Is her instructor a bit mean?

[Kittenrush]

My 4 year old has recently started swimming lessons. She in a stage 1 total beginners class. First lesson she absolutely loved, they did basic stuff and she seemed to enjoy herself. She was the smallest there by far and presumably the youngest. The other children all seemed to have had lessons previously and were confident in the water, she wasn’t and needed the pole and a lot of support (which I noticed seem to annoy the instructor a little) but nonetheless she really seemed to enjoy herself and couldn’t wait to go back the next week.
Second week my husband took her and said it was awful. The woman was quite short with her and kept taking the pole away when she wasn’t ready. She’s obviously supported by pool floats etc but he said she was terrified and spent a lot of the lesson crying/swallowing water. She’s now quite upset about the prospect of going back. Is it unreasonable to expect support in a stage 1 swimming lesson? I am all for her being pushed and encouraged but she’s no wet blanket and wouldn’t have cried without a really good reason. Is she too little? Should I pull her? Teach her myself? Or have a little chat with the instructor maybe?

Completely agree with pp, swimming instructors can be bullies or just totally don't understand children. Don't doubt your judgement just because they are the instructor. We have seen many instructors (moved a lot) and the ones who 'get' the kids and can meet them where they are,and take them on from there, achieve huge progress, the rest are often doing damage to some children.
I think your daughter will get over this, personally I'd have a chat with her and say the instructor didn't really understand the support she needed and had treated her like someone in level 2. So you aren't going to put her with that person again and will find someone who understands her skills (in a way she can understand) Slant the chat so it seems like the instructor just made a mistake not that she was mean. We had a similar situation which knocked my ds confidence and acknowledging it and putting it into context seemed to help him process it so he could find the confidence to try again. He's ok now. His instructor was a total bitch, an excellent junior swimmer who had excelled from a young age, probably didn't even remember not being able to swim... Thus had no appreciation of anyone who wasn't a natural and her contempt was palpable, not one smile or single encouraging word just liquid hate. The best instructor he ever had was a similar age to the horrid one but had only learnt to swim as an older teen and as such remembered exactly what the learning felt like and instinctively broke it down into manageable chunks.
Both worked at the same pool. I complained about the first.

@RealisticSketch I completely agree with you. After chatting with some people there really do seem to be some awful instructors out there.
We’ve done exactly this and just explained that her instructor wasn’t the right fit. Rather than getting her back up about it.
DH is going to teach her for now and they are both very excited so it all worked out in the end!