Viva Carlos Blog Hop: Chock Full of Advice

This week, L. Williams asks: What is the best advice you've ever received from a Trainer or another rider? What is the worse advice you've received from a Trainer or another rider?

“You have good instincts – trust them”. I guess for some this could be taken to an extreme and used as an excuse to not seek out knowledge from other sources...however, it works for me because that kind of self assurance and narrow focus is opposite of who I naturally am. I’m always reading, always learning, and always second guessing everything I think I know. I figure one thing out, and then I’m off on another puzzle – meanwhile I’ve totally lost the original plot, and in the case of riding, lost touch with ‘the feel’ in favor of the science. There’s a reason my family calls me the professor (as in the absent minded one, unfortunately J )So the above piece of advice is one I find very useful– it’s my cue to slow my mind down and to just get out and listen to how things feel, and to be more confident in my interpretation of that. It’s helped to curb my default of second guessing myself for eternity and not progressing because I’m too busy trying to figure out how it all works from the latest book before I get on.

"Quit surfing the internet on you phone and take us out riding!" Ginger and Lainey, summer 2012

There’s been a bit more than a bit of bad advice as well. There was the clinician who asked me to use an ever shorter rein on Leaning Lainey. The rationale was that she was heavy and would eventually give and stop leaning if I had my reins at a short length – it would be uncomfortable for her to pull on me continuously. Once she ‘gave’, I was supposed to give for a stride, then repeat.  Reality was Lainey just cruised around enjoying the added support and my abs were on fire – there wasn’t even a hint of give, just even more heaviness. It was just one weekend, but my left shoulder still reminds me quite frequently about it, so it goes down as a long term bad advice. A time when I most certainly should have trusted my instincts and worried about her balance rather than her headsetJ.

"Let's go for a ride, I'm tired of holding my own head up.."

Also the time the online experts assured me that it was safe to feed dry beet pulp and that I was wasting time/energy by soaking it. First time I tried a tiny handful, pony choked. You can’t make this stuff up.