# I love my trainer but...



## beverleyy (Oct 26, 2011)

I wonder why she doesn't like to "watch people jump high" ? Is she not an experienced jumper herself perhaps? Does she have other students jumping above 2'6"?

If she is a jumper herself, and has other students jumping above that height and moving up with their jumping, she likely doesn't think you are ready to move up. If that is the case, then I'd have a sit down talk with her and just express that one of your goals is to jump higher, and ask her what you can do to get to that point. 

If she's not a jumper herself, and doesn't have many students jumping (or going past 2'6"), and jumping higher is really something you'd like to pursue, perhaps you can ask your coach if she might know of a good jumper coach in the area that would be suitable to you.


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## Malice (Mar 10, 2012)

How tall is the pony you are riding? If you are rapidly outgrowing him, perhaps your trainer was saying she does not like seeing ponies that size jump that high, or perhaps he is unable to. Just a thought. The best thing to do would just to have a discussion with her saying you would like to move up and see what she says before making other decisions.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

beverleyy said:


> I wonder why she doesn't like to "watch people jump high" ? Is she not an experienced jumper herself perhaps? Does she have other students jumping above 2'6"?
> 
> If she is a jumper herself, and has other students jumping above that height and moving up with their jumping, she likely doesn't think you are ready to move up. If that is the case, then I'd have a sit down talk with her and just express that one of your goals is to jump higher, and ask her what you can do to get to that point.
> 
> If she's not a jumper herself, and doesn't have many students jumping (or going past 2'6"), and jumping higher is really something you'd like to pursue, perhaps you can ask your coach if she might know of a good jumper coach in the area that would be suitable to you.


She is very experienced horse person and I am not sure why she does not like watching people jump high. It may be she feels it unnecessary. However I do know that she fell a lot learning to jump because she didn't have a trainer to tell her what she was doing wrong. And she jumped very high when she was younger.
She doesn't really have any students jumping higher though there is a young lady that does 2` 6" quite often. She sometimes jumps 2' 9" though very rarely.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

Malice said:


> How tall is the pony you are riding? If you are rapidly outgrowing him, perhaps your trainer was saying she does not like seeing ponies that size jump that high, or perhaps he is unable to. Just a thought. The best thing to do would just to have a discussion with her saying you would like to move up and see what she says before making other decisions.


To answer your question about the pony he is a medium pony. However I remember her telling me he has done some 3' though if I could get to doing 2' 6" normally I would be happy.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

I just don't want to be to confrontational and make her think I am pushy. Maybe I will tell her about how much I enjoyed jumping 2' 6"?? Hoping she takes the hint.


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## showjumperachel (Jul 13, 2013)

Honestly if you feel you are ready to move up and feel confident, I would sit down and have a conversation with her. I rode with a woman for TEN YEARS and some lessons we would only jump cross rails. Jumping higher than 2 ft and cantering courses was a very RARE occurence (its a long story about why I stayed with her for so long, but I did.). Luckily I was able to take lessons with other trainers here and there and learned much more about jumping higher and cantering courses with them, so when I moved to my new barn with my horse, I was able to start out taking lessons in the 2'6 group and move up from there.

I think it is an important question to ask (as somebody else has mentioned) if she has any other students who jump higher? If the answer is yes, it is likely that she doesn't feel you are ready -- in this case, perhaps you can sit down and discuss with her what you can do to improve your riding (specifically) so you can be able to jump higher. Try setting goals --perhaps maybe say you would like to be able to work towards jumping a 2'6 course by the end of June, or something. If she doesn't have students jumping at height, perhaps she lacks the still or confidence to teach her students to jump higher (not trying to bash your trainer, but it is a possibility). Another possibility is she doesn't want to put too much strain on her lesson horses. Does she use that pony for lessons other than yourself? If so, the pony may be getting jumped frequently so she doesn't want to put additional stress on the pony. Maybe if you were able to talk with her about leasing or half leasing a horse for lessons she would allow you to do more? Just a thought.

You should definitely sit down and have a discussion with her sometime in the near future. Good luck!


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## 74017 (Sep 2, 2013)

I'd like to point out that just because a horse can do something doesn't mean it should do something. So the pony has jumped 3ft, but should it be jumping 3ft? Jumping can be hard on horses, and maybe the pony is a bit older. I've seen horses complexly go lame after a year of hard high jumping, completely ruined by people who took advantage of their willingness. My horse jumps 3-4 ft with ease but I don't go past 2'9 usually because it's just not necessary for us and we only jump 1-2 times a week.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Coaches are notorious for holding riders back to keep them coming back for more lessons. If the pony can easily clear 2'6 then it can handle 3'. You do need to consider how often this pony is jumped during the week with other lessons. If not then you need to push your coach to allowing this at times.


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## Gossalyn (Sep 12, 2013)

Saddlebag said:


> Coaches are notorious for holding riders back to keep them coming back for more lessons. If the pony can easily clear 2'6 then it can handle 3'. You do need to consider how often this pony is jumped during the week with other lessons. If not then you need to push your coach to allowing this at times.


I hear this theory sometimes, but it's so short sighted in my opinion. I'm sure there's truth to it.. I left my first trainer because I felt like I wasn't advancing or the learning was hit and miss (for whatever reasons). My new barn is the best - but I see ladies who've been there for 20 years still taking direction and getting feedback. 

This is a sport where even when you get to be "perfect" there's always something for you to work on..!


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

Saddlebag said:


> Coaches are notorious for holding riders back to keep them coming back for more lessons. If the pony can easily clear 2'6 then it can handle 3'. You do need to consider how often this pony is jumped during the week with other lessons. If not then you need to push your coach to allowing this at times.


I think sometimes it happens that an instructor just isn't advanced enough to take a rider to the next level and either doesn't realize it or doesn't recommend to the student that they should "graduate" to a new instructor.

I switched dressage trainers about 6 months ago for this reason. The trainer I had been taking lessons from for years, from a beginner rider through Training level, just wasn't helping me improve any more. I don't know how high she has competed in the past, but since I've known her I've only seen her compete at 1st and 2nd level, so in hindsight it's not that surprising that I was progressing very slowly when I wanted to make the transition to 1st level.

It doesn't sound like OP's instructor has a very solid background in jumping, so if you want to advance further, you should probably look for an instructor who has trained/competed well beyond your near term goals.


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## beverleyy (Oct 26, 2011)

Saddlebag said:


> Coaches are notorious for holding riders back to keep them coming back for more lessons. *If the pony can easily clear 2'6 then it can handle 3'.* You do need to consider how often this pony is jumped during the week with other lessons. If not then you need to push your coach to allowing this at times.


Yes, but maybe not all the time. It's a possibility that 3' is just not something that pony can handle consistently, or perhaps isn't able to do a full course at 3'.

I have taken my medium pony up to 3'6" in the past. Can she do it all the time? no. Could she do a 3'6" course and jump the entire course clean? Probably not. She's comfortable to do 2'6"-2'9" courses, maybe 3', but anything above that she can do it yes, but not all the time and not courses.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

She has maybe one other person jumping 2' 6" occasionally though not to often. Also I know the pony doesn't get jumped other times of the week because the only other times he really gets ridden is when a beginner rides him. And he is in his early teens or so. I have kind of decided to just let it be fore the most part and try to start riding other horses and pick a new comp. horse for next year and start working with them more. Though I am sure I will still be riding the pony.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

And also the instructor trains and rides hunter jumper horses most of the year and has been doing so for like 40 years so I am pretty sure she is qualified enough to take me to the next level. Plus she has taught people that now ride as trainers at big barns.


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## beverleyy (Oct 26, 2011)

Saddlebred11 said:


> And also the instructor trains and rides hunter jumper horses most of the year and has been doing so for like 40 years so I am pretty sure she is qualified enough to take me to the next level. Plus she has taught people that now ride as trainers at big barns.


maybe I am misunderstanding, but how did she coach these students to become top level trainers if she doesn't like watching people jump over 2'6" ?


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

Maybe one of her students had a bad wreck fairly recently. That's always a risk with horses and I'll tell you right now it's incredibly traumatic to watch someone wreck over a large fence. It takes a while to get over. I still cringe when I see someone get a bad distance to a big fence, even if I know the horse is scopey and smart enough to save them.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

She is talking more about really high like 3 6 and up. She is also a big fan of the cross rail. Not saying they don't jump and show at 3' and so. It is just that she feels it is unnecessary to jump really high all the time. 
Also it is not like it scares her it is just that she has done a lot of jumpers and hunters too. Just she doesn't do it as often as other trainers


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## Chubbymonk (May 3, 2014)

If you feel your pony is capable if going a little higher and you are happy jumping higher then why not just ask her? You don't need to go from 2'6" to 3' in one go but maybe you could ease things up gradually?
Personally, I need a trainer who pushes me outside if my comfort zone a little so I improve.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Brighteyes (Mar 8, 2009)

As an instructor with a few jumping students, I may be able to tell you why I am hesitant to allow them to jump high.

Liability. If I have a student get hurt because I "pushed them too hard" or "allowed them to do something they weren't ready for" or "put them on a horse who refused/ran out" or any of the other excuses I can think a parent can have... I can get sued. Once you get up to a certain height, the jumping horse I put my students on (MY personal horse, mind you) starts to rush fences. Ready or not, she's going over if you point her to a fence. My other jumping horses will occasionally run out. 1 in 50 times,_ but it happens. _

Being an instructor is a dangerous business legally.


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