Rider and Trainer: How to Overcome the Language Barrier? (Jumping Lesson)

Why do riders sometimes struggle to understand their trainers?

First, I will address the female riders. Many of you are probably familiar with this situation. You have male trainers, and sometimes you just can't quite get it. 

Most of the time, they ask the impossible, and you just shake your head: "What do they want?"

But what about male riders? Do they face the same issue? No, because most jumping trainers are men. Therefore, male riders generally have fewer issues with their male trainers during jumping lessons than women, even though there are more female riders than male riders. You could say that the guys understand each other perfectly. But what happens when a man has a female trainer?

Not that it happens very often, but theoretically, could it even work?

So, now that we've complained a bit about how, as female riders, we don't have it easy with our trainers because women trainers and riders are from Venus and male trainers and riders are from Mars, let's explore why this is the case. 

If you're not a rider who enjoys the thrill of charging towards a jump on horseback, you might want to choose a female trainer rather than a male one. Women tend to be calmer in adrenaline sports by nature. However, this might not be the main reason why men and women, as trainers and riders, struggle to understand each other. Let's try to find another explanation.

And here it is: the training language barrier arises because men and women, due to their biological differences, have a different perspective on overcoming a jump. Not just emotionally, but, importantly, they have different views on the technique for clearing a jump and moving around the course.

First, men generally have excellent spatial awareness and orientation, and their strong point is their ability to judge distances from a distance. This is something women have difficulty competing with, due to the biological differences in our brains and thinking. But ladies, take note! Women, on the other hand, have a more refined visual orientation, particularly for close-up viewing, and can process a broader range of what they see compared to men.

So, to summarize: a rider, when heading towards a jump with their horse, can assess the required speed for the approach and quickly orient themselves on the course, while female riders are better at orienting themselves in the vicinity of the jump. Similarly, women are more sensitive to even the slightest hesitation from the horse, which influences their decision on the takeoff, compared to male riders.

This is why female riders tend to make up their mind about the approach to a jump earlier, while men often jump with a horse that isn't quite prepared, and it still works out for them. This is one reason why male riders tend to be more successful than female riders, and even among women, male riders are more consistent. Men are generally more balanced among themselves in this regard.

And that is the first reason for the disconnect in training when the trainer and the trainee are of different genders, as they have a different approach to overcoming a jump and to jump preparation in general.

Another significant difference is in the style of jumping, where male and female riders adopt slightly different body positions over the jump due to their differing biological body structure and center of gravity.

On the other hand, when we look at it as a whole, why couldn't it work for male trainers and riders from Mars and female trainers and riders from Venus to come together? In fact, we can complement each other and learn from one another.

14.1.2025

Michel Jaonpeev Mares

Would you like to share your thoughts on the article? Write them in the link below, and we'll be happy to publish them. Do you have a question about the topic of the article? Join our community on Discord, where you'll be warmly welcomed.