Student Should be Fired

Yep, I’m talking about me. I had a session with Fancy, where she wanted to perform the flying changes when she wanted, instead of when I gave the signal.

What to do with a horse that tries flying changes when you are doing a circle. We are doing a circle one way, not changing directions. Fancy will not do a complete circle without trying a flying change. We had a riding experience of arguing. I need a horse that will complete a circle at a canter, not a horse that tries flying lead changes when we get anywhere in the middle of the arena.

I have instructions on what to do about this, but did the perfect student follow the instructions? No, she failed. Instructions are stop, back and canter off, or do a 360 and canter off. Did the perfect student do any of the two instructions.

At the beginning of argument, perfect student did follow instructions but when failure came again and again, the instructions were ignored.

The perfect student ended the session feeling guilty.

The next day was the instructor riding the horse. The second day was the imperfect student. She decided on the philosophy, “Observe, separate, fix, reward, and combine.” It worked! Canter was not used in the fix. We did not combine on this day. The next riding day was very successful. Whew! The perfect student decided she should not be fired from lessons. Whew again!