It isn't technique or fear that are the most difficult things for me to get over or work with. With practice, I can get the technique. With mind tricks, I can work with fear. What I have trouble with is memory recall. Some things, I can find tricks to remember. Other things, I just have a mental block, like Vx and Vy. I know the differences and numbers for the bird I fly, just which number goes with which letter is hitting a block most of the time, which is strange because that's not the usual kind of thing I block against. It's usually numbers themselves I can't recall, not relations to letters. I've been learning a lot more about how I learn lately. It's making me be more aware of how I need to approach riding students.
Which brings me to some of the most rewarding students. The riding students I find the most rewarding aren't necessarily the ones that say they want to be horse trainers and instructors when they grow up. The ones I feel the most pride for are the ones who encounter difficulty and work hard to overcome that difficulty. I see fear almost daily. The riders I enjoy the most are the ones who have fear but find the mental tools they need to accomplish necessary tasks. The love of what they are doing greatly outweighs the fear. I love seeing students learn how to use their own bodies. Let me explain. Many kids have to look at their toes to tell me if their toes are higher than their heels when they start. Once they get their toes in place, they're leaning over, forgotten where their shoulders should be, sit back, and the feet stick forward to the horse's shoulders. Suddenly the human body becomes a thousand piece puzzle that is often taken for granted that all it's parts will just naturally be where they need to be, doing what they need to be doing. On a thousand pounds of horse, the human body CAN'T be taken for granted, it's too easy to topple off. It's wonderous to see a sixty pound child who can barely lift her own saddle learn how to not only stay on a thousand pound horse, but form enough partnership with the horse to get around a jump course, controlling approach speed, planning where to be way ahead and putting the horse there. I wish I had videos of first jumps, looks of absolute terror followed by huge grins. The first teeny crossrail, with it's center an inch off the ground, is often the largest obsticle they'll ever have to leap over. Usually the horse doesn't even jump, just picks his feet up higher, but has to stay in the trot, so the feeling is of lifting over the poles. From then on, up and over is mainly filled with anticipation of glee on the other side, the more air time, the more glee, and looking forward to new challenges to master.
I might tell my views teaching adults later. The ones that have stuck with me are just as rewarding as the kids. All three are pilots, one in Flight Standards, one an award winning medical professor/pathologist, the other is in the beginning stages of being a riding student, very enthusiastic. I'm meeting the third at the airport today because she's never been to this particular field, hasn't flown recently, and I want to show her around, introduce her to people, and encourage her to get current again. They're all older than I am, and I adore them for having faith in me to teach them, though my own instructor is about twice my age, and I like it that way.
I had trouble with stalls too. Who doesn't feel it isn't quite right to make the airplane NOT fly? I preferred power-off stalls over power-on, puzzling to my cfi. He thought power-on would be preferred because of just lowering the nose and flying away opposed to the extra steps in recovering from stalling in landing configuration. The breakover would freak me out. I rode with someone else once who stressed recovering at the horn or buffet, not letting the nose drop. I think my cfi got tickled when I recovered at first buffet and he told me to stall it deeper next time. I said cheerfully, "OK, I can do that!" And did it without hesitation. I always go through all the steps, touching each control and indicator before each maneuver, before performing it, just a hint to try sometime. The right seat occupant often likes to see the mental process played out, imho.
Fly it like you mean it.
