Guest blogger Mari Monda Zdunic has earned her USDF gold, silver, and bronze medals, Olympic Sports Festival silver, bronze and team medals, along with numerous USDF top ten horse of the year honors from USDF from Training through Grand Prix levels. Mari is an associate of Chuck Grant who many consider to be the father of American Dressage.
My teacher, Chuck Grant, was watching me ride one of our client’s horses. I had been working on canter departs, making sure that the horse was perfectly set up for each depart and moved off promptly from my aids. Chuck stopped me and asked what I was doing. When I explained that I was working on my canter departs, he made the statement: “I don’t care if YOU can do the canter depart, but you need to teach the horse so Doris, the owner, can do the depart.” The owner was a lovely older lady with limitations in her ability to ride.
I share this story as I am seeing all too often the owners accepting what I call “False Trainer Syndrome.” As a trainer, you must train the horse so the owner/rider is more easily able to ride their horse. It doesn’t matter that the flying change isn’t perfect or that the horse didn’t perfectly sit in the transition. If the owner’s goal is to be able to achieve her USDF bronze medal, does it really matter that the horse doesn’t have the degree of collection needed for CDI competition? The owners’ goals and any physical limitations should be taken into consideration when training a horse.
It should be a simple expectation that if you ride your horse after your trainer that the movements or whatever you are asking the horse to do should be easier! Yes, this does take time and not every ride will be that way but if over time you again and again find that while your horse looks good when the trainer rides but you yourself struggle with every ride then you need to stop and ask: “Is my trainer truly training my horse to make it easier for me to ride?” The bottom line is that your trainer should be training the horse for YOU, not for themselves.
Amy Dahlgren of Dahlgren Dressage is a USDF Bronze and Silver medalist offering quality dressage instruction in central Virginia.
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