BHS Young Instructor

Over the last three years, the BHS Young Instructor of the Year competition has been developed to offer aspiring young instructors and coaches the opportunity to display and develop their coaching skills.

Continual Professional Development of instructors and coaches is an aim which the BHS is committed to achieving. Through its provision of a broad range of training courses, designed to improve both coaching skills and knowledge of the rider and horse as individual athletes, the Society hopes to encourage each individual to expand their talents and reach their full potential.

Each regional qualifier is utilised as a training day for a maximum of eight successfully selected applicants. These days also give you as an Instructor or Coach the opportunity to question, discuss and debate anything related to teaching and coaching skills with a Fellow of the BHS.

The 2009 Young Instructor of the Year was Richard Johnston-Smith from Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Richard, who is 28 and holds the BHSII, qualified at Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland. He said: “I’d planned to do this competition for the last two years, so I thought right; I’m going to go for it. I found it very beneficial because teaching can be a very lonely job in that you don’t often get praise or feedback of what you’ve done, so to have that has been great.

“People have said to me have you been nervous, and I’ve said yes I’m nervous only because I want to win. So to actually win is brilliant, I am in absolute shock – I can’t believe it!”

The finalists were required to teach private lessons lasting 30 minutes in both dressage and show jumping, and deliver a 15-minute presentation on various aspects of Stable Management. They were judged by a panel which comprised Judy Harvey FBHS, Caroline Moore FBHS and Nick Turner FBHS.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, Judy Harvey FBHS, said: “We were all young instructors once and so this is a great opportunity for us to give something back. It is exciting to see such promising young talent. The general standard of everyone was very high and impressed us all but we were all very clear in our decision about the winner, he was outstanding.”

Anyone interested in having a lesson with Richard can contact him on 07725 260691 or mail@richardjohnston.org.uk

Gemma Barry from Exmouth was the 2008 winner and had this to say about her experience: “Both the training day and the final have been fantastic. I found it extremely useful to be able to watch other people and gain new ideas. I would recommend the experience for anyone training towards BHS exams.”

Details of next year's competition coming soon