Do The Work…. But WHICH Work?!

I read this recently:

“Research has shown that a feeling of activity specific competence is the single best predictor of enjoyment and achievement in a given activity”

So that’s where I have been going wrong! Schooling Amber is instead a daily immersion into an activity-specific feeling of ‘I haven’t got a bloody clue!’!!

90% of riding is done alone: schooling, fittening, hacking, practicing. I have no problem doing the work but I struggle to know what to do. I lack confidence in my own judgement. So I have lots of lessons with lots of people who say lots of different things.

I did not set out to RI hop like that, but I have been to 2 camps this year and had 3 different sets of dressage instruction as part of those camps. I also hosted a clinic with someone in the Buck Brannaman tradition which is different again. And I had a lesson with John Thelwall who my YO  invited to the yard for the day……Plus my regular lessons with the YO/RI. Each clinic or camp or new opportunity seemed like a great idea at the time. But I realise now that frankly I am just more confused than ever about how to ride Amber. I have lessons where she floats and it feels fantastic, but I cannot for the life of me recreate that without moment by moment instruction from the ground!

So when I am schooling I just flit from strategy to strategy till both me and my poor horse are confused and frustrated. And all the time at the back of my mind is the fear that I am going to ruin her, which means my ‘schooling’ just ends up unfocused and bland. For fear of doing the ‘wrong’ thing I end up doing nothing at all!

So basically I am inconsistent AND unfocused. No matter which approach I go for, it has to be better than that!

I am beginning to recognise there is no magic bullet. She goes beautifully in different lessons despite differences in the instruction. There are many roads to Rome. I just need to pick a road and STAY ON IT.  So the plan is to stop ALL lessons apart from those with my YO and just do as I am told by ONE instructor. Whatever that ‘way’ actually is, it’s got to be better than the muddling mess I am making of things at the moment! Eventually, perhaps, that elusive ‘activity specific confidence’ will begin to appear….