Good and bad riding instructors. Poll.

You don't think that there are riders that have a bad attitude and blame the trainer, the horse, the saddle or the phase of the moon. If you don't belive that you haven't read very many threads on the forum.

are you kidding? Gah it's 11 at night here and my eyes hurt and I'm going through tons of threads, reading and commenting.
There are plenty of people that do what you just said, but I don't consider them "riders". I call them "complainers/wanna-be riders on horseback".

On a similar note:

There are two kinds of "bad" riders.
There's "bad" as in what you said"blaming people, not caring,etc"
Then there is "bad" as in inexperienced, like we all once were until we learned about horses and how to ride them.

Kevinshorses original statement was bad STUDENTS not bad RIDERS. You have changed his comment. I agree with him, there are many students who believe they already know it all and if an instructor tells them differently the instructor is automatically deemed as no good. Then there are the oversensitive students. The instructor raises their voice a little or tells the to change what they're doing, and poor whinging little student goes home and cries thinking the instructor is mean and nasty.

So yep, I totally agree with kevinshorses statement.

I've had my fair share of different instructors. Plenty of instructors who taught me the basic pony club level stuff, enough to get me by as what I used to think was good riding. So not true. I moved to my current coach and she changed most of what I did. I have now been with her for almost 10 years. I also like to go to as many clinics as possible to get different views on my riding and horse.

I believe every instructor has their positive points. It just depends on what the student wants to learn. Some aim to be competitive and correct, others just want to stay on, stop go and turn and have fun.

First private lessons instructor I used taught me to post on the WRONG leg (the inside). Took FOREVER to re-learn that. :(

Sorry, Kevin, I disagree. Of course some people are pain in butt to start with (the personality thing), but I've seen much more people tolerant with bad instructors. And I don't remember anyone to be mad about really good instructors.

It also depends on what you mean by "bad". I'm not positive I'm "bad", but I'm annoying. I ask questions all the time, often not so easy to answer and sometime dumb I'm sure. And YES, I do blame the instructor if I learn nothing from the lessons (I NEVER blame the horse though), because I always try hard to learn. When I work with the good instructor though I blame myself for being a bad rider because I do understand the instructions but just can't do it right away sometime (need practice). I'm positive lots of students feel the same.

Umm, I have a great instructor in my opinion! She is the calmest person I know and can answer any question, plus she's been through every possible riding accident. She acts as both an instructor and a friend, and is the best person to have on your side in any situation. She's done every dicipline, and was raised on dressage so she's helping me there. The most diciplinary action I've ever experienced her do with us is throw dirt at the horse, which just gets their attention back. Nothing violent in anyway, shape or form. She's the best instructor I could ever ask for.