Clermont Equestrian - Premiere Peninsula Boarding, Training, Lessons

Coaches as mentors

March 19, 2010

When parents choose who will coach their son or daughter, they are really deciding who will have a major role model influence on them. It is like handing a key to the coach to shape the child's future - for better or worse.

Children and teenagers are very impressionable and looking for not just how to learn the piano, or master a sport like show jumping, but actually How to Live. So if they learn that certain bad behaviors or morals are 'OK' by their coach, it is very hard for parents to reverse that once it has become a learned behavior. Parents should consider such items as:

How honest is the coach?
What are their views on higher education?
Have they completed high school or college?
How are their family values?

All of these factors will be taken on by students, usually in a large way, especially after spending months or years under the care of the coach.