I found my trainer!

I found my trainer 45 minutes from home. Her name is Sonia Webster. She is a Grand Prix International rider, and she is one of the official British Young Riders Dressage Squad (BYRDS) trainers. She is ACE! She is SO enthusiastic and encouraging. She has an eye like a hawk. She knows her stuff and can explain it too. She loves "problem horses" because they are "more interesting" than easy ones. She listens, watches, evaluates and comes up with a different strategy for each issue that she sees. And they work.

Zippy first. I asked her just to watch him walk, trot and canter and tell me if he was as good as I hoped he was. She told me to give him more support with the rein and to SLOW him DOWN. This is so much the reverse of other trainers who want you to go forward, forward, forward. She says, as I believe, that if he goes slower into a good rhythm and is still in front of my leg, then he will grow stronger because of it. I absolutely agree with this.

After 20 minutes we stopped and she asked where I found him, with a "where on earth did you find a horse that good?" kind of tone. She thinks he is top class and that I would be very silly to part with him! She seemed slightly disappointed that I only want to take Jazz next time, but does agree that since he is only a weak four year old I really don't need to pay for lessons with him yet!

Then Jazz. The the arena had a new ditch for drainage the whole length of one side. With the spoil still there. There were two little ponies at the bottom. Close to one side there were some horses moving about behind a hedge and coming intermittently into view. There was a trailer with stuff in parked by the fence and a picnic table at the top end. And to cap it all Zippy was screaming in the lorry. Oh my goodness, I thought, I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting any result here.

I took him into the arena and he walked around on a long rein, less spooky than Zippy, who continued to scream, had been. I was stunned. Go on Jean, here's the "I told you so!" moment. He has never been less bothered by any strange place in his life. It has to be the ulcer medication, I can't account for it any other way. I have never in my life been more pleased for anyone to have the right to say "I told you so!".

He did a superb lesson. He was classic Jazz, fooling that he was working because he feels like so much is in front of you, where actually he is not really going forward. And her solution? Never in a month of Sundays would I have thought of this. "Turn your heels out and take your leg off", she said. Then we did walk/trot transitions with no leg. Just a touch when I wanted a transition, or more power. About once or twice per arena circuit, no more. And did it work, or did it work?

There was a lot more, including what we did when he tried to object to anything, but I have to go and feed them sometime soon! When we finished she said that I should definitely keep him, that she thinks he has a great amount of power that we can do a lot with. She didn't say so in words, but it was clear that she really likes him. She said "this is a horse that you do NOT drive", showing that she had really understood him.

I said I had a long term goal to do tempi changes on one or other of them, and she said that they will both do them. So I have already booked another lesson, because this girl is the best trainer I have ever been taught by, practically local and she's not even expensive. Win win win.

C

ps photos later I hope.


A selection of pix. The walk says it all - digger in the background, plus other stuff in view and he is obviously so relaxed. The thing to understand is that at the time these pix were taken both horses were moving very slowly, and all that expression is a result of their natural exuberance and not of any real speed whatsoever. Can't you see what a long-legged baby Zip is again at the moment? :-)