Be tidy and on time. Showing up late to your lesson wearing sweat pants and dirty paddock boots, and with a muddy horse, won’t cut it for some coaches. “I expect my students to be neatly dressed, horses well groomed and tack clean,” says Pippa Hambly, an advanced-level event rider and coach. Sherri Whitworth-Denouden, an A circuit judge, coach and steward, agrees. “I want my riders to show up in clean breeches, boots, a clean horse, hair in a net, and gloves on. Tidiness is a lifestyle choice. If a rider starts cutting corners in their lessons, that behaviour will transfer into the rider’s showing.”
Be prepared.
If you’ve got a lazy horse, for instance, don’t leave your whip in the barn. “If we are going cross-country, I expect that my students show up with the appropriate equipment,” says Hambly.
Get warmed up.
“Ideally, I would like a horse tacked up and walking,” says Annie Baird, a grand prix-level dressage rider and coach. “If the horse has issues the students and I have previously discussed – for example, it tends to be fresh or stiff when first coming out – it is best to have started some warm-up work before I arrive.” Baird acknowledged that for novice riders, however, she prefers they wait until she arrives for the sake of safety.