05/17/2025
So good 😊
Are you hearing the same thing in your lessons over and over, like a broken record?
Not making progress can be super frustrating. Learning to accept frustration is a very important part of the learning process- I always say to my students, seek fulfillment, not fun, and you’ll be able to stick it out for the long haul.
But if the needle is not budging at all, here are some reasons this MAY be the case (obviously I am not diagnosing anyone’s individual case without seeing them)
1- infrequent lessons schedule :
Sometimes people get a lesson and learn a concept, and want to go home and digest it for a while before taking the next one. While this can work for some people, others really do not do well without being supervised in the phase of breaking a habit or learning a new skill. Without someone watching, many of us will not be aware of HOW we are doing the skill we are taught, and develop many repetitions of doing it poorly, further worsening our habit and bringing us farther away from our goals. This can be frustrating for teachers too, who can get trapped in a kind of purgatory where they can’t advance the student - and this often leads to a student leaving out of frustration of not getting anywhere.
2- you might need to hear it differently:
Not all instructors will coach well to everyone’s unique learning style. A dedicated student will figure out how to fill those gaps for themselves - watch the teacher and ask questions. Ask them for resources on the topic you’re struggling with and read or watch them - sometimes just hearing it in another way or seeing it in another context can make all the difference.
3- you might be missing an ingredient that allows you to do the “thing”-
If you keep hearing the same thing about your position over and over again, for example your leg keeps swinging forward, investigate why. Maybe your saddle makes it really hard for you to get in a good position.
While I’m not a fan of blaming inanimate objects for our flaws, the saddle market for women is truly terrible - i find so many saddles my students are riding in make them really struggle to get over their center of balance, make them wiggle through the middle and have to pinch with their knees for stability. But that’s an entire can of worms there.
It could be fitness, the horses wellness or fitness, or many other things worthy of investigation
4- you might just be in that sucky phase called “plateau “ and that happens to everyone
Sometimes, even despite your best efforts, your body just needs time to develop new patterns. Sometimes we bust through with a big leap in progress, and sometimes we just practice the same scales over and over. That’s the way it goes!
If you’ve investigated the first three, a change of attitude into acceptance and relaxing into the messy reality of learning will be your new best friend.
Photo by Jessie Cardew
