15
  And you put me on a different horse and you might see a whole different set of problems.
• 25:19
  I think a little bit like you're saying we, we are a little bit in the immediate gratification era, and a little bit, a lot of it.
• 25:30
  And it's a sort of like the whole talk of, like, moving up, moving up so fast.
• 25:34
  Like, well, I did it, I did it.
• 25:35
  I did it once, so, you know, I know I can do it more.
• 25:37
  And.
• 25:37
  But, you know, it just doesn't replace the time that's put in simply because you think that you can.
• 25:44
  And.
• 25:45
  And I think putting me on a different horse definitely showed a lot of weaknesses I had.
• 25:49
  When you're riding the same horse a lot, even if you're working on different things, it's not saying that you're not improving or that your horse isn't improving, but it is sort of eye opening.
• 25:58
  You get on a different horse and you're like, maybe I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
• 26:03
  I remember back in college because I'm used to having my own horse, which I did at the time.
• 26:08
  But also, I didn't do a ton of riding on other horses until I got to school.
• 26:14
  And that was probably the very best thing that could have ever happened to my riding.
• 26:20
  But I remember we were getting ready for competition, and I was having practice with my team, and I got put on this horse who was a machine.
• 26:28
  I mean, such a good horse, and I couldn't make him go.
• 26:33
  This horse would jump the moon for you.
• 26:36
  He knew all the tricks, all the buttons, had them all.
• 26:39
  I couldn't make him canter.
• 26:40
  I mean, been around my whole life.
• 26:42
  Couldn't make the horse canner.
• 26:43
  I was like, are you kidding me?
• 26:45
  I'm horrible at that.
• 26:46
  Like, what do you mean?
• 26:46
  I can't make this horse canter.
• 26:48
  That's why I think that the idea that one person trains the horse while somebody else coaches the rider sounds much cleaner in a sales pitch than it does.
• 26:57
  Yeah, then it doesn't.
• 26:58
  Right.
• 26:59
  Because reality is much different than on paper, for sure.
• 27:02
  Right.
• 27:03
  Because what the horse does changes what I do, and what I do changes what the horse does.
• 27:08
  And a horse that carries me to the jump or a horse that I can make canter gives me something completely different to ride than the one that I might have to manufacture every single stride.
• 27:21
  So a strong horse can make somebody defensive, but a horse that backs off can make that same rider start doing too much.
• 27:30
  So, yeah, somebody may identify something useful in my body, but they still need enough context to know why my body is doing what it's doing.
• 27:41
  Right.
• 27:41
  What about taking a lesson over a video call, though?
• 27:44
  I mean, the instructor can watch you ride and talk it as you're doing.
• 27:47
  I guess you could do it.
• 27:49
  I guess you could do it that way.
• 27:51
  Yes.
• 27:52
  It's crazy, but I know somebody who rides.
• 27:56
  She's a dressage rider, and she has her instructor is in Europe.
• 28:02
  Seriously.
• 28:03
  And she puts a pivot camera in her ring, and it follows her around.
• 28:08
  And he teaches her live from Europe.
• 28:10
  And I just think that is an extraordinary use of technology.
• 28:14
  Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 28:16
  He can see both her and the horse.
• 28:19
  He can ask her to do something and watch, actually watch what happens.
• 28:24
  And if it doesn't work, he can change the instruction right then.
• 28:28
  And because he sees them regularly over time, he does know the horse and rider.
• 28:34
  So I do believe that technology has certainly changed the geography and it didn't remove the training relationship.
• 28:44
  And I guess we had much earlier versions of a remote kind of feedback.
• 28:50
  Do you remember those practical horsemen?
• 28:52
  Maybe they still do it.
• 28:55
  Critiques where somebody sent in a still picture and whoever the expert of the month was would comment on their position.
• 29:03
  I loved it.
• 29:04
  I loved, loved that segment.
• 29:07
  I mean, seriously.
• 29:08
  But that's also, like, similar to having somebody review the video, right?
• 29:15
  Or around from a show like we were talking about.
• 29:17
  You know, they might spot something that you didn't realize you were doing.
• 29:20
  And.
• 29:20
  And also that's why I think it's kind of cool, because you're not necessarily having to, like, get up and go to a clinic, but you can, you know, you have an idea of how your round went.
• 29:30
  It was.
• 29:30
  It was okay.
• 29:31
  Wasn't horrible, whatever.
• 29:33
  But again, it puts a fresh set of eyes on.
• 29:36
  On your horse and on you.
• 29:38
  And while I think a lot of those videos try to remain mostly positive, like, I don't think like, somebody's submitting it to get shredded, I think that they do provide some constructive criticism or just even.
• 29:50
  Even maybe it's not a big thing, but constructive criticism, things to think about just to maybe try working on that.
• 29:58
  Or did you see where that happened there?
• 30:01
  The horse got a little this or that.
• 30:03
  And I think it's also cool because it provides feedback from a judge's point of view, not necessarily just from, like, an instruction point of view, at least the ones I'm thinking of, where you submit the videos.
• 30:12
  I think my problem with it is, is you send it, they tell you what they see, and then the next time you ride, you try to make that correction.
• 30:20
  And that absolutely can be useful, but it's different from having somebody there who can stop you after the first attempt and say, no, that's not what I meant, or that's not the right way to do that.
• 30:34
  You have to change this first.
• 30:37
  So if the argument is about muscle memory, that matters.
• 30:40
  I don't want to do the wrong thing 10 times because I thought I was doing what the comment or the criticism was correctly.
• 30:49
  And so it's kind of like these people that sell these prerecorded audio lessons and they can tell you what to do.
• 30:58
  It just can't tell me what I just did.
• 31:00
  On the.
• 31:01
  On the flip side, I don't think anything can ever replace boots and eyes on the ground in front of you.
• 31:06
  I don't think that any video, any submission, any photo still in a magazine can replace what your instructor is capable of doing for you and for your horse.
• 31:17
  But likewise, I just feel like sometimes it just gives you something more to think about in terms of things to work on.
• 31:25
  Not necessarily that like what you're.
• 31:27
  What they're suggesting would work, but something to try.
• 31:31
  Right.
• 31:32
  But I guess my whole problem is how do you know if you're doing what they're telling you to try correctly?
• 31:38
  So.
• 31:39
  Yeah, that's a good point.
• 31:40
  There's another claim in some of this marketing that I don't recognize from the kind of program that I know.
• 31:48
  And it said that you take your lesson and then this program in particular was saying, you know, if you just have your one lesson a week and then you're basically left alone the other six days.
• 31:59
  Right.
• 31:59
  Five days.
• 32:00
  Six days trying to figure out how to practice it.
• 32:03
  In the programs that I've been in, if I'm not taking a lesson, I'm certainly not jumping.
• 32:08
  Right.
• 32:09
  So I can always flat my horse and try to practice something I've learned.
• 32:14
  However, I'm not setting up a jumping exercise I found online and teaching myself through it.
• 32:20
  And I think that's where I get caught up in these marketing things because a lot of them are, you know, cavaletti.
• 32:27
  Set them up this way and yeah, do this number of str.
• 32:31
  And we don't.
• 32:32
  We don't really get to do that.
• 32:34
  Yeah, with Loki, I guess, I mean, now that he's home, I typically try to keep his routine pretty normal, which is jump one or two days a week and flat the rest.
• 32:44
  But obviously I haven't been doing much of any of those things, but.
• 32:48
  But I mean, you must have a plan.
• 32:50
  Yeah, I do.
• 32:51
  And.
• 32:51
  But I also.
• 32:52
  One of the things that I was taught when I was in high school and it has stuck with me ever since because I did a lot of riding on my own.
• 33:01
  Not on my own.
• 33:02
  I still had lessons all the time, but I did a lot of riding, like not with anybody else in the ring.
• 33:06
  And it was just a small barn and I was by myself a lot.
• 33:10
  So I would have homework, things to work on that.
• 33:13
  Maybe we worked on, on the lesson or things that I, you know, was like, what exercises should I.
• 33:17
  Should I focus on?
• 33:18
  And sometimes my trainer would like leave something set up.
• 33:20
  And that was always nice, but it was.
• 33:23
  You also have to remember to ride the horse that you have that day.
• 33:26
  So you can.
• 33:27
  The best laid plans don't always go the way that you want them to because your horse has an opinion and they have bad days too.
• 33:34
  And so Loki being rather opinionated about his life, I go in with a plan and things I want to work on based on how he was that week or was he shortening and lengthening well and all of that.
• 33:49
  And I'd be like, okay, I'll work on that on the flat today.
• 33:51
  Or I'll just set some poles out on the ground and work on that today.
• 33:54
  Sometimes he's in a really foul mood and he doesn't wanna participate.
• 33:57
  He doesn't wanna put his head down, he doesn't wanna go on the bridal, like, nothing.
• 34:00
  So I'm like, okay, I guess I'm a human lunch line today.
• 34:02
  And sometimes that's just how it goes.
• 34:04
  I guess when I was growing up, we had the ability to do kind of more of that now in these more structured programs.
• 34:13
  Yeah, you know, there's a lot of things you can work on by yourself, but there's a lot of things that you can't.
• 34:20
  And so I'm clearly not going to be inventing a separate jumping lesson for myself.
• 34:26
  Oh yeah.
• 34:27
  Whereas you probably could take one of these guides and practice.
• 34:31
  Yes, you know, whatever it tells you.
• 34:32
  But.
• 34:33
  But I am not in necessarily the position to be able to do that.
• 34:36
  Well, I also think that going back into, like, I'm the first one, I don't know everything.
• 34:42
  My horse can always be stronger, I can always be more effective.
• 34:47
  Please give me the lessons.
• 34:48
  But I love it when there's like a particular exercise that we're working on, when it's not just like, come jump, school your horse.
• 34:54
  And like he is, like I was saying, he's a little bit older now and he understands his job.
• 34:58
  But that doesn't mean that the only thing he needs to do is jump lines.
• 35:02
  You know what I mean?
• 35:02
  He.
• 35:03
  Right.
• 35:03
  He has to stay sharp and stay tuned up.
• 35:05
  And so I love when lessons focus kind of on an exercise where that can translate to riding by myself.
• 35:14
  And I mean, I think you're the same way if you can do some pole exercises or set them up so they're a little different.
• 35:19
  Or let me practice what we were doing on the flat.
• 35:22
  Ironically, when I find that flat lessons, the flatting portion of the lesson gets a little bit shoved under the rug.
• 35:31
  When you become an adult amateur, it's, like, not as important to the lesson structure.
• 35:38
  Not that I don't think it's important.
• 35:39
  I think it's very important.
• 35:40
  And I've always found that while I go, oh, if I was having a lesson, then all of a sudden I'm getting like a flat intro, flat portion before we jump.
• 35:49
  I'm like, oh, God, I wasn't prepared for this.
• 35:50
  Like, oh, God, here we go.
• 35:52
  But what I find that is so crazy is while I'm focused on myself because I'm being picked on, do this with your body, do this with your leg, do this with your hands or whatever.
• 36:04
  My horse falls right in line.
• 36:06
  I am so unfocused on what he is doing, necessarily because I'm focusing on the instruction going directly to me, that he flats beautifully himself.
• 36:18
  Well, to your point, I do think a lot of times the flat part does get a lot overlooked.
• 36:23
  I do find often, go ahead, just warm up and then we'll do a couple of jumps.
• 36:28
  Right?
• 36:28
  But I.
• 36:29
  And then I'm like, oh, my God, I had this, like, amazing intro, flat portion.
• 36:33
  If he's a little fresh or something like that, I might go gallop a couple laps just to let him have a minute to himself.
• 36:38
  But then, like, my jumping typically was really good because he got warmed up really well, and I wasn't picking at him, I was picking on me.
• 36:45
  Well, I think to your point, too, as kids that are learning, there isn't any choice but to focus on the flat.
• 36:52
  But when you're an older amateur or an amateur, period, and you've been riding for a while, then the tendency is to.
• 36:59
  Oh, you already know that part.
• 37:00
  You can.
• 37:01
  Let's just do the jumping parts.
• 37:03
  Right?
• 37:03
  Yeah.
• 37:04
  So needless to say, every single TikTok, when somebody like the German writing instructor is talking about, love him some new.
• 37:12
  I love him too, when he's talking about some new.
• 37:16
  Some writing problem.
• 37:18
  Sometimes it's something that I've been struggling with, and sometimes it isn't.
• 37:22
  But if somebody explains one thing in a way that makes sense, I'm gonna listen.
• 37:25
  Yeah.
• 37:26
  And sometimes you hear something explained a little differently, and suddenly it makes sense in a way it hadn't before.
• 37:32
  Well, it's.
• 37:32
  It's like we were saying about the horses last week.
• 37:35
  You see something and think, well, maybe that would help.
• 37:37
  I guess we'll try it.
• 37:38
  I completely understand why?
• 37:40
  It gets our attention.
• 37:41
  But we're not riding eight horses a day.
• 37:43
  We don't get the number of repetitions that a professional gets, and we know that.
• 37:50
  And then we go spend a fortune at a horse show, and nobody wants to come out of the ring thinking, I just made the same mistake that I make all the time, which is me.
• 38:01
  So, oh, my God, I just did that this past weekend.
• 38:04
  Thank you very much.
• 38:05
  So if somebody says I can help you get there faster, well, of course I'm gonna listen.
• 38:11
  So at this point, I.
• 38:13
  If I thought that typing a fork to my neck with the prongs pointing toward my chin would finally make me stop looking down, I'd probably consider it.
• 38:21
  Although, obviously nobody should actually do that.
• 38:24
  But I don't know, that might not be so bad.
• 38:28
  Maybe I should try a spoon.
• 38:29
  It wouldn't stab me.
• 38:33
  But that's how badly you want to fix the thing that just keeps showing up.
• 38:37
  And what I'm trying to pay more attention to now is what I'm actually buying.
• 38:42
  Because there's a big difference between getting a PDF with some exercises or listening to an audio lesson or sending somebody a video for feedback and actually signing up for somebody's coaching program.
• 38:57
  And.
• 38:57
  And sometimes you don't really know what you've bought until after you bought it.
• 39:02
  Yeah.
• 39:02
  Or let alone how to, you know, use it with everything that you're already.
• 39:06
  Doing well or in conjunction with the program that you're working within.
• 39:13
  Anyway, what are you going to do?
• 39:14
  Take your trainer PDF and go, look.
• 39:18
  What I just learned?
• 39:19
  Yeah, look what they're going to go, huh, that's nice.
• 39:23
  Go get your words ready.
• 39:25
  Exactly.
• 39:26
  And so maybe what you bought has one really useful idea in it, and I think that's great.
• 39:34
  But if it's asking you to start following an entire training program, that's a pretty different commitment from, here's an exercise that you might find helpful.
• 39:46
  Yeah, well, and I think you have to stop for a minute and ask what you're actually getting before you go, well, oh, sure, yeah, that's worth a try.
• 39:53
  You know, having some understanding of it a little bit is, I think, a positive thing.
• 39:57
  Well, it's like what we were talking about with the horses.
• 40:00
  If it doesn't cost too much, it's worth a try because it can't hurt.
• 40:03
  Right.
• 40:04
  So I think, you know, the point being that we do this exact same thing.
• 40:11
  So is it might help a reason enough to buy it?
• 40:16
  I don't know.
• 40:17
  Because.
• 40:19
  Yeah, maybe.
• 40:20
  I mean, the marketing hook.
• 40:21
  The marketing hook might look really good, and the person behind it might have a terrific resume, but it still doesn't tell me what I'm actually buying or how it's supposed to help me or whether I really need it
• 40:36
  in the first place.
• 40:38
  So until next week, let's ride.