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Why Are You Still Taking Riding Lessons? · Two Point Perspective

• 0:00
  So often I'll be talking to my mother and tell her I had a great lesson today.
• 0:05
  And she'll say, why are you still taking lessons?
• 0:08
  Don't you know how to ride?
• 0:10
  And of course I laugh.
• 0:12
  But from her perspective, it is a perfectly reasonable question.
• 0:17
  I've ridden for a lot of years and at some point shouldn't you know how to do it?
• 0:22
  The funny thing is, nobody who rides thinks it's strange at all.
• 0:27
  You can ride for decades and still have somebody standing in the middle of the ring telling you to do something different.
• 0:35
  With horses, knowing how to do something doesn't mean that you've finished learning it.
• 0:42
  Sometimes the horse changes, sometimes you change horses, and sometimes somebody says something you've heard a hundred times in a slightly different way and suddenly you understand what they meant.
• 0:57
  This is two point perspective.
• 0:59
  Two riders with different viewpoints from different generations talking about the same sport.
• 1:07
  Reynolds My mother really does ask me this, why am I still taking lessons?
• 1:12
  Does anybody ever ask you that?
• 1:15
  Oh yeah, all the time.
• 1:17
  The dynamic of having done this your whole life and being an adult and still taking lessons to the non horse person doesn't make any sense.
• 1:26
  They're like, I don't get it.
• 1:27
  If you know what you're doing, why do you still take lessons?
• 1:29
  And I think it's important to remember we don't do this professionally.
• 1:34
  And it's also not just a skill for your, for you, right?
• 1:38
  You're working with an animal that has a mind of its own and can be a different ride on any different day.
• 1:45
  And so you need help and you need tuning up and practice with them, not just on yourself.
• 1:50
  Well, I agree and I know you've ridden your whole life, you've been a working student, you've taken care of horses at home and you work in the horse business.
• 2:00
  So when you take a lesson now, what do you need the eyes on the ground for?
• 2:05
  You know, if I think about it in terms of like using Loki as an example, like that's the horse that I'd be riding in my lesson.
• 2:13
  I think it's, I need the eyes so they can tell me like, is he jumping well?
• 2:18
  Is he jumping in correct form?
• 2:20
  And then like how to get the best out of my horse.
• 2:25
  And so I can go around and I can do a lot of things by myself, which is fine, but, but I need to be reminded, you know, your shoulders need to come back or your leg needs to come
• 2:34
  forward, or you can get so accustomed to going around and doing on your own.
• 2:38
  And if you don't have eyes on you.
• 2:40
  You just get into a habit of doing it a particular way until somebody goes, eh, you know, pull, pull, pull yourself back, get over the middle of your saddle or you know, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:52
  Yeah, I would say it's not that I haven't learned how to do things, because I certainly have, but how do you ever completely master something when half of what you're doing is on an animal?
• 3:04
  Like you said, right.
• 3:05
  You figure out something.
• 3:08
  You figure something out with one horse and then you get another one.
• 3:11
  Or you figure it out with the horse that you have, but six months later that horse is a lot stronger or fitter or has started doing something else or you're asking for.
• 3:21
  Exactly, yeah, you're asking for something different.
• 3:24
  So what you learned wasn't wrong, but the horse changed the question.
• 3:29
  And I, I know Loki is a good example of that.
• 3:32
  I mean, you knew a lot about horses when you got Loki, but what did you have to figure out about him once you actually started riding him?
• 3:40
  As far as I was concerned, I, when I first got Loki, I was like, maybe I'm just really bad at this sport.
• 3:47
  Actually, it's like the most quality animal I've sat on.
• 3:51
  And semi disastrous is, is a little unfair because it's a little harsh.
• 4:01
  But I felt like I didn't know where I was at my saddle.
• 4:06
  I felt like I didn't know how to canter, let alone find a jump on a horse that had a 20 foot stride.
• 4:10
  I was like, this is going to be a mess.
• 4:13
  But he is a.
• 4:14
  Well, because he was, he was so strong and he was so athletic that I didn't know, having ridden my whole life, how to manage a horse that had that much athleticism.
• 4:26
  And he was green.
• 4:27
  I mean, he was, he was young and he was green, so.
• 4:29
  And he, so he had a lot to learn, but so did I.
• 4:32
  So it takes a minute for that partnership to kind of him, trust me, learn how I ask for certain things and then for him to respond.
• 4:40
  And I mean with him and him being the fresh horse that he is, long story short, learned how to manage that ride the young horse, the big strided horse, the athletic horse.
• 4:53
  And then he took a breath eventually.
• 4:57
  And I remember being at a horse and like, you know, we figured out how to get him quiet and what a good prep for him was and routine.
• 5:05
  And I got on him one day and I was like, I don't, he's so, he's quiet.
• 5:10
  I don't usually have to put my leg on this Horse, you know, that is just keep your leg off of him in a way.
• 5:16
  And I was having to put my leg on, and I mean, I was so discombobulated, I didn't even know what I was doing.
• 5:21
  I was like, I don't know how to ride this.
• 5:23
  This is not.
• 5:23
  This is not what we have practiced.
• 5:25
  This is not what we have learned.
• 5:26
  It's so you talking about how, like, you know, you ride the ride for six months, then something changes fit, or they get really.
• 5:34
  They learn the job, it clicks, and then all of a sudden you have less managing to do.
• 5:39
  He was completely different than everything else that you'd had before?
• 5:43
  Well, yeah, I mean, I rode a thoroughbred before I had him, and I'd ridden tons of warmbloods.
• 5:48
  My thoroughbred was a way different ride than him.
• 5:50
  But I had never sat on something as athletic as him.
• 5:53
  And that was a little eye opening.
• 5:57
  I mean, it's incredible.
• 5:58
  I love it, but that's a lot.
• 6:02
  Well, yeah.
• 6:02
  And I think that you can feel a lot more when you actually know what you're feeling for.
• 6:10
  Right?
• 6:11
  So now you can come out of the ring and you know that the canter wasn't quite right or you got too involved somewhere.
• 6:18
  You should have left the horse alone.
• 6:20
  Right.
• 6:20
  I can tell, unfortunately, after the fact, when I am not allowing.
• 6:25
  When I don't see it, and I just pull.
• 6:27
  And I typically know exactly what I did wrong before anybody says a word.
• 6:32
  But my question, though is, have you gone to a lesson and known exactly what you were doing wrong, but you weren't sure how.
• 6:40
  How to fix it?
• 6:42
  Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 6:43
  Especially with Loki, because I would know that I was pulling to a jump, just pulling the whole way there.
• 6:52
  And I knew that I was doing it.
• 6:54
  And the answer is, stop doing that.
• 6:55
  But the problem is, is that his, you know, the answer is don't.
• 6:59
  Don't pull.
• 7:01
  But then I.
• 7:02
  I would get frustrated because I didn't know how to compress his stride without just pulling him to nothing.
• 7:10
  And, you know, when I had that much power and have that much power underneath of me, I mean, I still can get sucked.
• 7:16
  He can suck you into doing that.
• 7:18
  He's way.
• 7:18
  I mean, it's way different now than when he was 6.
• 7:20
  But I remember having the conversation with Victoria.
• 7:22
  She'd be like, you know, you have to.
• 7:24
  You gotta, like, trust that and leave him be.
• 7:26
  And I was like, but it's so.
• 7:28
  But the stride is so big.
• 7:30
  And she was like, it is so big.
• 7:32
  He's learning how to manage that.
• 7:35
  But you can't keep pulling.
• 7:36
  She was like, you've got to whoa.
• 7:38
  And then let go.
• 7:39
  And that was a really hard concept for me because I do micromanage when I ride, and not doing that on a.
• 7:48
  On a horse that I'm just learning how to ride was really difficult for me.
• 7:52
  Hard.
• 7:53
  Oh, yeah.
• 7:53
  Somebody can tell you the same thing over and over and over and over.
• 7:57
  And you're listening to them, and you totally understand what they're saying, and you're trying to do it, and you just don't get it.
• 8:06
  Or it seems like it's so hard that you just can't make it happen.
• 8:12
  And then somebody else says essentially the same thing, but maybe they say it in a different way, and suddenly you're like, oh, okay, Yeah, I get it.
• 8:22
  And sometimes you can tell when your trainer is getting frustrated, too.
• 8:25
  You know, they've explained it three different ways, and they're trying to.
• 8:27
  Trying to get you to do that, do what they want, and they can't figure out what the problem is.
• 8:31
  Like, how do you possibly not understand what I'm saying to you?
• 8:34
  I'm speaking English.
• 8:35
  Where's the.
• 8:36
  Yeah, where's the comprehension issue?
• 8:38
  But to me, I also think that that's.
• 8:40
  You were saying, like, somebody can say the same thing to you in a different way.
• 8:43
  I think that's why it's important.
• 8:44
  I feel like you don't see as many clinics around.
• 8:46
  I mean, maybe.
• 8:47
  Maybe you do, but I feel like you don't see as many around as maybe when I was younger, because it's so important just to have different verbiage used for teaching a different set of eyes.
• 9:00
  And sometimes it can just.
• 9:01
  It can click.
• 9:02
  And you know for a fact that that's exactly when it happens.
• 9:05
  That's exactly what your trainer's been telling you to do.
• 9:07
  And you're like, that's what they want.
• 9:09
  Once you are able to accomplish what they've been trying to get you to do and you feel it, it's like you can't ever forget that.
• 9:17
  No.
• 9:17
  But getting there can be quite a hurdle.
• 9:20
  Right.
• 9:20
  And that's what's so strange about trying to teach writing, because so much of what they're trying to teach you is something that you feel Right.
• 9:29
  They're standing in the middle of the ring using words to explain what something should feel like in your body while you're trying to use your body to communicate something to another gigantic body with a very small brain.
• 9:44
  And.
• 9:45
  Right.
• 9:46
  And we're.
• 9:47
  We're told to do these things that make perfect Sense.
• 9:52
  Once you know what they mean and what they feel like.
• 9:54
  Things like, get them in front of your leg or leave them alone, or wait or support them, or don't chase, stop picking, let go.
• 10:03
  Or like you said, let go, but keep your leg.
• 10:06
  Leg on.
• 10:06
  And that seems so counterintuitive to what it is you're trying to do.
• 10:11
  So you can understand every single word in those sentences and still not really understand what somebody means until you actually feel it happen.
• 10:21
  Well, and like I said, once you.
• 10:23
  Once you do feel it, suddenly the instruction that made no sense makes complete sense.
• 10:27
  And you just.
• 10:28
  You won't forget that.
• 10:29
  You're like, that's what I'm trying to accomplish.
• 10:31
  That feeling how.
• 10:33
  How it felt going.
• 10:34
  Let's just say it's to a jump.
• 10:35
  Like, how it felt going to the jump, off the ground, over the jump, landing.
• 10:40
  And you're like, okay, all right, now I understand.
• 10:43
  Right.
• 10:44
  And then you wonder how anybody could have explained it to you before you knew what you were looking for.
• 10:50
  Yes.
• 10:50
  Which is probably why trainers end up saying the same thing to us for years and years and years.
• 10:54
  And then there's what happens when you ride with different trainers.
• 10:59
  So two very good trainers can look at the same thing slightly differently, and one may want you to approach something one way, and somebody else might explain it another way or ask you to do something slightly differently.
• 11:14
  And I think as a writer, that can be really confusing at first.
• 11:19
  I mean, you're thinking, wait, I thought I was supposed to do it this way?
• 11:23
  And then sometimes it clicks, and they're not necessarily contradicting each other.
• 11:30
  There may be different pieces of the same problem or getting to the same place in different ways.
• 11:36
  Well, and sometimes you need.
• 11:37
  You need to hear both.
• 11:39
  Right.
• 11:39
  Because once you've ridden with enough different people, you have more to draw from.
• 11:44
  So to your point about clinics, somebody asks you to do something differently, and it doesn't necessarily replace what you already know.
• 11:52
  It just gives you a different way.
• 11:54
  To get there on this horse, when what you've always done worked perfectly well on another one.
• 11:59
  So there are certain things that.
• 12:00
  I think if you've ridden with several people, there's certain things that you'll take that can.
• 12:04
  That can apply across horse training and horses in general, like, across the board, it's applicable.
• 12:11
  But then all horses are different.
• 12:13
  I mean, yeah, there you have to.
• 12:15
  And I think that that is also part of.
• 12:17
  Oh, my God, you're still taking lessons.
• 12:19
  Well, you're not necessarily on the same horse.
• 12:21
  So while your fundamental parts.
• 12:23
  Yes, those are going to stay the same.
• 12:26
  The way that you ride a particular animal is very different than maybe how you rode your last one.
• 12:32
  And there's a learning curve associated with that because they have personalities and feelings and all of that, too.
• 12:38
  Right.
• 12:39
  And that's probably why you can keep taking lessons essentially forever.
• 12:44
  And for those of us who love to show, eventually you can take everything you've been working on to a horse show.
• 12:51
  But now somebody who knows none of that history is evaluating what happens in the ring.
• 12:58
  So you can come out knowing that that was a way better round for you and your horse.
• 13:03
  And that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to get a better score.
• 13:07
  The judge isn't measuring your progress.
• 13:10
  Right.
• 13:10
  They're judging the round that they saw against the other horses they saw in that class on that day.
• 13:17
  Well, and I think it's hard sometimes when you're showing and that happens because you can know that you went and accomplished what you went in there to accomplish and.
• 13:27
  And not necessarily get rewarded for it.
• 13:29
  So that's always a catch.
• 13:31
  Because the best round you may have had on your horse may not be the best round that they saw in that particular class, because it's all.
• 13:38
  It's all relative.
• 13:39
  It's why you can sometimes, like, oh, I've gotten a third and had a swap, and then one day, and I can have maybe a swap in another class another day, which may be not even as dramatic as the
• 13:52
  other one, or something like that, and I'm nailed for it.
• 13:56
  But it's all relative to what else they're comparing it to, you know, and I think that that sometimes can get lost and can feel a little defeated, like, defeating.
• 14:05
  But I think that's why it's so important to.
• 14:08
  While, you know, we talk a lot about, like, does it feel like you're spending a lot of money to go in there and not do.
• 14:14
  Well, you do have to remember that it's a work in progress, and if you've improved from the last time, that's, you know, that's a win, too.
• 14:20
  Well, absolutely, because it's true.
• 14:22
  The opposite can happen as well.
• 14:24
  You can get a great score and still come out knowing that there are things that you should have or could have done better.
• 14:32
  Exactly.
• 14:33
  So the score is telling you something, but it isn't necessarily telling you the same thing that your trainer is telling you.
• 14:40
  Right.
• 14:41
  So a horse can make a mistake and, as you said, still beat a horse that didn't make one.
• 14:49
  The judge isn't simply counting mistakes.
• 14:52
  They're also Judging the quality of the horse, the jump, the way it goes in the ring, the overall picture.
• 14:59
  So a really high quality horse can make a small mistake and still be placed above a horse that had a perfectly flawless round.
• 15:09
  Yeah.
• 15:10
  Which is also why you can't just look at the mistakes and figure out how the class should be pinned.
• 15:14
  There's a lot of variables that go into it, and obviously there's fundamentals for that too, for judging, but there's personal preference also.
• 15:21
  Yeah.
• 15:21
  And that's the hard part to put on a scorecard, because how much better was one horse than another before either one of them made a mistake?
• 15:31
  Right.
• 15:31
  Yeah.
• 15:31
  Your trainer and the judge are also looking at two different things because your trainer knows the process, so they're looking at how you're going around.
• 15:40
  Oh, that was better.
• 15:41
  Oh, she's sitting up here.
• 15:43
  Oh, that was a really.
• 15:43
  She was really patient there.
• 15:45
  Or not picking.
• 15:46
  But they know what you've been working on, whereas the judge doesn't know any of that or the history of the horse or the improvements that you're feeling and your trainer is seeing.
• 15:56
  They have to just look at it.
• 15:58
  Very blank page.
• 15:59
  Here's a horse, here's a rider.
• 16:01
  What did they bring to the table today?
• 16:02
  They're just evaluating the performance right in front of them.
• 16:05
  Which is very different from your trainer saying, that's the best round that you've had on that horse.
• 16:09
  There's been a lot of discussion about making judging more consistent and having clearer standards, but those aren't necessarily the same thing.
• 16:20
  Yeah.
• 16:20
  Do we.
• 16:21
  Do we want clearer standards for how certain mistakes affect the score, or are we expecting two experienced judges to watch the same round and arrive at exactly the same opinion?
• 16:35
  It's kind of crazy because some of the biggest classes actually use more than one judge, sometimes sitting in different places around the ring.
• 16:43
  So because one person may see something from an angle that another person can't see.
• 16:49
  Well, I will say that sometimes two judges that are sitting with each other might not necessarily like or agree about the same horse.
• 16:57
  But one thing to consider.
• 16:58
  I love it when there's multiple judges in classes that we can watch, because for the most part, unless.
• 17:07
  And they do that because the rings are big.
• 17:08
  Right.
• 17:09
  And the stages.
• 17:10
  The stage is big and that you can't see everywhere.
• 17:11
  And so your angles are different.
• 17:13
  What's interesting to me is how the judges that typically get those jobs are very well known, they're very well respected, they've done this for a long time, and they're invited to come and judge These big classes, typically you
• 17:26
  don't see a, a large variation in their scores.
• 17:31
  You will see some un.
• 17:35
  There was like a, a fault or maybe they chipped into a jump, maybe the horse stepped off the lead or whatever that the other two panels couldn't see.
• 17:43
  But it was right in front of panel one.
• 17:46
  And that is what I think is so interesting because maybe One panel scored 83 and then the next one.
• 17:53
  Okay, said, okay, no, it's an 85.
• 17:55
  So to me, if you had an 83 and an 85, this is just, I mean, I don't judge, I don't know anything about this, but I go, hmm, I wonder, did they feel like, did the panel that gave
• 18:06
  them an 83 feel like maybe they was a good round, obviously, but they didn't jump with the best style over a couple of jumps?
• 18:12
  Or did panel two, who gave them an 85, really like that horse's way of going, you know, like, what are the nuances between.
• 18:19
  Because the scores typically are pretty close.
• 18:24
  So I always, I always find that to be really interesting when I'm watching a class like that.
• 18:30
  I love it when the scores come in to see, like, oh, I wonder what they saw.
• 18:34
  I think that asking judges, or at least wanting to know that judges are judging from the same set of standards, technically, I think they are.
• 18:45
  And I think that that's different from asking them to have the same opinion of every horse that comes in the ring.
• 18:51
  So to me, even with clearer standards for mistakes, there's still judgment involved.
• 18:57
  The quality of the horse.
• 18:59
  What do you like?
• 19:00
  The style, the jump, the overall impression, no matter how you look at, is subjective.
• 19:08
  Absolutely.
• 19:08
  I think that there's a difference between saying, I want to understand how my score was reached and I expect every judge to arrive at the same score.
• 19:19
  Those are not the same thing.
• 19:21
  Yeah, I think that you bring up a really good point about that because on the one hand, some people are like, oh, I wish it was really obvious.
• 19:28
  Like, if you had a swap, okay, that's an automatic five point deduction or whatever.
• 19:33
  But ultimately I think people would be really irritated about that because you're talking, like you said, about a subjective sport.
• 19:40
  So, yeah, I think that you've got to have training that allows you to know.
• 19:45
  And obviously there are certain things that you get certain scores for, but the rest of it, there needs to be a little bit of, in my term, like my term of flexibility in, in how they, and how they
• 19:56
  pick something.
• 19:57
  And I, I, I think it would be weird, like, if it was like every single Little thing had a deduction for of this many or that many.
• 20:07
  Or that's also assuming that they saw it.
• 20:11
  Right.
• 20:11
  I mean, you do have to look down to write something on the page.
• 20:17
  I mean, there's been.
• 20:18
  There's been classes where I've had like a blatant mistake and I got.
• 20:22
  Still got rewarded.
• 20:23
  And I was like, did we not.
• 20:24
  Do we not see the miss lead change or the late.
• 20:27
  Like the several strides lately change?
• 20:30
  Right.
• 20:30
  You know, and.
• 20:31
  Yeah, and sometimes.
• 20:33
  Listen, it's infuriating when you see it happen to somebody in your class and they get rewarded and they had a huge mistake.
• 20:41
  But you do get it.
• 20:42
  It.
• 20:42
  The what goes wrong comes around, it eventually pays you back too.
• 20:46
  You know what I mean?
• 20:47
  But I also do think that that's why you hear people say, this is why I want to do the jumpers.
• 20:54
  Because if you want a more definitive result, the jumper ring is the place to get it.
• 21:00
  You don't knock any rails down and you go fast.
• 21:04
  And then there's no question about why one horse beat another.
• 21:08
  But that's also not what we're asking a hunter judge to do.
• 21:13
  Right.
• 21:13
  I do think we should be able to ask for clear standards and more consistency, but without expecting hunters to be judged like jumpers.
• 21:23
  That's just not going to be the case.
• 21:25
  But no, and I think that that's a fair ask.
• 21:29
  A little bit more consistency across the.
• 21:31
  Board, I guess some more clarity can't be ever heard.
• 21:36
  Absolutely.
• 21:36
  Keeping with what we've been talking about and the price of everything.
• 21:39
  I don't think it's like too much to ask to feel like, okay, I'm still willing to pay to be judged, but if I could just have a maybe a slight clearer understanding of how we arrived at this result,
• 21:51
  that would be good.
• 21:52
  I agree.
• 21:53
  And that's really the balance.
• 21:55
  You can ask for clearer standards and a better understanding of how a score was reached while still accepting that judging is always going to be subjective.
• 22:06
  Two judges are never going to see every horse exactly the same way.
• 22:11
  But we've gotten pretty far away from my mother's question about why I'm still taking lessons.
• 22:17
  Well, no matter how much experience you have, you know, you still can't see yourself ride.
• 22:21
  So unless you're sitting there setting up a tripod with one of those things that follows you around.
• 22:26
  Oh, the Pivo.
• 22:27
  Yeah.
• 22:28
  Thank you.
• 22:29
  I was like, I know there's a name for that thing.
• 22:32
  Yeah.
• 22:32
  I mean, you can't.
• 22:34
  You can't make up for that.
• 22:36
  You've got to have somebody on the.
• 22:37
  Ground telling you, well, even if you had a pivo, you might not know exactly what you were looking at anyway.
• 22:42
  So no joke.
• 22:44
  There's plenty of times you know something's not quite right.
• 22:47
  Yeah.
• 22:48
  But hopefully the person on the ground who's your trainer or their abouts can tell you what it is they're seeing.
• 22:57
  And even if you were just looking at yourself on a pivot, you might not catch it.
• 23:03
  So.
• 23:03
  But having somebody on the ground also can sometimes see it before you.
• 23:07
  You even know that you're doing it and that.
• 23:10
  And it's helpful to just have that catch there.
• 23:12
  And I like to know because it's.
• 23:17
  It's also good to be able to talk through it.
• 23:18
  You feel like you're doing one thing, you think you're doing the right thing, and they're like you're not getting the result you want.
• 23:24
  Okay, this is what I'm feeling.
• 23:25
  Help me.
• 23:26
  But what ideas do you have?
• 23:27
  Right.
• 23:27
  And I believe that having somebody on the ground that's helping you and continuing to teach you things pretty much answers my mother's question.
• 23:38
  Yep.
• 23:39
  I'm still taking lessons.
• 23:41
  Not because I don't know how to ride, but I still want to get better.
• 23:46
  Absolutely.
• 23:47
  So until next week, let's ride.