"Journaling is one of the greatest and most underused learning tools in a rider's tool kit," says Rachel Saavedra, a USDF Senior Faculty Member and FEI trainer.  Rachel, a passionate journaller, has inspired many of her own students to journal. How she inspires them so naturally, so gracefully, so thoughtfully, so artistically, is the subject of this news post.  

In our interview, Rachel tells us she waits for the right moment to suggest journaling to her students.  That moment is when the student is asking for clarification of something that almost requires writing to remember....it could be the first lesson, but often is when the relationship is further established.  "I don't push journaling, I invite it.  Not all of my students do it and we don't do it all the time.  We do it when we are inspired.  and the more we do it, the more we are inspired."

Because Rachel leads by example, we decided to create a sponsorship called the Saavedra Journaling Sponsorship.  Her student Laura Dwyer is the recipient and is now journaling in a public online notebook at Barnby Notes.  Rachel comments on Laura's entries.  Their dialogue is information rich, engaging, thought-provoking.  In fact, it triggered founder of Barnby Notes to schedule a road trip for two lessons with Rachel.  

Rachel's participation at Barnby Notes does not stop with Laura.  She has also entered into a professional dialogue with one of our first public notebook authors, Jessica Rattner. The dialogue takes place inside Jessica’s notebook. 

We wanted to know more about how Rachel does it.  How she inspires others to journal when journaling is often viewed as too time consuming.  And in our interview she explained her approach.  Rachel brings up journaling when there is a particularly interesting bit of theory, an exercise, a drawing in the sand, a demonstration, or a story. “I look for something that seems to resonate with the student-- a special breakthrough feeling or realization. That is when I encourage the student to write it down.” By writing it down, Rachel explains to the student, she will remember it better.  “I also tell her not to worry if she can’t remember exactly what I said. I say, ‘Just write down what you remember in the language that works for you.’ ” The record can be in sentences or pictures, thoughts or outlines. By writing it down and checking the journal entry before the next ride, she tells that student that it will help her to remember about the good stuff, and remind her to ask questions about those things that were less clear.

The journaling process with her students is a two way street. Rachel will often journal about the lesson herself, and use that entry as a basis for starting a discussion at the beginning of the next lesson. “Sometimes my students bring me their journals to read and check for clarity. Sometimes I copy the pages in my journal about a lesson and share them with the student. It is a way to model journaling. It’s also a tool for me to teach the subject again in a way that might work better for the student.” And if once is good, twice is even better. “I encourage a rewrite so that in the second pass the student will be able to fill in more details and trace how we moved from one thing to the next.”

When Rachel is working with trainers and teachers as students, such as those in the USDF workshops she teaches (for the USDF Instructor/Trainer Certification Program), Rachel also encourages using journal entries both as a means to create exercises to be used in lessons and to clarify concepts to call upon when teaching. “The journal is, for them, a place to describe their lessons and through repetition and revision, develop a concise version of each lesson segment.” Rachel has developed a shorthand for herself for many such segments, and a logical order in which to utilize them. “Once that happens, a teacher can journal about her lessons more concisely by just referring to segments in shorthand, and only noting the interesting or unusual results of the individual horse or student.”

In regards to the sponsorship, Laura will journal every six weeks for one year and Rachel is pleased that this formal project will offer a greater incentive to really focus on journaling both for her and her student.  Laura was her choice for the scholarship because they have been working together for a long time and, though Laura is a dedicated journaller already, she has difficulty finding a flow for her entries.  "I think this project will be a good incentive fore us to work together on her journaling skills so that her journal entries come as easily as the conversations that we have after the lessons."  says Rachel.  Readers will have an opportunity to experience the challenges, explorations and breakthroughs with Laura as she develops the Grand Prix work with her Oldenburg stallion Laitin.