Riding with Nicole

I don't know why it took so long to discover Nicole. After all, she's been coming here for clinics for six or seven years, and its only in the last four that I've become a devotee.

Call me stubborn, but I've never wanted to be a "disciple" of a trainer. I know people (and have seen it up close) who become devoted and then drop their trainers like hot rocks, hurting the trainer's feelings and interrupting their horse's training. I've not been one of those people. I always kepy a good distance, clinic-ed with people here and there, remained friendly to everyone, taken some lessons, kept my horses at home away from the trainer-disciple problem at boarding stables.

But now that I've discovered Nicole, I feel myself slipping inexorably into disciple-dom. I shamelessly promote her. I save for her expensive quarterly visits from Germany, and try to fit in as many lessons as my work and my wallet can handle. In fact, before I became an independent contractor and worked in a newsroom with a relatively strict 9-5 schedule, I used to have a lot of afternoon doctor's appointments, meetings, and other fabricated silliness to get to ride with Nicole.

A few things I've learned by becoming a Nicole disciple: to be more patient, to slow down, to play with my horse rather than become too intensely focused on work. She just left my house, where she praised my progress but we worked on my nagging left hand, which I could suddenly feel very intensely, as if every action of that left hand was magnified. I was too intense, perhaps, too focused, too determined, and neither Baleno nor I was having my fun. Play, she said. Play with him.

I learned, too that having more than one teacher is good--one for a "fly in" perspective (Nicole) and the other for a more regular, weekly or bi-weekly progress session. When Nicole comes in, she can point out the progress I've made very clearly. My other teacher doesn't see it as clearly because she sees me more regularly and deals with my more quotidien struggles. As long as they teach the same basic methods and are aiming you toward the same goal, there's nothing wrong with consistency.

My fear of becoming a disciple probably set me back over the years. If I'd had the money in my younger days I'd probably have become one much sooner, and commenced regular lessons before I'd developed that nagging left hand.