The pedagogical triangle

In the pedagogical process in horse riding, there is always a three way relationship: the rider, his horse, and an instructor. The horse can be either the pupil or the teacher depending on the situation, but he is always the partner of the two human beings. The horse therefore has his own relationship to knowledge, to the environment, and his own relationship to the human pupil, and instructor.

For example, when I’m teaching a novice or intermediate rider, I need a well schooled horse that I then consider as my colleague. In this situation the horse is even more of a school master than I am, as he will make the rider feel when his actions are appropriate. On the other hand, when working with a young horse and an experienced rider, the horse is the pupil with a rider on his back.

Teacher – knowledge axis: Didactics

The axis “teacher-knowledge” in the pedagogical triangle is called didactics. Didactics is how the teacher transforms his knowledge and know-how into something “teachable”, “learnable”. To train others to do something, I must have something to transmit. Teaching is not just team leading. I must have knowledge and know-how, and experience.

But this experience, this knowledge is not enough, I need to transform then into something my pupils will be able to understand, to make it accessible to them. This is called didactic transformation, simplifying, ability to establish a progression, exercises for each step, for each stage. Every teacher needs to build his own didactic method.

Learner- knowledge axis: learning curve

The other two axes are dedicated to the learner-knowledge axis. The teacher teaches, the pupil learns. When I am teaching, the most important thing to be aware of is whether my pupil is learning. To improve my teaching, I try to understand how the pupil learns.

As a mammal, I can consider man to be an animal among others. In fact we do have a lot of things in common with our horses. They share our emotions, some of our sensory perceptions, and vital functions. In the same way as for the horse, for there to be a learning curve, we need motivation, confidence, time to understand, progression in the exercise, appropriate breaks, repetition and consistency (spreading the learning process, memorization and automation phenomena).

But as a distinct species we also have significant differences in comprehension, communication and survival instincts.

Man is a thinking being endowed with the faculty of speech. The human being is capable of assimilating an action, whatever the ways and means of learning. We are endowed with this possibility because of our almost infinite adaptability, which stems from a “pre-mature” state which a child is in at birth.

Thus our pupils need aims, need intentions to project themselves into the future. It is these aims, the search to better themselves that gives a meaning, a direction to their actions. When my pupil learns something, he needs to understand and become aware of his learning curve. Their can be no learning without awareness, we do not learn unconsciously.

The teacher-pupil axis : pedagogy

There can be no teaching without pedagogy. To teach properly, I need to have “knowledge” to pass on, to put into a precise order to promote the learner’s assimilation. Being a good pedagogue means being aware of the differences between each of the pupils, their individual attention span, their rhythm, their age, their level, their comprehension faculty, their emotions… within their learning process.

Pedagogy represents the relationship between the pupil, the horse and the teacher. Even if the teacher is not the main element in the training process, the main element should remain the rider and his horse, the teacher is nevertheless a centerpiece in the progression. The teacher has two main parts to play:

• Have the pupil learn the fundamentals of horse riding.
• Have the pupil learn to love horse and riding.

The question as to whether one can teach and train someone against their will, or whether one should on the contrary base teaching on the individual’s motivation to get him to improve. This sums up the question of the pedagogical approach: impose one’s teachings, or meet expectations?  I am partisan of meeting expectations by marking out the steps, fixing aims to meet, fixing the rules of the game, and by not mistaking being non directive, with “laissez-faire”.

The teacher, learning curve facilitator

The aim is to make the rider autonomous, because we will have given him our knowledge and know-how. It is important to be in the relationship, i.e to be capable of listening, speaking…

Listening should be empathetic, in that one should listen to understand just with the aim of helping others.

Every rider should have the feeling that he is being trained for himself, that the teacher is there for him and is giving him all his attention.

The most important is meeting, exchanging, sharing which refers us back to a major challenge which is to build a sum of knowledge together based on accepting and feeling enriched by the other person. It is above all the human and equine relationship which a source of motivation and personal development.

Horse riding is not merely a technical apprenticeship, but a school of personal conduct, listening to partners, and respecting others. Beyond the mere practice of horse-riding lies a culture, ethics, a philosophy, which can be a genuine conveyor of social transformation.