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Fiona Dearing is a fully insured riding coach working in
Melbourne and surrounds. She is about to commence her
NCAS Level 1 Coaching Certificate. Fiona is available
for local lessons and interstate clinics by arrangement.
E
fionadearing@bigpond.com
P
0400 377 351 |
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In a perfect world we’d all be like Anky and Sjef. The
horses would be rolled out by immaculate grooms, we’d
leap aboard and work our piaffe-passage tour under the
watchful eye of our beloved, tuning the softness and
harmony to gold medal standard. The reality for the vast
majority of us is far from this. How many of us actually
have a ‘beloved’ to turn to for eyes on the ground and
further, how many of us would take that ‘beloved’s’
advice without an over the shoulder snark of ‘what the
hell would you know honey’!!
Few of us are fortunate enough to have the perfect coach
on hand. Many of us have to float to our lesson due to
lack of facilities at home. Or our preferred coach may
not travel to teach or is based in another state and
only available for clinics every six months. It can end
up being an exercise that takes considerable time and
organisation, not to mention money. For these reasons
alone once your butt hits that saddle you want your
experience with that particular coach to be an enriching
one! |
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So what makes a good coach? How often should you have
lessons? What level should your coach be? Can a jumper
teach dressage, can a dressage rider teach jumping? The
questions are endless and often without a consistent
answer. The answer is there’s not a formula for this;
it’s based on personalities, abilities and schedules to
name a few. A coach, like a doctor or an accountant is a
very personal choice. The coach your friends rave about
may not be the coach that suits you best. I’ve ridden
under and audited many high level coaches over the years
and I certainly wouldn’t choose to ride with them all
again. That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything, but
that person having won medals or competed at a certain
level is not a guarantee they’re the coach for me.
Having said that there are others I’ve seen or ridden
with who I’d crawl on my belly to have another ten
minutes with! There are also people I’ve enjoyed riding
with and learnt buckets from with no glittery name
behind them. It’s often a journey of trial and error to
find the right person for you to work with and that’s
the tricky part! |
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