My trainer is evil! :)

She makes me do things I am not comfortable doing, and she pushes me, all of which are great.

So a few lessons ago, she put me on a lunge line, even though I am an intermediate rider. And made me ride with no reins, arms out aeroplane style and with my eyes closed.
I trust more than anyone I know except for family, and yet I was tense and terrified. I guess I am more of a control freak than I will admit.

But it worked wonders, I was able to feel the effect my seat and balance had on my horse, I was able to say which leg was hitting the ground and when.

It truely was amazing, even though it was horrific, I was able to feel my horse when I cannot with my eyes open.

But as awesome as she is, she has an evil tendancy, of enjoying these moments! :)

Girl! You are lucky to have found a trainer who wants to make you better! The only time I have come off a horse in a lesson was on a lunge line! I have balance issues so when she asked me to close my eyes, I dumped off the side at a walk. LOL I bet this really helps though!

She is fantastic, and we really bond well together. I have just moved my horse to her place as he was losing weight, and she is so on top of this, she got him a specialist diet and weighed him in front of me and he gained 100lbs in 2 weeks just from grass and feed.

This is not the reason why I like her, but she is English too, so maybe it creates more of a comfort level within me.

But she certainly seems to really enjoy pushing me hard, making me ache and yelling at me - all of which I appreciate.


My 3rd lesson with her, (I have had hundreds since) I had a problem with keeping my legs too far forward and had developed a wrong leg position that felt right to me out of habit, so she spent 2 x 1 hour lessons telling me, then in the 3rd lesson, she yelled 'MOVE YOUR F-ING LEG', I don't think my leg has been back there since, I was scared like my mom was yelling at me :)

Sounds great!! Good for you having a trainer that doesn't put up with bull.

Agreed, and I love her MOST of the time. :)

Edit - she has also yelled at me 'why do you pay me if you are not listening?' which I agree with, but also sometimes it is hard to do something new. But I love her and am posting this thread because it is great that she pushes me so hard. It would do me no good to have someone who pats my head and tells me how nice I am.


So share your trainer stories, please.

If anyone is interested and in my area, she is really fantastic, but don't expect praise when you are messing up, she will do right by you but will not cuddle you there. But I am waiting for her ok to post a link.

Interesting enough my trainer (who is great and the best one I worked with) doesn't really care about lunge line for some reason. I did take lesson with other trainer (before her) and she put me on lunge. It was OK, not scary, but I didn't benefit from it to be honest (plus going in small circles for while makes me sick in head).

Yea even intermediate-advanced riders need the lunge line ;) I went with no stirrups or reins two-pointing a lot.
My trainer shows me stuff like if I am confused she shows me how to do so. She will yell if I am not doing something right but she will in the end tell me I did a good job.

What's the benefit of the lunge line in general? Can't you just do same things when you ride actually? I'm saying because I tried it several times, and just didn't find any benefits at all.

Being on the longe line allows you to give up complete control of your horse and concentrate on certain elements of your seat and your position in their most basic form. It's harder to really feel and understand these things when you're simultaneously steering your horse and maintaining his gaits.