Finding the right instructor

[Nuggetz]

Hello all, I’m hoping some of you very knowledgable people can give me some advice.

I bought my first horse a little over a year ago, I stable him at the riding school where I re-learnt to ride (simply because I wanted the support being a first time owner, the other liveries have been great). He’s been a superstar and we recently competed in our first competition and got third place at a Hunter trail (this is irrelevant to the story but I’m absolutely over the moon as I lack confidence and never thought we could achieve that!) Anyway, I’m feeling a little stuck in my lessons.

I have a weekly lesson and I want to progress with my jumping, i’d love to get out competing but as our school is small I want more experience at bigger venues. Alas, I have no transport and there’s no one else at my yard I can go with. I’d also like to find a proper showing jumping coach, one that actually cares about helping me progress / can help me set goals / give me things to work on at home (do these kind of people exist or have been deluded by what I see on Instagram). I feel like this is genuinely missing from my current lessons, they don’t seem bothered about helping me to improve, when I ask what I can work on on my own in the week, they just say things like ‘oh just have fun’. And so I feel like I’m making little progress.

So my question is, has anyone hired transport to take them to a lesson and back again? How much would this even cost, and how do I go about finding a reputable coach?

Where abouts in the country are you I might be able to recommend people?

Would private lessons be an option at the riding school? I’ve found that group lessons aren’t that great for being able to get advice on what to practice. Private lessons are obviously more expensive so I don’t always have one a week, but I feel I get so much more out of them.

I’m based on the East Sussex / Kent border - if you’re near that would be great!

I do have private lessons each week but feel what I learn is quite limiting.

Perhaps you would be better off moving to somewhere that does / is closer ( hackable ) to somewhere that does regular clinics / shows .

Yep I feel you I think that riding school instructors are a very different breed to proper coaches.
I’m in the north west unfortunately but I’d recommend Alex Hudson in Kent. She’s nice, super qualified and happy to work with riders of all levels. She’d be my recommendation for someone relatively novice wanting a proper coach

We didn’t have our own transport when my daughter first got her horse so we’d hire transport - our old yard owner used to offer transport in his trailer and would charge by the mile plus waiting time - depending on the distance it would cost anything from £60 to £100 for an outing. Sounds expensive but it’s cheaper than running a horse box,

In order to find an instructor you like, could you join a local riding club? Or go to a few clinics at competition venues (these will be advertised on local Facebook horsey pages) and try out a few. You won’t gel with all of them but should find someone whose teaching style you like. Lots of instructors travel to you but check with your yard if they let outside instructors teach there - quite a few riding schools won’t.