Dear Frankie,

I would love to take some lessons with you one day! I think that you are an amazing rider and I hope to be just like you when I grow up! I hope that you can help me with my problem, I am 13 years old and I have been riding for about three years. I have been with the same coach from the time I started riding until now and I am thinking of switching coaches to a different one because I think that my current coach has taken me as far as she can.

What do you suggest I say to my coach so that I will not hurt her feelings?

Thank you very much,
Sincerely,

Sarah Gellham,
Victoria, BC

Dear Sarah,

Thank you for your letter. I enjoy riding so much and I am glad that you also love it as much as I do.

To answer your question, I would first have to say that you should make sure that you are not trying to put the 'cart before the horse' with the thinking that you have out grown your coach. Unless your coach is very young and inexperienced you might want to stick with her a little longer instead of jumping from coach to coach. There are so many things to be learned from different coaches. I think that what you should do is sit down and talk to her about your worries and concerns. After that see if she will work with you on a plan of action for the next six months of training and showing, putting everything down on paper so that you have a plan to follow.

Once you have sat down with her and put together a plan, if you are still unhappy then you should look for another coach. Don't worry about 'hurting her feelings', as long as you are up front and honest with her about why you are leaving, and leave on good terms, there should be no reason why you can't carry on the 'friendship' that you might have created with her over the last three years you were with her.

Good Luck with all of your future horse endeavours.

Sincerely,

Frankie Chesler