The success of Gray\u2019s approach to training young dressage riders speaks for itself, as she regularly works with more than 100 students at a time and has trained several national and regional champions, including the youngest North American Young Rider gold medalist. Here she shares some advice for trainers helping young dressage enthusiasts develop into the best possible riders and horsemen.<\/em><\/p>\n1. Try New Things <\/h3>\n I think kids tend to be braver than adults. You don\u2019t usually have such confirmed bad habits with kids, as opposed to an adult who has been working on that bad habit for years and years and years. They\u2019re perhaps a little bit more willing to try new things, again, because of the lack of experience.<\/p>\n
2. Don\u2019t Water It Down<\/h3>\n I teach a talented, determined, ambitious and focused kid pretty much the way I teach my good professionals. I don\u2019t water it down for them. I don\u2019t water down the theory, particularly. I\u2019ve had two young kids that I\u2019ve brought up\u2014one from age 5 and one from age 7\u2014both ambitious, determined, bright kids. I taught some of my most technical lessons to those two. Not so much when they were at the age of 5 but more like when they got closer to 9 or 10. These lessons were even more technical than I would teach some adults. They were remarkable kids.<\/p>\n
3. Create Challenge <\/h3>\n I feel that kids aren\u2019t challenged enough. Look at the kids in this country versus the kids in Europe. The difference in the sophistication of their riding is absolutely unbelievable. <\/p>\n
This is sort of my pet peeve. I find that trainers don\u2019t think kids can ride as well as they can ride or can ride as well as they are taught to ride. There is a phenominal difference in the riding between American kids and the pony riders in Europe, whom we see first at age 12 when they are competing in the FEI pony divisions.<\/p>\n
I find that when I do clinics and meet some children for the first time, nobody has challenged them. We sort of have a sense in this country of a very slow progression that I personally don\u2019t think has to be quite so slow. <\/p>\n
Of course, this kind of faster progression would be appropriate for the talented, determined kids as opposed to the ones who do a little dressage just because mommy makes them when they\u2019d really rather be out jumping. <\/p>\n
4. Make It Fun<\/h3>\n You absolutely try to make it more fun, especially for the kid who wants to ride and the one that you hope will realize that dressage is part of his or her life. <\/p>\n
Turn things into games. Make it a little shorter and more intense and find what it is that keeps their attention. The first thing that comes to mind in my experience is one kid who wouldn\u2019t pay attention to her diagonals. I walked into the ring one day with 10 Hershey Kisses. I set them on the railing and said, \u201cThese are yours. I brought them for you,\u201d and her eyes lit up. But then I said, \u201cEvery time I catch you on the wrong diagonal, I\u2019m taking one away.\u201d So naturally she didn\u2019t lose one. <\/p>\n
If you make things a little bit competitive, that often encourages them. Even with the Hershey\u2019s Kiss thing, there was a bit of a competition with the lingering question of \u201cAre these going to be mine or yours?\u201d It\u2019s definitely important that kids find a level of success, but that\u2019s important for adults, too. <\/p>\n
5. Mix It Up <\/h3>\n The one thing that I feel makes a strong difference in a kid\u2019s riding education is that those who are interested in dressage also do other things: trail ride, ride cross country, jump, ride bareback. Get a full education that way. I\u2019m not necessarily going to push the adults that I teach to do that, beyond trail riding. I feel so strongly about kids not totally specializing. The same is true for kids in any other discipline, like jumper riders. All of these kids who are galloping around on these ponies\u2014what they could gain from a little dressage education! And likewise, what these dressage kids could gain from jumping cross country. <\/p>\n
I know some students who are galloping racehorses. I wish everybody would do that because I find that so few dressage riders are willing to go forward and gallop. I feel strongly that they\u2019ve got to learn to jump. They\u2019ve got to learn how to have a good, solid jumping position. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve got to learn how dressage can help balance the horse for jumping. They\u2019ve got to learn how to move with the horse and go forward with the horse. I\u2019m adamant about that from day one. <\/p>\n
6. Create a Well-Rounded Education<\/h3>\n Incorporate reading and attention to fitness in the routine. Fitness is incredibly important. I think it would help if the kids started early doing that. These are also all of the things that I would tell a serious adult. It can also be helpful if you start early with the riding theory. Find some books that are somewhat interesting and start talking about it. <\/p>\n
7. Manage the Pressure<\/h3>\n The pressure that kids face can be a huge problem. This isn\u2019t so much because of the kids themselves but more a result of the parents and is a question of how much pressure is put on competing and success.<\/p>\n
I grew up in Maine, and we had a 2\u00bd-month showing season and a 9\u00bd- to 10-month training season. This means that you showed in the short summer and you trained in the winter. Nowadays, people are being encouraged and nearly forced to show almost year-round. If you want to qualify for anything, especially in my region, it\u2019s almost impossible without going south. <\/p>\n
I think the pressures are there, but I find many parents make it more difficult because they are putting so much pressure on the kids. Then the kids feel the pressure, either because it is actually being put there or sometimes they put it on themselves because they are aware of the money and resources that are being invested in them. Sometimes they are bought really fancy horses and lots of fancy training, and they take on the pressure because they can see that their parents are doing all of that for them. <\/p>\n
In the end, I\u2019ve known many kids who didn\u2019t want to be competitive on that level or they wanted to do other things\u2014they wanted to play sports, they wanted to be with their friends\u2014and it turned out that they didn\u2019t want to be so tunnel-visioned about the dressage and that all of the competitive drive actually came from the parents. <\/p>\n
As a trainer, the pressure doesn\u2019t come from me. If they want to go for it, I\u2019m with them. But if they want to back off, that\u2019s absolutely fine with me. The pressure has got to be carefully, carefully watched.<\/p>\n
8. Act in the Best Interest of the Kid<\/h3>\n Parents can be very strong-minded about their children\u2019s performance and success in the show ring. I\u2019ve had kids come to me, asking me to help them talk to their parents. That\u2019s how bad it gets. It\u2019s tricky. <\/p>\nRachel Chowanec spent her first weekend as a working student for Gray when she was less than 10 years old and is pictured here at Lendon\u2019s Winter Intensive Training Program in 2013. (Credit: Betsy LaBelle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen dealing with parents, I\u2019m honest. I\u2019m very upfront and clear about my opinion and I always try to give options. I think from the beginning you\u2019ve got to be honest. I think in some cases, trainers want to be as ambitious as the parent because they\u2019re getting a name made for them by this talented kid. I think you\u2019ve got to make sure that as a trainer, you\u2019re always looking out for the best interest of your horses and your clients, whether they are adults or kids. But kids usually have a harder time speaking up for themselves than adults do.<\/p>\n
9. Find a Quality Dressage Mount<\/h3>\n Dressage is a sport where the horse is the one that\u2019s judged. And in many cases, you\u2019re only as good as your horse. That\u2019s not to say that you can\u2019t overcome certain things or that a bad rider can\u2019t ruin a good horse\u2014but a good rider that doesn\u2019t have a good-quality horse isn\u2019t going to be highly successful, certainly at the international level. This applies to both kids and adults. But I see it so much with kids who become discouraged because they are working hard and perhaps are even talented and are doing everything right, but they don\u2019t have the horse that makes it possible for them to show off their talents. <\/p>\n
I think that parents often take too long with one horse. In some situations, the horse is really holding the child back. That means that now we\u2019re getting down to a game of who can afford to buy a really good horse, which is unfortunate. It\u2019s a little bit like someone who wants to compete sailing yachts. You have to be able to afford the yacht. Particularly at a young age, kids are at the mercy of their parents. <\/p>\n
You read stories about kids who saved up all of their pennies for a long time and bought a $500 horse. Those stories happen, but you also know that there are incredibly talented kids out there who just don\u2019t have the opportunity.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re bringing up a child, it often means switching horses moderately regularly. In a perfect world, a kid could be brought up on a pony and then moved to the next one, which ideally is sort of a Junior horse that could take her or him to Young Riders, and then move on from there. Then there are also some that are fortunate enough to get a good horse at a fairly young age that can carry them through. <\/p>\n
One young rider in particular comes to mind: Katrina Sadis, who won the USEF Pony Rider Dressage National Championship this year with scores in the 70s. Eight months before, she was showing Training Level. In this case, Dressage4Kids<\/a> received a pony, Poldy 10, whom we leased to her. He is a good pony with good training.<\/p>\nKatrina Sadis and Poldy 10, winners of the USEF Pony Rider Dressage National Championship. (Credit: Susan Stickle\/ SusanJStickle.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nShe got him in October, showed him for the first time in January and scored in the high 60s and six months later was getting 70s in Florida. <\/p>\n
If we want our young kids to ride well, we\u2019ve got to get them suitable horses. Here was a kid who, if that horse hadn\u2019t come into her life, might not have ever gone anywhere. And now she\u2019s had that success and she\u2019s moved on to a horse\u2014and now she has attention and opportunities. That\u2019s terribly, terribly important. Again, if we want these kids to ride the best they can, they\u2019ve got to be put sooner on quality ponies when they are young. <\/p>\n
Whether you are teaching kids or adults, if you\u2019re riding dressage, you must find a horse that\u2019s easy on the aids. If the horse is a tank and has a thick, heavy neck with a thick, heavy jowl that makes flexion difficult, or if the horse won\u2019t go and you\u2019re kicking and pushing and shoving all of the time and he doesn\u2019t know how to go sideways, the rider is going to be up against a wall. <\/p>\n
If you want to do dressage, you have to have something that is suitable for dressage. I think so often the kid\u2019s first horse is not suitable for dressage\u2014it may be a perfectly safe pony and the kid can have great fun on it\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a dressage pony or horse. It\u2019s got to be a dressage pony or horse.<\/p>\n
Finding Opportunities<\/h3>\n For a kid, finding the right opportunities can sometimes be incredibly difficult. As an adult, you can go off and train with somebody for a little bit, but when you\u2019re a kid it\u2019s not quite that easy. I have one teenager who can drive but who lives in the middle of nowhere. I set her up with a good trainer who lives quite a ways away, but she makes it work. She goes and stays with the trainer for about a week per month. As a kid you can\u2019t necessarily do that because you depend on mom to drive you.<\/p>\n
My biggest piece of advice is to find a place that you can reach where you can make yourself indispensible in some way. Be willing to muck stalls, to clean tack, to pick rocks and then maybe someone will be willing to give you some opportunities. But you have to be willing to do the grunt work. I find so many now have this feeling of entitlement: \u201cI have some talent, therefore you should help me.\u201d But if you\u2019re willing to show me that you\u2019re working your buns off, I\u2019ll do everything I can for you. There are a lot of people out there who are like that. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a working-student type of person, you have got to find a place where, if you don\u2019t have a horse, you have opportunities to ride. And it can be riding anything\u2014it doesn\u2019t have to be riding fancy things. If you do have a horse, he needs to be at a place where you\u2019re going to get the help that you\u2019re working for. And the trainer needs to be someone who is going to be invested in you in some way and not just taking you for free or cheap labor and doing the minimum for you. Having said that, there\u2019s a huge advantage to being able to be a working student for someone like Jan Ebling or JJ Tate or Scott Hassler, or whomever, where you can be around elite dressage, watching, soaking it up and learning stable management, even if you\u2019re not getting a lot of riding out of it. I\u2019m not saying that these people wouldn\u2019t give you the time. I\u2019m just saying any big name with a lot of horses where you can learn the business would be beneficial. Learn the horse care. Learn the horse management. Learn the training strategies. Hopefully, the next opportunity will give you the chance to put it all to use. <\/p>\n
So many of the very, very successful riders, even those who aren\u2019t brought up with money, have fascinating stories of how they got there: living in grungy conditions, working their butts off, freezing in the winter, you know, whatever. But always soaking up the knowledge. You\u2019ve got to be willing to do that. You can\u2019t do that as a young child necessarily, but as soon as the time comes. I\u2019ve had kids come and stay with me in my house. Rachel Chowanec first came and spent a weekend with me as a \u201cworking student\u201d when she was 8 or 9. Not a lot of people offer that opportunity, but I\u2019ve had kids very young who started with little working- student opportunities at a young age. But generally you\u2019ve got to be at an age where you can be pretty responsible for yourself. More than anything, you just have to prove that you want it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lendon Gray explains her methods for helping kids reach their full potential as riders and as horsemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1134,"featured_media":7777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,130],"tags":[1598,3416,2284,2906,5325,4983,3728,5327,5330,444,1669,1128,3986,553,2865,5328,5331,1202,5329,5326,1213,2374,4435],"class_list":["post-6615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instruction","category-junior-young-rider","tag-articles-with-lendon-gray","tag-challenge","tag-dressage-pony","tag-dressage4kids","tag-fei-pony-division","tag-fun","tag-game","tag-junior-rider","tag-katrina-sadis","tag-lendon-gray","tag-nayc","tag-north-american-youth-championships","tag-parents","tag-pony","tag-pressure","tag-quality-horse","tag-rachel-chowanec","tag-reward","tag-specialization","tag-well-rounded-education","tag-working-student","tag-young-rider","tag-youth-dressage-festival"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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