No good trainers in Germany?

I’m coming to the conclusion that there are no good trainers in Germany. I asked to watch another riding lesson by a local lady with another really weird name – Gerhild.  She’s a bit younger than I am, and a very good rider. But shouldn’t be *teaching* riding. Just like I shouldn’t really be teaching English, simply because I can speak it.

My friend/acquaintance Christiane invited me to watch her lesson with her Appy mare May. I was happy to see that May is calming down a bit in the arena finally. 6 months ago she was a whirlwind. Last night she actually stood still for mounting, and stood still for a few moments at a time when the two ladies were talking (before trying to move off again). This is one anxious horse, and she always tries to alleviate stress by going fast. Sound familiar? This is why I was happy to see her doing a simple exercise at a walk only – going around cones. A boring one that will help her learn that nothing bad is going to happen.

Then Gerhild asked C to ride the 4 cones in a large square – not circling, but going from cone to cone and making a sharp 90 degree turn by bending to the inside and using enough inside leg to get the mare to cross her hind legs, haunches out through the pivot, and then begin another straight line to the next cone. I think this is another great exercise for putting the aids together and engaging the horse’s hindquarters. Or disengaging, whatever you call it.

The thing was, C was not set up to ride these maneuvers properly. It was really sad to see her try, and fail, with nothing helpful from Gerhild. In fact, Gerhild started shouting at her in the tone you’d use at a sibling during a fight, not a paying customer. She would yell, “FALSCH FALSCH FALSCH!!!!” in a booming voice that could be heard around the neighborhood. The lady is loud by default, but when you ride poorly, she can really turn the dial up. At one point she yelled, “Dein Bein ist schlampig!” (Your leg is lazy/unorganized.) May is overly-reactive to leg and threatens to rear when she feels calf or heel. I know C spends a lot of time desensitizing May to leg cues, but she’s not at the point where she’s gonna really assert herself there. I am the same if I know a horse bucks when you put leg on – I tend to try to ride with as little leg as possible. (I’m not trying to say I’m such a great rider I wouldn’t make these mistakes.)

C’s hearing isn’t that great, probably cuz she’s a professional motorcyclist, so Gerhild really had to belt out the orders. At one point C kept saying, “What? What?” and Gerhild kept shouting, “Rechts stellen!” (bend right) louder and louder, until C finally said, “Sorry, I still can’t hear you” and Gerhild screamed at her angrily, “I TOLD YOU 5 TIMES RIGHT BEND!” I was horrified for my friend. And later I wondered, are they like friends from high school or something – that she lets Gerhild yell at her like that?

May kept predicting stress and springing into a trot during otherwise very cadenced walking around cones. Two theories came to my  mind – If a horse won’t go slow, do you canter the horse until it truly wants to go slow, or do you just do as much slow work as possible, constantly bringing it back down to a walk, and rewarding it and showing it that there is nothing to fear? I think you see I prefer the second choice. I think for some anxious horses, they’ll come to expect the chance to run when they feel anxious, and depend on that. And tiring out some horses takes a very long time.

Finally C stopped May in the middle of two cones and kind of crumpled in the saddle, sighing and catching her breath. I felt that she might start crying at that moment. What would Gerhild do, I wondered? Well, Nazi Gerhild shouted at her again, “Where did I lose you?” in a condescending tone. C replied, “I’m trying to get organized. I don’t know what is going on – I think my horse knows how to do these things, but I don’t know how to tell her. I keep making mistakes, and screwing her up.”

Gerhild started walking around the arena with her, and pressing her fingers into May’s hip bone to move her quarters over in the turns. That helped, but I wanted to shout out to C, “Let me try to help you” or at Gerhild, “Hey, teach her how!” The solution was simple in my mind. Break the move into steps and do the steps in a precise order. 1. First half-halt to get the horse prepared. 2. Then bend to the inside. 3. Then push the hips over. 4. Then continue. No, sadly, nothing came from the trainer that would help C succeed.

Instead, Gerhild says, “Just let me get on her.” With Gerhild, May started pinning her ears and thrashing her tail. Gerhild said, “I am much more authoritative than you.”

Then Gerhild rode the square, and I noticed a very big difference in technique – she almost halted May in each corner. I do believe C thought she was supposed to maintain the same rhythm through the turn, but that wasn’t really working out. I honestly don’t know, but G was bending, halting, shoving the hind end over, and then proceeding. Why couldn’t she communicate that?

Poor C stood forlornly in the middle.

Gerhild said, “Maybe I’m better at this because I have a feel for timing.”

Then teach that, trainer.

Then Gerhild started showing off (for me as a potential student?). She finally let May spring forward into a trot, and started doing lots of travers on the circle. May was not happy, wringing her tail and tossing her head, but she was crossing her hind legs and moving rhythmically.

The hour was about up and I hadn’t said anything, but I thought I’d call Gerhild on something. I said, “That travers on the circle, can you do it at a walk?”

She said, “Sure!” and tried. May was already “up” from all the trotting and didn’t want to come back down. She started popping up and threatening to rear, but did take a few correct steps. Gerhild admitted, “OK, she really prefers the trot!” then she jumped off and said, “Enough for today!”

That was it – I’m gonna have to keep looking. I don’t think I’ll find a trainer that doesn’t degrade the rider or yell. Perhaps it is the German way.

I have to admit (again) that I’m spoiled by an extremely positive dressage trainer from home. As bad as we ever rode, the meanest she’d ever say was, “OK let’s try that again.”  We learned to interpret that as, “That sucked.” Otherwise she was cheering us on, making every lesson as positive as possible (it’s not always possible, and we did sometimes cry, but not because of her, because Dressage is inherently a crying sport).

C asked if I would take a trail ride with her next week. Remember I’ve only ridden with her once, and May jigged THE ENTIRE TIME because C was trying to hold her to “Just a walk please” for my sake. That was very stressful for Mara, she was flinging her head non-stop*, but Mara didn’t actually pick up on the jigging. C is actually the only person I’ve ridden with so far that understands I simply want to take a little walking stroll.

We’ll see what happens.

* - Mara did not head-fling at all on our 3 hour rainy ride. It must be a stress or insect reaction (and not neurological) because on that day, I tried to keep us in a comfort zone.