Teaching Progression

So this moment the other day that I described yesterday, the one that showed me how far I had come as a rider and instructor, actually had way more to do with the latter.

I've been teaching for a long time now, kind of on and off in intensity but now it's ramping back up and I'm seeing a big difference in my teaching. It kind of goes along with my riding progression too, so I figured I'd put these posts back to back. Also I have way less time to write last minute blogs so I wrote a bunch of these kinds of posts to put up when I don't have time to write.

Here are some differences I've noticed in my teaching.

I have no teaching progression pictures so how about TC
progression pictures? October 2017

To August 2018

Way More First Toolkit

I still teach a lot of second toolkit, don't get me wrong, I think it's important for riders to understand what things should feel like and what they currently look like. None of my clients have access to mirrors, so telling them that the horse is off the bit is necessary for them.

However, I am VERY aware of what toolkit I'm working in and I make sure that when I use second toolkit language, I back it up with first toolkit language. Like "and ride him rounder by drawing him up under you with your calf and grabbing onto him with your upper inner thigh, think about dropping your shoulder blades into your back pockets and engage the lats, add 20lbs to each elbow but continue pressing the knuckles forward against that resistance" unless I'm teaching Peony where it somehow always becomes real R rated real quick.


Willingness to Help Clients Cognitively Restructure

As an instructor, it's super easy to operate within a client's current framework. Rider comes to me telling me that their horse is a dick and that they can't get him forward... it's easy for me to give the rider a whip and talk about the importance of free forward movement, while also implying heavily that their horse is a dick.

It's WAY harder for me to break down the rider's fundamental understanding of what forward is and how they are blocking it in their body, how it isn't the horse's fault. When someone hears that they are the problem or that their framework is wrong, it leads to them being... way harder to teach. It's easy to lose clients if you challenge the way they view their horse or the way they view dressage. It's real easy to retain clients if you tell them what they want to hear and push them along the path they're already on. You can even make it seem like you're being truthful while still just operating within their framework.

Being candid and slamming a client down a bit is HARD. Especially when you're dependent on your training income. It also sucks to have to confront someone just generally, especially when it's a sport they love so much, and especially when they're at a high enough level where they know they're not bad at this. Dragging someone kicking and screaming back to the basics only for them to shit on you and tell you and everyone else that you're a bad instructor... that's fun. But that's the risk. And until recently, it was a risk I hated taking, so I didn't take it often.

October 2017

August 2018

Working on my Teaching

Ever since the first Mary clinic, I've been focusing on my teaching as a skill to be developed. Riding Alexis' horse with her helped me understand recently that me taking lessons on different types of horses helps my teaching quite a lot. Riding TC well is important to me and it will be the primary focus of where I choose to put my money, and don't get me wrong, what I learn on him can be applied to a lot of different types of horses, but riding other horses with my trainers is important for my teaching.


More Confidence

Teaching new riders when you're first starting out is nerve wracking. I used to get a lot of anxiety going to teach new people.

Now that I'm working harder on my teaching, new riders are exciting to me. I see people riding and I want to get my hands on them, I want to Mary them, which is a silly thing Kate and I always say. I feel confident that I can help a lot more people than before.

In addition, if I can't help them, no biggie, I don't want clients to ride with me and be like "eh there are no other options so I'll settle for Megan," I realize that my program is not for everyone. And I also realize that I want clients who are dedicated to my program. And I just plain like teaching people who are fun to teach. If I feel like I can't teach someone or that they don't match with me, I'm okay with pulling back and sending them elsewhere.

Being a dick in October 2017

Being a dick in August 2018

Slowing it Down

Just like my riding, my teaching has been way more focused on the basics. I'm still a big planner and like to put my agenda on my riders a bit (unless they give me theirs), but I am way more dedicated to their education than their achievements. I want my riders to understand exactly what is happening under them and know how to get to that place. Whether that means an entire lesson on how well stuffed each side of the horse is (happened more than once recently) or an entire lesson on a twenty meter circle (can count on one hand the number of times I've had anyone to do anything but that), who cares. I want my riders to be educated.

Maybe this comes from the majority of my riders riding with me once a week or less. I want them to be autonomous and to think about their own training and their horse's training as something they are in charge of. I am there to guide and to educate, they are the trainers. Not that I would turn down someone who wants a more involved trainer, but it's hard with my full time job, my commute, and my own horse. Oh and I like to sleep and have a social life sometimes. Blasphemy.

October 2017

August 2018

I'm really excited with how my teaching is going these days. I know I still have so much to learn and so much this year is going to help with that. I am, of course, attending the Mary Wanless Workshop in early February. AND I'll be doing the L program this fall! Lots of learning coming up for the next couple of years!

Riding Progression

I had a moment the other day that made me really realize how much my riding has changed over the last several years, so I wanted to talk about that today. I also know that my teaching has changed a lot, so I will be going over that tomorrow.

So, without further ado, I'm going to compare my riding journey with TC to my riding journey to Rico, the only two dressage horses I've owned. I've ridden a lot of other horses in between, but I think these two horses really show how much I changed.  

For the record, I don't think I was a bad rider before, nor do I think that I've perfected the art of it now by any means. I'm just finding it so interesting to look back at how Rico was going for me about eight years ago at Fourth level and how TC is going for me this year at First. 

Rico and I at Fourth Level

TC and I at First Level

Basics Heavy

With Rico, I was very eager to get to the upper levels of dressage. I wanted to be that person in the arena schooling half pass zig zags and canter pirouettes. I wanted to feel the piaffe and passage. I wanted to play with tempi changes. The movements were evidence for how good of a rider I was, how trained a horse he was. If the shoulder-in was hard, we practiced it. If the canter pirouettes were bad, we practiced them.

With TC at this point, I know I could put him into a Third level test and probably score fine, I know I could dump movements on him and have him go Prix St George by the end of the year. Yet most of our rides focus on the basics still. I want him straighter, more in front of my leg, more through. And the movements, they come on when he can do them easily. It's about working his body to get him capable of doing the movements. Doing movements doesn't prove how far along he is. I am happy to call him a First level horse... who is capable of the level of collection and straightness required at Third level. Who is more collected, more reliable, and straighter than Rico was at Fourth level.

Rico and I at Fourth level

TC and I schooling Second Level

Emphasis on Feeling

If there's one thing I learned with Rico, if dressage isn't fun, if the feeling isn't amazing, it's not dressage. That took me a long long time to realize. I struggled so much with trainers telling me that it doesn't matter how it feels, or that I should get used to that feeling since that's correct. Tanya's big thing is that everything should be easy, it should feel good. If it doesn't, something is wrong.

Don't get me wrong, not everything feels amazing on TC or anything. New movements can feel precarious, but that's the only word I'd describe it when we're on the struggle bus.

Rico and I at Fourth Level

TC and I schooling Second Level with my arms being all
weird, hey, I never said I had perfected this

Less Fighting

I don't fight with TC like I fought with Rico. I don't really fight with anything I get on anymore. In my opinion, horses don't need CTJ moments about anything that isn't a dangerous behavior (like, if TC reared straight up, we'd have it OUT, let me tell you).

Rico and I would get into each other a lot. A lot of the time I was pushing on him, asking for stuff that he couldn't possibly do because I was in his way, and he'd come up against me saying HEY I CAN'T DO THAT and I'd respond by trying to MAKE him do it and was often successful at getting... something. My trainers said that he was putting up a fight because the work was hard, because he didn't want to work, because he had a bad work ethic. He was really putting up a fight either because a) I was in his fucking way or b) he was physically incapable of doing the movement. Or both.

TC taught me early on that fighting him leads to him absolutely losing his MIND. You cannot fight with that horse, things get dangerous FAST. It took me years to be able to put any pressure on him because he was so internally pressured. Now he's way better and I could probably try fighting with him... but why. If I have to hoist him through a movement, I ask myself why, what is missing, why can't he do this on his own with me merely asking him to do it? And then I go and train that first.

Rico and I fighting

TC and I fighting... er... photo not found. I have a lot of pictures of him goofing off though

The difference is, he isn't doing this to fight me because I'm
asking for stuff that's too hard, he's doing this because he thinks
he is hilarious lol

Higher Scores

And what do you know, last season we scored the highest both of us have ever scored. And that was with him trying to unload me once or twice in the show ring because #basiliskmoments.

With TC, I want to wait until I'm confident about every single movement of the test before we go into it. Confident meaning that I think if we perform it the way we do at home, we'll get a 7. This has nothing to do with his gait quality or his breeding or how fancy he is, and everything to do with the training, every horse is capable of 7s.

Rico was miles fancier and better bred than TC. I've had to work years to get TC's trot undersaddle to look like Rico's trot in turnout. Rico had a natural ability to collect in a way that TC will never have. And yet... if you look at the scores... I mean, Rico didn't score badly at ALL. He scored under 60% twice in all of our years, one 59% at First when my back was injured and I went off course twice and one 59% at Third when half the arena letters blew into the arena and he was not keen on going near them. But my main goal with TC is to hit 70% or at least close to it at every level. Rico's last 70% was at First level. I hope TC won't follow that pattern.

Rico and I at Fourth Level

TC and I schooling Second Level

 More Fun

I said it a long time ago and couldn't really believe it... TC is way way way more fun to ride than Rico. WAY MORE FUN.

I can have more fun on TC just trotting and cantering on a 20 meter circle than I ever had riding canter pirouettes or half pass on Rico (I will say that Rico's tempis, piaffe, and passage will forever be the most fun thing ever, sorry TC).

Don't get me wrong, I like to think I redeemed myself even a
little bit on him.

And he became very fun to ride in the end.

I sometimes feel a lot of guilt in the way that I rode Rico from First through Fourth. I feel like he is the one who felt my learning the most. I look back at my trainer choices and wonder why I didn't think something was wrong with the way I was told to ride him... pull on his mouth to soften him; if he's fighting you, you know you're doing it right; kick him forward with the spurs when he gets behind you.

It was never about... why isn't he feeling soft in the mouth, is it because you're asking him to come rounder than he's physically capable of right now? Why is he fighting you, is it because you're blocking him from doing what you're asking? Why isn't he forward, is it because you put a curb bit in his mouth and keep pulling on it?

Now I ask these questions... Why is TC not even in the contact and how can I get him to be more even? The answer isn't to pull on one rein and *soften* him on it. Why is TC not able to do his LR change clean and how can I address it? The answer is not to keep drilling it. Why is TC unable to turn left? The answer has precisely nothing to do with him.

Rico's retirement is pretty amazing so I don't feel as sorry for
him, I still feel a little sorry for him though

I'm so grateful for all that I learned over the last several years, it has made me a better rider. And the guilt I feel about riding Rico the way I did... I'm sure I'll feel guilty riding TC the way I am now later on when I learn more. And as for Rico, I think he's doing okay.

Time Makes Fools

I'm coming up on owning TC for three years and he still seems like such a new horse to me. I bought Rico in 2005 and bought TC 10 years later in 2015.

So much has happened since I got him, but I really wanted to look at the differences between what is going on right now versus what was going on a year ago. Because a year ago is right when things started to go right with this horse and yet we've still come so far from then.

I can say that the single thing that has made a difference is that we trust each other now. We've taken things slowly and built a relationship over the last year that can withstand a fair amount of withdrawal from the trust bank.

A year ago at the first show I felt like I could actually ride him
at like he was a normal horse, he's still so retracted though!

Here are some differences between a year ago when things were starting to go well and now, when things are always good:


A year ago I still had to be really careful with my mood when I was on him.

This was mostly because I'd get frustrated with his spookiness (he's not as spooky now) or accidentally pull on his face or something and he'd get upset and either take off with me, rear, or buck. Now I know that even if I'm in a bad place mentally, we won't fight. The trust bank is so well funded that we can have a few rides where I get annoyed at him and he just keeps trying to be a good pony.


A year ago I was surprised when TC was good.

I write in this post in April 2017 that I remain surprised that he's being good. Now him being good is just a given. A bad day for us is when I can't get him as through as I'd like him to be, or when I make mistakes. Previously a lot of my posts started with "once again I'm really surprised that TC was really good this week" or what not. I was constantly shocked by any good behavior. Now I kind of expect it. At the schooling show, I was pleasantly surprised that he was so good, but that's probably the only time I've been surprised by him lately. He's just the same reliable good pony every day now.

A year ago being like wtf why is he like this at our first show
since the rehab, he was not good at this show

A year ago it took weeks to fix our relationship after I had to get after him.

I wrote this post in May 2017 about how TC had been being kind of high so bolted and I got after him, so he reared and so I got after him for that and he bolted super bad and scared the hell out of me. That sucks, but what was rough was that it took so long to fix. The next few rides he was balking and threatening to rear. I basically had to go back to basics for two weeks and give him time off while I went to DC before I could get him to canter.

Now I can lay into him quite a bit about things and he doesn't panic anymore. You certainly can't beat this horse and I'm very fair to him, but I can stop him suddenly or smack him with the whip without him freaking out. A few weeks ago he was running sideways and bucking into the canter and I finally gave him a bit of a spanking and said "quit" loudly to him and he just sucked it up and cantered without bucking. Hasn't been rude about that transition since.


A year ago TC anticipated a ton.

I wrote about this in April 2017, but TC used to anticipate everything I asked all the time. Now, TC will only anticipate things like flying changes. I'm really careful to note the very few things that he anticipates (usually very very new stuff) and not do them right before horse shows, but to be honest, the amount he anticipates has gone way down. He waits patiently for my aids but is generally not surprised by them.


A year ago I was still scared.

I was making myself ride through it and getting more and more confident, but I was still mostly scared of the horse. Only later in the summer did I start mostly feeling like TC could throw anything at me and I'd stay on. I firmly believe that now.

Less than a week ago, after a good sized explosion in warm up,
putting in the best quality tests we've had yet

It feels beyond good to be on this side of all of this. I'm so glad I stuck it out with this horse and I can't wait for our future.

WW: Upswing Progression

TC has never had a great canter. When I first started riding it, it was flat, out of control, and lateral. I still don't think he has a jaw dropping canter (and he never will), but it has changed quite a bit! I love how much more engaged (bend in the hock in the stance phase) he has become, and I also much prefer riding him now that he's not completely out of control. His color has also changed quite a bit!

September 2015- can we just note that I have not shrunk over
the years, he's gotten so much bigger! 

Fall 2016

Spring 2017

Summer 2017

Summer 2017

Summer 2017

Fall 2017

Fall 2017

Winter 2018

Winter 2018

Winter 2018

Transformation.... Wednesday: The Conformation and Color

In keeping with my theme from yesterday about how much TC has changed (since I'm at a conference and have time only to look at ponies), I wanted to point out how much his color has changed over the last two and a half years! And his conformation/muscling to an extent. 

When I first went out to see TC, I actually thought that he was his cute little Morab roommate that lived with an old ugly black horse whose face had gone gray. Oh... that one is the one you're talking about.

As I rode him, he slowly gained muscle, but he put it on REAL weird at first. Because of his tendency to retract his neck, he put the muscle on the first third of his neck from his poll... then slowly and I mean SLOWLY he started putting it on properly.

Now he's looking like a true steel gray vs a black horse with a white face, and I know I'm biased, but I think he's looking pretty good muscle-wise too. Even if it's just in comparison to what he looked like as a three year old baby horse.

Onto the pictures!

First: oh man look at this dark face! 

Lol this picture cracks me up, he was SUPER awkward at three
with his big belly and his super ugly neck

Like, why did I buy it, his neck is upside down and his back looks
so shitty. He's also downright downhill in comparison to what he is
now, he grew 2 inches. 

From certain angles he started looking better, look how dark he
is though, damn!

I remember looooving this picture for so long

His neck is so weeny in comparison to his gigantic head, also
looking pretty downhill here. 

Finally turning his neck right side up

Now he's more recognizable, he had grown an inch here. 

Suspensory diagnosis day

So then we go into rehab. Obviously he lost all his topline in rehab but then gained some of it back with swimming. I'm going to skip over that just so that this post isn't completely ridiculous.

The day he came home from rehab

Look how light his face got in just a year

About a month in, keeping in mind that he's only trotting like 10
minutes at this point

Almost to full work

Basically in full work

Full work, he looks dark because he's wet

So uh then we had our winter shennanigans. And now we're here today.

Well, he's definitely more dappled, still working on that topline
though!