Karin Gruber
I certainly learned a lot – patience (not my prime character trait), body-control (still very much work-in-progress) and some (very basic) insight in how a horse ‘ticks’. This together with reading the signals correctly is probably the biggest challenge for a person who came to deal with horses only in mid-life, and Cheski’s advice is most valuable to me. ‘Not knowing’ (what horse-people all seem to know) is not a problem and I feel I can ask any question around horses.
A coaching session starts with a brief summary of our status-quo: what we did in past, the next goal, any issues encountered, what I would want to focus on for today. Cheski then gives a task and then lets me describe how it went. Her open questions make me analyse, and test my conclusions in the next step. The outside observer will notice that this student obviously needs to make every possible mistake, in order to learn that this is not the right way !
Cheski’s feedback helps enormously in regards to ‘calibration’ – to set the expectations/goals right, so that there is a chance to succeed, for the objective set . The very experienced coach she is, Cheski can turn each session around (skilfully, and with lots of tact), to end on a positive note. The goalpost might have been adjusted for now, but it might be just the necessary step for now on the road to the goal.
What I like: I need to understand why I do certain things – position, line, influence energy levels etc., so that it is logical to me in the context of a riding exercise. Cheski explains this in a language which is very clear and with examples or pictures I can relate to. She is happy to explain the bigger picture and context of an exercise. Her compassionate and understanding of horse’s behaviour (and fears) and the overall goal that all riding should be fun in the first place just feels right to me.
In my reasonably short riding career I did not have very much experience with other instructors – just enough to know that ‘do this , do that’ without clarification of reason and strategy behind it do not work for me. Also, I prefer when the instructor treats the horse-rider combination as partnership, and not the horse as a piece of sport equipment which has to ‘function’.
Pressure is fine – and I would like to try out a bit more of it, to see if it helps to speed up the learning process for me.
Cheski meets my needs as rider athlete. I learn by doing and experiencing (and through mistakes, I guess), much more than just by executing instructions.
The only suggestion I would make is that I can tolerate more direct critique than the usual New Zealanders… who are so polite, amiable and non-confrontative! What people here would consider as ‘rude’ is for us Germans the normal conversation mode… The way you make me analyse is great.
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A coaching session starts with a brief summary of our status-quo: what we did in past, the next goal, any issues encountered, what I would want to focus on for today. Cheski then gives a task and then lets me describe how it went. Her open questions make me analyse, and test my conclusions in the next step. The outside observer will notice that this student obviously needs to make every possible mistake, in order to learn that this is not the right way !
Cheski’s feedback helps enormously in regards to ‘calibration’ – to set the expectations/goals right, so that there is a chance to succeed, for the objective set . The very experienced coach she is, Cheski can turn each session around (skilfully, and with lots of tact), to end on a positive note. The goalpost might have been adjusted for now, but it might be just the necessary step for now on the road to the goal.
What I like: I need to understand why I do certain things – position, line, influence energy levels etc., so that it is logical to me in the context of a riding exercise. Cheski explains this in a language which is very clear and with examples or pictures I can relate to. She is happy to explain the bigger picture and context of an exercise. Her compassionate and understanding of horse’s behaviour (and fears) and the overall goal that all riding should be fun in the first place just feels right to me.
In my reasonably short riding career I did not have very much experience with other instructors – just enough to know that ‘do this , do that’ without clarification of reason and strategy behind it do not work for me. Also, I prefer when the instructor treats the horse-rider combination as partnership, and not the horse as a piece of sport equipment which has to ‘function’.
Pressure is fine – and I would like to try out a bit more of it, to see if it helps to speed up the learning process for me.
Cheski meets my needs as rider athlete. I learn by doing and experiencing (and through mistakes, I guess), much more than just by executing instructions.
The only suggestion I would make is that I can tolerate more direct critique than the usual New Zealanders… who are so polite, amiable and non-confrontative! What people here would consider as ‘rude’ is for us Germans the normal conversation mode… The way you make me analyse is great.
Back to the main Coaching Page