# Nicest things your coach/trainer has said to you



## CharlotteThePenguin (Apr 2, 2016)

My last trainer got on my horse for the first time because we were having troubles learning to bend. The first thing she said was "it's worse than I thought". Afterward, she said she was surprised by how well I could ride her. Apparently, I was making the bending look easier than it was because we were getting a bend, just not what my trainer was looking for. 

We left that barn though (not because of the trainer, she was amazing) and last week my new trainer (along with some bystanders) told me how much my mare and I have progressed since we got there. I guess we looked pretty discombobulated when we first got there.


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

Doing absolutely nothing was the best thing ever.

I've started riding some green(er) horses under my trainer's guidance. It's basically like a riding lesson, but she challenges me to have the horse do such and such skill he hasn't practiced yet. She told my wife (and my wife told me) that if things ever don't work out with me and the horse in one of our lessons, she'll get on for the last ten minutes or so to make sure (a) that I get it, and more importantly (b) that the horse gets it.

She never did.


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

I'll do some of my favourites, too:

I've had an absolute, over-the-top paranoia about horses spooking, ever since I started riding a little over three years ago. It's been getting much better lately, but this past winter I was still "spooking more than horse!" at a lot of little things. At one point I was telling my coach how I was amazed that I was able to stay on through a series of fairly dramatic (not really that dramatic) spooks that had happened recently.

"OF COURSE you stayed on!" she shouted in utter exasperation. "YOU HAVE A GREAT SEAT!"

Other nice things:
"You're a much better rider than you think you are."
(On cantering with no stirrups on a horse I didn't know well.) "I know you can do that. I am COMPLETELY unconcerned."
"With you riding Elle, she goes so well for everyone that I don't have to do tune-up rides on her!"
"Your leg is getting so quiet! I would have no hesitations putting spurs on you." (This was a big deal because three years ago, I was riding SO toed-out that I would have been constantly jabbing the horse.)

From other coaches:
"Well, you obviously know how to ride!"
"You're a strong rider. I know you could handle it." (No one had EVER called me that before. I was always getting stuck in the lowest levels of classes as a kid because my first horse scared the crap out of me and broke my confidence for a long time. So nice to hear it now in my adult years!)


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## Trinket12 (Oct 27, 2017)

Um does "I like your paddock boots" count?  Actually thinking about it, she tells me I have good hands (most of the time) and that my sitting trot is good (even though I feel like I'm bouncing around like a maniac!) my 2 point seems to be getting more compliments too!


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

The last lessons I had, about a year ago, the trainer said, you are a much better rider than you think you are.
Also one Equitation class I rode in years ago I had a very difficult ride on a badly behaved horse and the judge complimented me on the ride and said that I have lovely hands.


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

I only got to have a trainer for a couple of months a long time ago. Since I have been riding all my life, I asked her how I compared with the other people she was teaching. She thought for a good long time and then said, "Let me put it this way. You ride worse . . . and get more out a horse . . . than any one I know."


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## Shortyhorses4me (Jun 17, 2018)

"He's usually so tense with other riders, but he's very relaxed with you" Was so fun to hear the horse thought I was doing well lol


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

your timing is getting better.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

My trainer gave me a lot of "Atta Girl" when I was riding; made another rider really upset when she didn't get any...I didn't realize it was something special until she got so upset. 


She also called my horse a "little ****" when he acted up  But when I told her I was buying a different horse she wanted to know why I wanted a different horse when I had such a nice one!  Reassured her I wasn't selling my horse, just getting a 2nd ride


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Oh, I have a good many...LOL...

I had been reconnected with a dressage trainer from years back to help be train a beautiful Arabian mare. They mare died, and I was SO depressed, but my regularlesson day came, and I could not bear to call and cancel, so I dragged my self -trained, not ridden in a couple of years Paint gelding out of the pasture, and took him. 
My trainer asked me to enter him in her dressage show! I had never shown dressage, only hunters. There was a lady riding a gorgeous warm blood mare for the next lesson, and trainer said, “See that mare? She is going to get 8’s and 9’s on some things, but 2’s on some, where this horse? He’s going to get 7’s and maybe an 8 consistently, and YOU are going to beat her! Icouldntbelieve it, but she was right!

Then I was riding the mare in my avatar(same trainer) and my friend brought my mare’s full sister over for a lesson. Friend said, “I want her to go like THAT, pointing at my mare...”, and the trainer said, “Then you should have her(me) TRAIN her!!” In my normally self deprecating state, at first, I thought it was a slam...but it was not. It was a genuine compliment!


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

"0f all my students I have had, your work ethic is second to none." Guess all that practice in whatever crappy weather on something she gave me to do for the next lesson impressed her.


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

This is sweet thread. I think the best compliment I ever got was being told I was good enough to ride my mare. Sounds funny that. But when I brought my shiny new horse to the yard my friend wanted to ride her and it was a disaster. Green mare panicking, friend panicking. I was suddenly worried about how I would fare even though I'd ridden her a few times already. 60 seconds later I got on and my mare sighed... my instructor also sighed happily and said "look at that! Much better! All she needed was a calm rider!" Talking about it months later she said I was basically an awful rider back then but that wasn't as important as being calm and able to work _with_ my mare through both our anxieties, instead of being frightened _of_ her. 


Once was cuddling the gelding I was gonna ride, had his head cradled and was gently nuzzling his face and stroking over his eyes. He was sighing deeply and nearly falling asleep, resting the weight of his head in my arms. A different instructor walked past and had to do a double take. "He never lets anyone do that!" and took a picture for proof. Apparently he had such bad aggression issues that he had to be managed like a stallion. No one told me that when he was handed to me so I treated him like any other horse and he never once gave a bad vibe. He went really well for me and later got told that was the happiest he'd looked in a while. He was later sold as a private horse as was too sour for the lesson life.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

My last trainer back in California did not compliment me that much, but she would brag about me behind my back! So I would get teacher's pet accusations second hand. That was amusing. 

My new trainer told me, my first ride, during which Brooke would NOT settle nor bring her head down from giraffe mode, that I had two things most of her students did not, a sticky seat and a relationship with my horse, and those two things were both hard to acquire and invaluable.

Last lesson she remarked that she only had to tell me to bring my leg back a few times instead of all the time (I'm a chair seater). That may not be much of a compliment to many but I had been working on it so it was nice to be noticed.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I love this thread! Now I have to think of memorable compliments to give my students. I have 3 now, woohoo! But I just decided to do lessons a few days ago, so not bad. I do give them "atta girls" when they do something that required effort and thought.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

I don't have a trainer, no lessons, no coach, not eventing.


But for people who know horses and haven't seen Trigger, or me, since his Untouchable stage:


He's not the same horse. I can't believe this is the same horse.


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## Captain Evil (Apr 18, 2012)

My two best compliments were both from my favorite trainer, Renate Lansburgh. She had a thoroughbred in her barn who she was trying to use as a school horse but it just wasn’t working out. I arrived onenday to muck stalls, and she said, “From now on you are riding this horse. I rode him for six hours yesterday and all I wanted was for hi to walk. I finally gave up. But I bet he’ll walk for you...” and he did.

THe second compliment came later, when she asked why I wasn’t riding my three year old yet. I told her I was worried that I would ruin him. “With a seat like yours you could not possibly ruin a horse.” 

Someday I hope to be abe to have essons again, but it that is still in the future.


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## amq05 (Sep 13, 2018)

Riding in a lesson with others: "Watch her do it!"


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

"you sit a really nice buck, seriously your position is awesome when he's bucking"

Apparently it wasn't so great the rest of the time.



Also- the last time I had a lesson on Nick (last year, I had no saddle) 

"Wow I have no idea how you are sitting that". Nick is quite the little mover when it comes to trot.


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## Whinnie (Aug 9, 2015)

The compliment I liked best was "Your mare is doing things I never thought she could do, given her conformation" speaking about her stride, flexibility and smoothness.


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## CanteringCalypso (Aug 13, 2017)

One of my trainers said that my EQ was better than his.. that was nice😂


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## CanteringCalypso (Aug 13, 2017)

amq05 said:


> Riding in a lesson with others: "Watch her do it!"


That's the best! 😂😂 when your trainer uses you as an example to other lollll


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

When asked to rode a trainers horse, a neurotic gelding, "Going a b site better for you than for me!"


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

Actually my old trainer called me last night. She got a new kitten and wanted to tell me about it- also a few barn dogs died too. And we reminisced about the last shows either of us went to- she's 70 and is kinda ready to be done with horses in Alaska. I updated her on my pony dearest and made her promise to fly down for our first show- which is at least a year out base on finances. But in the end, got me thinking, I've had an incredible blessing with her, seriously the hours in freezing AK winter teaching me what it was like to sit a horse. I'm so grateful. She also said I was the most dogged student she had. And that I made a lot out of horses that she didn't think have it in them. So that was nice.


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## mslady254 (May 21, 2013)

My riding instructor whom I only get to lesson with maybe 4 times a year (working on increasing that) is generous with praise and encouragement to all her students, although it does have to be earned. I really need and appreciate encouragment ! This week she praised me for getting a nice forward and 'big' trot from Sonny, with 'lovely' transitions, and said that my riding had improved a lot from a year ago. yay!

A natural horsemanship instructor that I also lesson with a few times a year, mostly groundwork with her, told me that I'd done a very nice job with Sonny who is a challenging horse. She was helping me get canter from a halt on a circle (groundwork) and said that his focus and responsiveness was very nice. Yay !

Fay


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

This morning I was riding while my coach was bringing the hay around to the paddocks. She shouted "Your canter seat is looking really good!" What she couldn't see from where she was standing was that... I was practicing without stirrups! So that made it extra nice to hear.


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

Got another one, yesterday: Upon taking a lesson on a new horse, ex-barrel racer.

Before lesson: "Don't feel after the lesson that you suddenly can't ride at all!"
After lesson: "I think you're going to have fun with him!"


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

Here's a few ... Pi & I went to Richard Winters' Ride the Rancho in June. Part of this event is you get to play around with cows. Years of going to Matt's cow clinic (who instilled in us the proper etiquette when you have been invited to work cows/brand at someone else's ranch; for those who don't know, Matt is one of my trainers) and showing in Reined Cowhorse (and doing some of their clinics), I know my cow etiquette, LOL. There were only a handful of us who knew how to work cows; most of the time I stayed with the herd to give Pi some "relaxing around cows" practice. But we went with Richard once to gather some strays when he asked for volunteers who "wanted to go fast", LOL. And we got to go after a few strays and bring them back (that others kept pushing OUT of the herd :icon_rolleyes. So I went to say thanks to Richard at the last dinner and he gives me a hug and said,"I would be honored to have you on my cow crew any time." :razz: Huge compliment! 

Then when Matt & I were talking about what to enter at the Ranch Horse Show recently, I told him I entered both Amateur & Open divisions. He said,"NO! Not Open!" I said,"What, you think I'm going to beat you?" and he said,"YES!" LOL. That made me feel good. I have been riding with Matt for 15 years. He is THE trail guy, has won many trail competitions and knows how to get a horse shown in trail. And I did beat him in Trail!  

Finally, a while back, I started reined cowhorse on my 1/2 Arab. She was not well received, but I didn't care and in the end the majority of people came around and really loved her heart and try. And we actually got way better and could get some decent scores. But my cowhorse trainer was never a big fan of her and would frequently tell me I needed to get a horse that was bred to work cows. I would just tell him she was what I had and a new horse was not in the budget. At cowhorse shows, trainers will help you out even if you are not riding with them. At this time, I was not riding with this trainer, but had been to a number of his clinics. He and his wife would frequently coach me at shows. At one show, he was on me about getting another horse and I gave my usual response. Then we had our turn in the show pen. My trainer was standing by where we worked the cow. My horse and I had a GOOD run and got a great cow score. I go over to where he was after and said,"Well?" He looked at me and she,"Well, She can work a cow." HUGE compliment from this guy, LOL! Made my day! :thumbsup::cheers::happydance:


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

From one of the best trainers I ever had
"Mmm - not bad."


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

I asked mine, two years ago, what she considered my best and worst qualities as a rider.

The best: "You're really good at doing nothing."

The worst: "Sometimes you're too good at doing nothing."


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