Rider Guide

RiderCoachConnect - Student Guide

Welcome to RiderCoachConnect! This guide will walk you through everything you need to know as a student to get the most out of the platform.

Getting Started
Your Dashboard
Ride Diary
Logging a Ride
Requesting a Trainer Review
Goals
Community Board
Events
Homework
Notifications
Settings
Suggestions

Getting Started

Signing Up

You need an invite code from your trainer to create an account. Once you have one:

Go to the RiderCoachConnect website.
Click Sign Up.
Select I'm a Student.
Enter your invite code, name, email, and password.
Click Sign Up to create your account.

You can also sign up with Google by clicking Sign up with Google after selecting your role and entering the invite code.

Logging In

Once you have an account, visit the website and log in with your email/password or Google account. You'll be taken straight to your student dashboard.

The sidebar on the left gives you access to everything:

Dashboard - Your home screen with stats and recent activity
Ride Diary - Log and browse your rides
Goals - Set and track your riding goals
Community - Share updates with your barn
Events - View barn events and RSVP
Suggestions - Send feedback to the app team
Settings - Manage your profile

On mobile, tap the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top-left corner to open the sidebar.

Your Dashboard

The dashboard is your home screen. At a glance, you can see:

Total Rides - How many rides you've logged
Ride Hours - Total time you've spent in the saddle
Pending Reviews - Rides waiting for trainer feedback

Below the stats, you'll find:

Homework - Any assignments from your trainer, with the ability to mark them complete
Recent Rides - Your last 5 rides, clickable to view full details

If you haven't logged any rides yet, you'll see a prompt to get started.

Ride Diary

The Ride Diary is the heart of your RiderCoachConnect experience. This is where you log rides, reflect on your training, and review feedback from your trainer.

Browsing Your Rides

Navigate to Ride Diary in the sidebar. You'll see:

A mini calendar on the left showing the current month. Days with rides are marked with dots. Click a day to filter your rides.
Your ride list on the right, showing each ride as a card with the date, horse, duration, ride type, tags, and review status.

Use the arrows on the calendar to navigate between months.

Viewing Ride Details

Click any ride card to see the full details:

Date, time, ride type, duration, and horse
Your notes and any notes you left for your trainer
Photos and videos you attached
Tags you added
Review status and trainer feedback (if reviewed)

From the detail view, you can Edit or Delete the ride.

Logging a Ride

Click the Log Ride button (the green button with a plus icon) at the bottom-right of the Ride Diary page.

Required Fields

Date - When did you ride?
Ride Type - Lesson, Hack, Show, or another type
Duration - How long was your ride (in minutes)?
Horse - Which horse did you ride?

Optional Fields

Time - What time did you ride?
Notes - How did the ride go? What did you work on? This is your space to reflect.
Notes for your trainer - Anything specific you want your trainer to see
Tags - Categorize your ride (e.g., flatwork, jumping, dressage, canter transitions). These help track what you're working on over time.
Media - Upload photos and videos from your ride

The idea is to keep required fields minimal so you can log quickly on busy days, but use the optional fields to reflect more deeply when you have time.

Tips for Great Ride Entries

Be honest in your notes -- write what went well and what was challenging
Add tags consistently so you can track your progress in specific areas
Upload videos of exercises you want your trainer to review
Use "Notes for your trainer" to ask specific questions or flag areas you need help with

Requesting a Trainer Review

When you want formal feedback on a ride, you can request a review from your trainer.

How to Request

Open a ride entry from your Ride Diary
Scroll to the Request Trainer Review section at the bottom
If you have multiple trainers (primary and guest trainers), select which trainer you'd like to review the ride
Click Request Review

What Happens Next

Your trainer receives a notification and the ride appears in their review queue. You'll see the status on your ride entry:

Review Requested - Your trainer hasn't started yet
In Review - Your trainer is working on it
Reviewed - Feedback is ready!

Reading Trainer Feedback

Once your trainer completes their review, you'll receive a notification. Open the ride entry to see:

Text comments - General feedback on your ride
Ratings - Overall grade (A-F) and optional category breakdowns for Position, Control, and Progress
Exercises - Follow-up exercises your trainer recommends

Goals

Goals help you stay focused and track your progress over time. Navigate to Goals in the sidebar.

Creating a Goal

Click Create Goal and choose from three types:

Text Goal

A simple goal with a title and optional deadline. Great for open-ended goals like "Improve my two-point position" or "Feel more confident at canter."

Structured Goal

Track measurable progress linked to your ride tags. For example:

"Log 20 hours of flatwork this quarter"
"Complete 10 jumping sessions by June"

Set a target value and unit (hours, rides, or sessions), and link it to specific tags. Your progress updates automatically as you log rides with matching tags.

Milestone Journey

A step-by-step checklist for bigger goals. For example:

"Journey to my first show"
Step 1: Complete 5 jumping lessons
Step 2: Practice a dressage test
Step 3: Enter a schooling show
Step 4: Compete!

Check off milestones as you achieve them.

Tracking Progress

All goal types support notes -- add journal entries along the way to document your journey, record insights, or celebrate wins.

Community Board

The Community Board is a shared space for everyone in your barn. Navigate to Community in the sidebar.

> Note: You need to be part of a barn (through your trainer) to access the community.

Viewing Posts

The feed shows posts from all barn members in reverse chronological order. Each post shows who wrote it, when, and any photos or videos they attached.

Creating a Post

Click New Post
Write your update -- share a win, ask a question, or post a reflection
Optionally attach photos or videos
Click Post

Interacting

Like a post by clicking the heart icon
Comment on a post by clicking the comment icon and typing your reply
Delete your own posts if needed

Events

View barn events like shows, clinics, and group rides. Navigate to Events in the sidebar.

Viewing Events

The calendar shows the current month with event titles on their respective dates. Click a date to see full event details including:

Event title
Time and location
Description
Who's attending

RSVP

Click the RSVP button on any event to mark yourself as attending. Click again to remove your RSVP. You can see how many people are going and view the attendee list.

Homework

Your trainer can assign homework -- exercises or tasks to work on between lessons.

Where to Find Homework

Homework assignments appear on your Dashboard under the Homework section. You can also see them on your student profile (visible to your trainer).

Completing Homework

When you've finished an assignment, click Complete to mark it done. Your trainer will be notified.

Each homework item includes:

A title and description from your trainer
A due date
Related tags (if applicable)

Notifications

The notification bell in the top bar shows your unread notification count. Click it to go to the Notifications page.

You'll receive notifications when:

Your trainer leaves feedback on a ride
Someone comments on or likes your community post
Your trainer assigns new homework
Barn events are posted

Click a notification to jump to the related content. Use Mark all as read to clear your unread count.

Push Notifications

When prompted, allow browser notifications to receive real-time alerts even when you're not on the page.

Settings

Navigate to Settings in the sidebar to manage your account.

Profile

Profile Photo - Click to upload a new photo
Display Name - Update your name
Email - Displayed but cannot be changed
Role - Shows "student" (cannot be changed)

Click Save Changes after making updates.

Invite a Parent

Generate invite codes so your parents can view your progress:

Optionally enter who the code is for (e.g., "Mom", "Dad")
Click Generate Parent Invite Code
Copy the code and share it with your parent

Your parent will use this code to sign up and can then view your rides, goals, homework, and trainer feedback in a read-only view.

The table below shows all invite codes you've generated and their status (pending, accepted, or expired).

Log Out

Click the red Log Out button at the bottom to sign out.

Suggestions

Have an idea for how to make RiderCoachConnect better? Navigate to Suggestions in the sidebar, type your feedback, and click Submit Suggestion. We read every submission.

Quick Reference

| I want to... | Go to... | |---|---| | Log a ride | Ride Diary > Log Ride button | | Get trainer feedback | Ride detail > Request Trainer Review | | Set a goal | Goals > Create Goal | | Share something with my barn | Community > New Post | | See upcoming events | Events | | Check my homework | Dashboard | | Invite my parent | Settings > Invite a Parent | | Update my profile | Settings | | Send feedback about the app | Suggestions |