Archive for November, 2006

Singapore : 2006-11-17

Friday, November 17th, 2006

As of posting, I don’t know the track condition.

Here are some of horse I like.

Race 1 - Clarke Quay
Race 2 - Chevron
Race 3 - Sunshine Touch
Race 5 - Royal Suit
Race 6 - Always Innocent

Watch The Instructor

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

You will want to talk to the teacher. You will want to get an idea of whether the two of you can get along and how they approach their role. You can get some very valuable insight from those conversations.

However, you can learn a lot more from actually watching the teacher at work.

The proof, they say, is in the pudding. You really should take the time to watch a potential instructor work with other students in your same skill range and age bracket.

This will help you determine whether you have found the right person for the job.

An instructor who does well with kids may be less enthused or effective when working with adults. A teacher who loves to share advanced techniques with experienced riders may not have the same infectious attitude when it comes to counseling a rank amateur.

By watching people in your same situation, you can get a clear idea of how your own lessons might look and feel.

Here are a few of the things for which you should be looking while evaluating a teacher in action:

Student reaction. How do the student’s react to the instruction? Do they seem put out by numerous recommendations and criticisms, or do they seem pleased to learn when advice is given to them? Are they enjoying their interaction with the instructor or merely forcing themselves through the process in order to spend time on horseback? A quality teacher creates a consistently positive environment, and that skill will show on the faces of his or her pupils.

Commitment to safety. A good instructor will demonstrate a strong commitment to safety. He or she may evidence that commitment by taking a second look at a student’s saddle before the pupil mounts the horse. It could appear in warnings and comments made during lessons.

Although riding is unbelievably fun, it does have its risks and those dangers must be taken very seriously. The best teachers understand that and make student well being a priority.

Animal treatment. Carefully note how the teacher is interacting with the animals, as well as the students. A good instructor will, of course, treat the horses with the utmost care and respect.

If you ever sense that the horses involved are almost an afterthought to an instructor, he or she will probably be a poor choice.

Careful observation of an instructor should help you decide if he or she is the right match for you.

Riding Skill Isn’t Enough

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

There are many spectacular riders who can dazzle us with their abilities in the saddle. These individuals are a marvel to behold and they obviously understand a great deal about horses and how to work with them.

Those skills, however, don’t communicate anything about their ability to teach others. Teaching is a unique skill, just as riding is. You can’t assume they go hand-in-hand. Horse instruction is like any other teaching field. An ability to do something doesn’t prove an ability to teach it.

Ted Williams was one of baseball’s all-time greatest hitters. As a manager, he could never field a winning team.

Many genius engineers and mathematicians, people responsible for some great scientific advances, were despised as classroom teachers.

Meanwhile, some of the world’s greatest writers and painters were taught and inspired by nameless academics who had the ability to teach but may not have had the special gifts necessary to produce their own masterpieces.

So it is with riding instructors.

A teacher may have a championship rodeo riding buckle around her waist or an Olympic gold medal on his chest. That’s proof they know how to handle themselves in the saddle. It is not, however, evidence that they can teach you how to work with your horse.

That may be because the instructor has never taken teaching as seriously as he or she has developing his or her own skills.

It may be that the teacher just doesn’t have the knack for imparting information to others. There are hundreds of possible reasons why a skilled rider might not be a great teacher.

It is true that you want your instructor to evidence skills on the back of the horse. You wouldn’t want to take lessons from someone who was afraid to mount a pony.

You won’t have to worry about that, though. Any instructor you encounter will probably have all the skills necessary-the question will be whether he or she has the teaching skills that can lead to a great experience.