Ep. 31 On how to get the best from your teacher, and mental rehearsal

When pupils are ‘going through the motions’ of getting the horse to go, teachers tend to ‘go through the motions’ as well - or to get really impatient. Staying patient requires the coach to maintain and identity/behaviour separation for the rider, realising that she might have good skills in other fields. Ideally, the coach ‘tunes’ herself, getting centred and present, to help her tune the rider who then tunes the horse. The coach is a role model for the rider. The story of the day I heard myself say ‘Don’t panic!”, and realised that I had let the horse and rider lead me astray! On TT courses we have lots of fun role playing our most challenging pupils, and finding strategies to get them in a learning mode - learning how to learn is the biggest gift we have to give.  MR: Stories of various clients, and also elite riders, and how they used/talked about MR. MRs of signing your name, and seeing/sensing a bowl of fruit. It is best to involve all of your senses. MR helps you discover how much your brain knows, and primes your brain, which cannot tell the difference between real and imagined performance.