Trainer Guide (v1.1)

RiderCoachConnect - Trainer Guide

Welcome to RiderCoachConnect! This guide will walk you through everything you need to know as a trainer to manage your students, provide feedback, and run your barn.

Table of Contents

  1. Getting Started
  2. Review Queue
  3. Reviewing a Ride
  4. Your Students
  5. Student Profile & Progress
  6. Pro Rides
  7. Assigning Homework
  8. Barn Management
  9. Events Calendar
  10. Community Board
  11. Notifications
  12. Settings
  13. Suggestions

Getting Started

Signing Up

Trainers can sign up independently -- no invite code required.

  1. Go to the RiderCoachConnect website.
  2. Click Sign Up.
  3. Select I'm a Trainer.
  4. Enter your name, email, and password.
  5. Click Sign Up to create your account.

You can also sign up with Google by clicking Sign up with Google after selecting your role.

First Steps After Signing Up

  1. Create a Barn - Go to Settings > Barn Settings (or the Barn page in the sidebar) to create your barn. Give it a name and you'll become the barn owner.
  2. Invite Students - From the Barn page, generate student invite codes and share them with your students.
  3. Invite Other Trainers - If you're the barn owner, you can generate trainer invite codes to add other coaches to your barn.

The sidebar on the left gives you access to everything:

  • Review Queue - Your primary workspace for reviewing student rides
  • Students - View all connected students and their progress
  • Calendar - Barn events and scheduling
  • Community - Barn-wide bulletin board
  • Barn - Manage your barn, invite codes, and team
  • 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.

Review Queue

The Review Queue is your primary view -- it's the first thing you see when you log in. It works like a Kanban board with three columns.

Overview Stats

At the top, three metric cards show:

  • Pending Reviews - New submissions waiting for you
  • In Review - Rides you've started reviewing
  • Completed This Month - How many reviews you've finished this month

The Board

New Column

Rides where a student has requested your review. Each card shows:

  • Student name
  • Ride date and horse
  • Ride type badge
  • Number of tags and media attachments
  • Start Review button

In Progress Column

Rides where you've started but haven't finished your review. Cards show a Continue Review button.

Completed Column

Reviews you've submitted. Cards show a View button to revisit your feedback.

Workflow

Click any card to open the review detail page. As you work through reviews, cards move from New to In Progress to Completed.

Reviewing a Ride

When you click a review card, you'll see a two-column layout:

Left Side - Ride Details (Read-Only)

Everything the student logged:

  • Date, ride type, duration, and horse
  • Student notes - Their reflection on the ride
  • Notes for you - Anything they specifically wanted you to see
  • Media - Photos and videos from the ride (click to expand)
  • Tags - What they worked on

Right Side - Your Feedback Form

This is where you provide your review:

Comments

A text area for your written feedback. Be specific -- reference what you saw in their notes or media.

Ratings

Four optional letter grades (A through F):

  • Overall - General assessment of the ride
  • Position - Seat, hands, legs, posture
  • Control - Steering, tempo, transitions
  • Progress - Improvement toward their goals

Leave any rating blank if it doesn't apply.

Exercises / Follow-up

Add specific exercises or tasks for the student to work on:

  1. Type an exercise in the input field
  2. Click Add or press Enter
  3. Repeat for additional exercises
  4. Click the x on any exercise to remove it

Saving Your Review

You have two options:

  • Save & Mark In Progress - Save your work as a draft and come back later. The card moves to the "In Progress" column.
  • Submit Feedback - Finalize and send your feedback. The student receives a notification immediately, and the card moves to "Completed."

You can update previously submitted feedback at any time by reopening the review and clicking Update Feedback.

Your Students

Navigate to Students in the sidebar to see all students connected to you. Each student card shows their name, ride count, and last ride date.

If no students are connected yet, you'll see instructions to generate invite codes from Barn Settings.

Click any student to open their full profile.

Student Profile & Progress

The student profile gives you a comprehensive view of each student's training. This data is auto-generated from their ride diary -- you don't need to compile anything manually.

Stats Overview

Five cards across the top:

| Stat | What It Shows | |---|---| | Total Rides | Number of rides logged | | Total Hours | Sum of all ride durations | | Last Ride | Date of their most recent ride | | Homework | Completed vs. total assignments | | Active Goals | Number of goals in progress |

Charts

  • Rides per Month - Visualizes riding frequency over time. Useful for spotting drops in activity.
  • Most Used Tags - Shows what the student is working on most. Helps you identify focus areas or gaps.

Homework

See all assigned homework and its status. You can assign new homework directly from this page (see Assigning Homework).

Goals

View the student's active goals, including their type, progress, and any notes they've added.

Ride Diary

Browse all of the student's rides. Click any ride to open the review page -- even rides where the student hasn't formally requested a review. Pro Rides are marked with an amber Pro Ride badge.

Pro Rides

A Pro Ride is when you ride a student's horse to train the horse directly. Pro Rides appear in the student's ride diary so both of you have a complete record of the horse's training.

Logging a Pro Ride

  1. Navigate to Students in the sidebar
  2. Click the student whose horse you're riding
  3. Click the Log Pro Ride button (top right of their profile)
  4. Fill in the ride details:
  • Date and Time (optional)
  • Ride Type - Lesson, Hack, Show, etc.
  • Duration - How long you rode
  • Horse - Which horse
  • Notes - What you worked on with the horse
  • Tags and Media (optional)
  1. Click Log Pro Ride

The "Notes for your trainer" field is not shown for Pro Rides since you are the trainer.

How Pro Rides Appear

  • In the student's ride diary: an amber Pro Ride badge on the card
  • In ride detail views: "Pro Ride by [Your Name]" badge
  • Parents can also see Pro Rides in their read-only view
  • Pro Rides count toward the student's total ride stats and hours

Assigning Homework

From a student's profile page, click Assign Homework to create a new assignment.

Fields

  • Title (required) - A short name for the assignment (e.g., "Practice two-point position")
  • Description (required) - Detailed instructions for the student
  • Due Date (required) - When it should be completed by
  • Tags (optional) - Link the homework to specific skills

When you submit, the student receives a notification. You'll be notified when they mark it complete.

Tracking Completion

On the student's profile, homework is split into:

  • Pending - Assignments not yet completed
  • Completed - Finished assignments with completion dates

Barn Management

Navigate to Barn in the sidebar to manage your barn.

Creating a Barn

If you haven't created a barn yet, you'll see a form to enter your barn name. Click Create and you become the barn owner.

Barn Overview

Once created, you'll see:

  • Your barn name
  • A list of all trainers in the barn, with the owner marked

Inviting People

Inviting Students

Under "Invite a Student":

  1. Optionally enter who the code is for (e.g., "Sarah", "James")
  2. Click Generate Student Invite
  3. Copy the code and send it to your student

Students use this code when signing up to automatically connect to you as their primary trainer.

Inviting Trainers (Barn Owner Only)

If you're the barn owner, you'll also see "Invite a Trainer":

  1. Optionally enter who the code is for
  2. Click Generate Trainer Invite
  3. Copy the code and send it to the trainer

When they sign up with this code, they're automatically added to your barn.

Tracking Invites

Below the generators, a table shows all invite codes you've generated with:

| Column | Description | |---|---| | Code | The invite code | | For | Who you generated it for (the label you entered) | | Role | Student or Trainer | | Status | Pending, Accepted, or Expired | | Expires | Expiration date (7 days from generation) |

Events Calendar

Navigate to Calendar in the sidebar to manage barn events.

Viewing the Calendar

The monthly calendar view shows all barn events. Days with events display event titles as colored pills. Click any date to see full details for that day's events.

Creating an Event

  1. Click Create Event at the top of the page
  2. Fill in the details:
  • Title (required) - Name of the event
  • Description (optional) - Additional details
  • Date (required) - When the event takes place
  • Time (optional) - Start time
  • Location (optional) - Where it's happening
  1. Click Create

All barn members (trainers, students, and parents) will be able to see the event on their calendars.

Managing Events

For events you created, you can:

  • Edit - Update any event details
  • Delete - Remove the event entirely

RSVP

You can RSVP to events yourself and see who else is attending by clicking the attendee count.

Community Board

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

Creating Posts

  1. Click New Post
  2. Write your update -- training tips, event reminders, or encouragement
  3. Optionally attach photos or videos
  4. Click Post

Interacting

  • Like posts by clicking the heart icon
  • Comment on posts to start a conversation
  • Delete your own posts if needed

The community board is separate from trainer feedback. Use it for general barn communication, not individual student feedback.

Notifications

The notification bell in the top bar shows your unread count. You'll receive notifications when:

  • A student requests a review on their ride
  • A student completes assigned homework
  • Someone comments on or likes your community post
  • A student accepts your invite

Click a notification to jump directly to the relevant content. Use Mark all as read to clear everything.

Push Notifications

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

Settings

Navigate to Settings in the sidebar.

Profile

  • Profile Photo - Click to upload or change your photo
  • Display Name - Update your name
  • Email - Displayed but cannot be changed
  • Role - Shows "trainer" (cannot be changed)

Click Save Changes after making updates.

Barn

A quick link to your barn management page:

  • If you have a barn: Barn Settings button
  • If you don't: Create a Barn button

Log Out

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

Suggestions

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

Quick Reference

| I want to... | Go to... | |---|---| | Review student rides | Review Queue (home page) | | See a student's progress | Students > click student | | Log a Pro Ride | Students > click student > Log Pro Ride | | Assign homework | Students > click student > Assign Homework | | Invite a student | Barn > Generate Student Invite | | Invite a trainer | Barn > Generate Trainer Invite (owner only) | | Create an event | Calendar > Create Event | | Post to the community | Community > New Post | | Update my profile | Settings | | Send feedback about the app | Suggestions |

Tips for Effective Coaching on RiderCoachConnect

  1. Review promptly - Students are motivated when they get quick feedback. Try to clear your review queue within 24-48 hours.
  2. Be specific in feedback - Reference what you saw in their notes or media. Specific feedback is more actionable than general comments.
  3. Use exercises - The exercises field in reviews gives students concrete next steps. Even one or two exercises per review makes a difference.
  4. Check the charts - The student progress charts can reveal patterns. A student whose jumping hours are dropping might need encouragement. A student logging lots of flatwork might be ready for more advanced work.
  5. Assign homework between lessons - Keep students engaged between sessions with targeted assignments.
  6. Log Pro Rides - When you ride a student's horse, log it as a Pro Ride so the student and their parents can see the full training picture for their horse.
  7. Post to the community - Share training tips, event reminders, or just encouragement. An active community keeps your barn connected.
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