Category: Training & Trainers

Sarah Millis, is the subject of Out and About’s latest addition to its Training and Trainers series. Sarah is modest about her expertise and her dedication, so this feature includes what some of her many younger clients say about her.

With dressage gatherings suspended, judge Wendy Jago has found herself on a Desert Island. She decided to put the following message in a bottle asking how judges approach the task of composing succinct but useful Collectives comments. Out and About decided to turn it into a competition for the competitive riders who read them.

Following on from the article about developing a good rising trot technique with one of Eileen O’Connor’s lunge horses, trainer and List 1 judge Debby Lush offers an alternative daily exercise to help riders develop a balanced position and a professional’s ease in rising when on their own horse.

When sports psychologist Charlie Unwin utters terms like ‘pure sport’ and ‘mood state congruences’, you feel like replying, ‘well, yes, Charlie, but what does that mean to me and my horse when I’m competing at the winter regionals?’

When you watch expert riders do rising trot you realise there’s a lot more to it than going up and down at the right moment. An unbalanced rider who finds rising effortful is likely to be stiff and sit heavily. When the skill is mastered, a rider’s progress can be rapid and rising will become a valuable tool. Out and About asked two trainers to suggest how they get riders ready to rock! 

A review of the written comments on a test sheet should help riders focus their future training and, whether the marks were good or not-so good, help them to improve their competitive success.

As small children play engages us with new things in our world. We ask questions and make observations. We evolve from this self-initiated learning to acquiring specific skills from instructors. However, argues Wendy Jago, our ultimate goal should be to employ ‘child-like’ curiosity to become our own self-coach.

The words ‘Dream, believe, achieve’ are posted on Hannah’s tackroom wall along side her wall planner.