Randomness on Instructors

Ah lovely weather why must you have thunderstorms on the day I want to have lesson in the evening??

That is tomorrow by the way, not today.  So may yet turn out fine.

I think everyone who rides has people who have influenced their riding in one way or another.  Trainers, instructors, family, maybe people we've never met, but whose books we've read or whose DVDs we've watched. 

The four instructors I've had so far, in somewhere around seven years of more-or-less-regular riding, have each had their place in my learning.  Oh some of them weren't perfect for sure, but you learn things from everyone.  Por ejemplo (for example):

• D., my first instructor, judge, trainer, coach, champion Paint Horse breeder.  The person who starts you, who sets that foundation--they can either ruin you or bring out your full potential.  She definitely did the latter.  Even if she never really seemed to want me to jump, and allowed my English riding to look horribly Western (lol, no offense to Western, but it looks bad in an English saddle!), she brought me along to the point where, in stock seat, I believed I could ride pretty much anything short of a rodeo bronc.  She introduced me to training, to groundwork, to harnessing my energy and using it to direct the horse.  
• K., my second instructor, a college student getting a traditional degree after attending an equine school.  She spent most of her six-months-to-a-year with me fixing my English seat on the flat, but also managed to drill into my head that "Riders are athletes" and the importance of taking care of my physical fitness if I intended to be a good rider.  Plus setting a foundation of rhythm and relaxation around horses--something I still try to practice.
• S., third instructor, ex-Army girl, graduate of the same equine school as K., getting her masters' degree.  I spent two years with her before realizing that our personalities simply didn't match, and that that was causing riding to be more of a stressor than anything.  But she introduced me to jumping and settled my English seat both on the flat and over jumps. 
• The current Coach (whose name also starts with K, therefore the change to avoid confusion!)-- well, we joke she hasn't been to the Olympics, but she's done almost everything else.  What can I say.  So far, in six months, she has managed to rehab my confidence level, attitude, old-fashioned saddle "stickiness," and gotten me truly passionate about horses again.  All of which I thought were gone for good.  I love this lady!  

They've all taught me a lot though.  Some taught me mostly positive lessons; others taught me "what not to do."  Other random people have taught me one or the other also.  I guess it's a matter of learning what you can when you can, one way or the other.  And, of course, trying to be a positive teacher yourself.

Now let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow evening!