Flossy is well known to many on the British Dressage Forum as a teller of interesting stories and perhaps the odd joke or two. We have selected a few tales for your pleasure.

Supportive Trainer

Recent threads on BD forum demonstrated how ill equipped dressage trainers are to deal with all circumstances , of our time, which they are confronted with .
In the passed a good trainer was expected to give good solid practical instruction in dressage , today instructors are required to have expertise in subjects that the older generation would not even admit existed,
As the majority of present students are ladies a through knowledge of female anatomy and ladies undergarment is a pre requisite to be a good trainer.
A forum post high lighted how an ignorant trainer can cause all sort of injuries to ladies nether parts by insisting they ride in a classical position ,which obviously was invented by men for men , it is an advantage for ladies if their trainer can demonstrate that he has the personal knowledge and experience of female conformation , Unfortunately such person is not easily found among British dressage trainers. (may long it continue).
It is not only knowledge of anatomy which is required but also knowledge of ladies underpants and how they effect ones riding . One young dressage trainer (of the rare variety) decided that in order to be able to give better advice to his female students he should have 1st hand experience of ladies under wear. It took some explaining when he got caught at Contessa ladies wear rummaging and trying several items of lingerie , his excuse that it was only for his Continues Personal Development did raise some eye browse.
It is no longer sufficient for a trainer to conclude a lesson by saying “you rode well , see you next week “ .
Modern trainers has to be supportive, positive and available 24/7/365 and believe me it does take its toll when in the middle of the night at 2am the phone ring, in a panic you answer it (who died what's wrong flashing in your mind) on the other side was a student that just wanted to thank for the wonderful lesson she had ,
“for Christ sake the lesson was 8 am this morning did you have to wait until midnight to tell me” , “I only realized what a positive feel I had THANK YOUUUUU”. and you the trainer must stay positive and supportive although you know that the travelling anxiety, mounting problems or door kicking problems all refer to this ladies husband and not her horse, you as a dressage trainer must have the answers, all included in the one lesson fee.
Luckily there are courses and organizations to help one learn to deal with these difficulties,
UKCC prepare modern trainers for modern times, it helps ordinary instructors to become positive coaches with modern skills to help ambitious students to achieve their goal to get all the way to the top, provided it is not on a Sunday or other good day.
Many older trainers enrol on these courses and find them very beneficial.
In the latest UKCC course , The practice lesson Senior Trainer was taking was coming to its end, The volunteer rider halted in front of the mirror and in a very deflated tone of voice said “ I look like shit to day, look at my legs they are all over the place”, Senior Trainer nodded his head in agreement as she continued “I am so crooked no horse can go straight with me on top” another nod of head from Senior Trainer , “ look at my hands they are so stiff” another nod “my horse is not even on the bit” nod of head , “and I am over weight and my hair a mess”, through the whimpers and tears the rider cried “I might as well give up, I am going to give up, I can see in the mirror all the things you said are true”
At this point the UKCC course director approached Senior Trainer and said “ this is your opportunity to put into practice what we learnt in this course find some thing positive to tell this lady”
Senior Trainer walked towards the demoralized student and said in a loud enough voice that all the 325 spectators heard “YOU HAVE GOT VERY GOOD EYE SIGHT dear “