Circulating around the internet is an anonymous list of advice given by horse trainers as it might be applied to a variety of other situations. One such situation is gifted education. And anyone, including parents, who is familiar with gifted education may recognize the truth in the humor.

Improving Gifted Education

Common advice from knowledgeable horse trainers includes the adage, “If the horse you’re riding dies, get off.” This seems simple enough, yet in the education business, we don’t always follow this advice.

Instead, we often choose from an array of alternatives which include:

1. Switching riders
   
   
2. Moving the horse to a new location
   
   
3. Arranging to visit other sites where they ride dead horses more efficiently
   
   
4. Creating a new test for measuring riding ability
   
   
5. Saying things like, “This is the way we’ve always ridden this horse.”
   
   
6. Developing new styles of riding
   
   
7. Tightening the cinch
   
   
8. Appointing a committee to study the horse
   
   
9. Increasing standards for riding the horse
   
   
10. Blaming the horse’s parents. The problem is often in the breeding.