10/15/2023
THISSSS!!! I’m working so hard with my kids now to get them thinking for themselves!!!!
There’s a plague in our industry. So called professionals creating dependent students so they can feel secure in their job. And it’s time some folks get woken up…
If your trainer constantly tells you what to do during your ride and without them you can’t recreate the results because you don’t know what to do when and why because your trainer is doing all the thinking for you and you’re just reacting: you need to find a new trainer and you need to step up.
A trainer that does this is not truly serving you as a student at the highest level like they should and you deserve.
And if you are that trainer- creating students who are dependent on you is selfish, short sighted and dangerous.
Students should want to stick with their trainer because the trainer has so much more value they can continue providing them along their journey with their horses.
Students SHOULD NOT feel shackled to a trainer because without them- they can’t be successful with their horse.
Our horses should be confident and truly understanding, willing and reliable in their education.
So should our students!
You can’t give someone else the true skill of good horsemanship. It must be earned through hard work, consistency, trial and error. And ultimately that means they’re able to get the quality results on their own. It means they understand what to do, when to do it, why to do it and effects in which the thing we’re doing has for them and the horse.
As professionals we should be helping our students truly develop these skills so they can be successful in whatever way they enjoy spending time with their horse. We should absolutely not be telling them half truths and patching together their rides for them only to leave them handicap as a rider with a false sense of confidence which by all means is super dangerous.
It’s time we start developing higher quality horsemen and women across our industry. As students you should expect a professional to truly teach you not just ride your horse from the ground while you act like a puppet that can’t think for itself. As professionals we must serve our students at the highest level by truly teaching them, challenging them and setting up our programs to where they must earn the skills while gleaning the faster route to success, and avoiding unnecessary frustration, through our instruction which is what they’re there for.
Together we rise! For the better of our industry and all our horses.
-Colton Woods
