what would you expect from lessons?

[ThatVikRinA22]

just wondered really as i had my first lesson tonight, i used to ride as a child but ive not ridden for over 30 years.

the first school i had booked with were very lax and when i showed up for my lesson tonight they claimed they had tried to phone me to say the instructor hadnt made it in - they had not tried to phone me and i told them that - then they changed their story and the man said he couldnt ring as had locked himself out of the house, and said they would be in touch. Still no call from them, not even an apology.

so at short notice i booked at another school and went for my lesson tonight.

i told them id not ridden for a very very long time and would need to be treated like a total novice.

it was an arena, a very placid horse and i really had a wonderful time, but i just wondered how lessons normally go?

i found i couldnt concentrate on technique because i was trying to keep my horse going, he was lovely and an old hand but in trot he wanted to stop....is it a good idea to learn to control the horse and learn technique at the same time?

im pleased i was let loose to some extent and i think i will learn quickly - alot of it came back to me tonight though i will need tons of practice and im sure alot of this cant be "taught" and has to be learnt on the job as it were.....but i know my balance is awful and though i was told id done really well, it all felt a bit clumsy and i dread to think what i looked like!

how do first lessons normally go?

I'm must admit that the only adults that I have taught or learnt to ride later in live are husbands/ men. Then get a big horse tell them not to land heavy on the back and don't jab them in the mouth or I will take the reins off them. Go for a hack, do some trotting tell them canter is easier, then wait for them to ask to canter, send them away a walk, ie see that tree over there walk to it. Then they have got it!
So Vicar it is great that you are learning ride properly but I would be frustrated. Is it possible for a few trekking centre rides.
Best riders are self taught

hi guys - thank you, you have hit the nail on the head - she has plenty of ponies but only a couple of horses for adults. I so wish i had some money it invest.

my usual ride has laminitis (just starting but caught in time to turn it around) but she is still not being ridden, so i had to ride big lad who is not a novice ride. She is having to turn people away.

i may well bring forward getting my own and learn on that if i can just find the right horse.

quick cure for laminitis - she could tell immediately the horse was beginning with it - i couldnt, she says this is the importance of knowing your horse - i could only feel the difference afterwards, but the moment her hooves were slightly warm, she took her radial pulse, immediately cleared all the straw/hay from her box, put her on shavings, gave her bran mash then a little hard feed with bute, and within hours her hooves were cold again and as they should be - and she looked happier. It was literally just starting but she caught it immediately. She is still on shavings, with limited hay to eat, but she was asking to go out yesterday which was a good sign - she has to have limited turn out though due to her being prone to it.

i do think the world of RI and i am loathe to go elsewhere - if i could get the right horse i know i would progress faster, we had a chat yesterday because she knows that she has too many horses that are not paying their way, too many on loan for the wrong reasons, too many being kept despite being lame etc, and she has been done over a couple of times by dealers....she is so soft though and really needs to get a bit tougher, i suppose its hard to run a business where animals are involved.

i am reading lots - got the BHS society book on horse and stable management and also the pony club one - and i get Your Horse every month. Might look for more books on actual riding rather than care etc....

am already keeping an eye on the ads in the local equestrian shop - if the right horse came up id go and have a look.

thanks all for your thoughts - im trying not to lose confidence but its hard when it starts to feel like im never going to learn to ride.

Don't give up hope Vicar!!

I came back to riding wayyyyy into my 30's & seemed to take forever just to get to the stage of being safe to hack out.

I got my first horse 2 years ago (wrong side of 40) & was probably not by any stretch experienced enough but, despite all the odds, it's worked out & that is simply because I got the right horse & have a lot of support to fall back on when I need it.

I put her in full livery for 1st 3 months & had lessons on her & hacked in company until I felt totally confident with her. She now lives at home with DDs pony (don't think you'll stop at 1 {wink]) & we hack out for hours, all over the place & we have a deep, special bond...I adore her

I agree with the poster who said, maybe think about buying your own horse sooner & then learn on her/him. You are building up that bond & riding a horse that is right for you... all under supervision.

BTW I DETEST when RIs get on to show how it's done...nothing more guaranteed to make you feel inferior IME!!!

Vicar let us know EXACTLY what you are looking for & I'm sure everyone will keep an ear to the ground for you...I love pony shopping especially when I'm not paying

If you can manage it, Vicar I'd start looking for a nice schoolmaster horse and keep it on livery at the RS (but not on working livery if you can afford to do that, but not the end of the world if you have to). Get RI to ride it a couple of times a week to keep the schooling up and also so she knows how to teach you on it. She'll hopefully do that in return for yard work

You want a bigger version of gd's first pony who teaches people to ride by going at their pace, and raising his game when they raise theirs. Get the aids totally wrong and he won't respond, get somewhere close and he'll do t straight off. When she was still a novice he was quite ploddy. As she got her skills and confidence up he showed her more and more, they ended up a fantastic rosette winning partnership. He is the supreme professional of a first pony and I love him to bits for looking after her so well

Don't go too cobby as very wide horses are more difficult to get leg aids on and can be strong. I'd have a look at 14.2 Pony Club types, about 10 years old, as they tend to be safe and experienced as bought by (usually) knowledgeable parents for their children to ride. Not the cheapest way to buy a horse, but better value than **Cobs!

Blimey, I sound bossy, don't I

It's sometimes helpful to pop on the horse to demo something but I hope I never made anyone feel inferior.

Oh apart from a very big headed know it all bloke who insisted that the horse he'd been given was useless because HE couldn't get it going. The horse in question was part shire, very very safe for novices but in fact very well schooled. I kept explaining that if he nagged and nagged with his legs in the wrong place, the horse would assume he was a beginner and plod, whereas if he used them properly in the right place the horse was perfectly capable of direct transitions.

He was openly sceptical - "Show me then". So I did. Walk to canter without appearing to move. Ha. He was very humble after that :)

I'm another who thinks you'd benefit from hacking out on a schoolmaster.We went to a talk by the Team GB Physio and he said that the very best thing any horse and rider can do is go hunting and hacking.It doesn't matter if you are on the Olympic team or a beginner,it teaches you both how to deal with the unexpected,think on your feet and deal with anything that comes along.You just can't learn that stuff in a school.I know you don't agree with hunting,but hacking is so beneficial and it is just so much fun too.

thanks all - i really appreciate all your advice and help, i dont think RI would let me hack out until i have the basics under my belt tbh, she is a bit of a stickler for safety - im always doing daft things that could see me getting my block knocked off by a horse, she has a fit! - but i figure you learn from your mistakes! ....big boy who i rode yesterday was a hunting horse - but RI thinks he was just "hung on to" and thats why he fights with you over the reins....i would love to hack out though....

The thing that worries me is that horse buying is such a gamble....How do you find a schoolmaster? or a pony like 50s GDs first pony - surely they are like gold dust? how do you even find one!?!?

my pony would be on livery at the school - ideally somewhere between 14.2 and 15.2. placid and forgiving but ideally yes - could up their game as i up mine. i dont know who to trust though - *cobs shattered my illusions a bit....

it seems like your ri is a bit like my driving instructor and is definately holding you back. i would go against the grain and would say you shouldnt buy a horse until you can walk trot and canter competantly and can pop a small jump and can hack out and deal with minor spooks.

can you at least go out to another school maybe for a little private hack out?

It is hard to find a good pony.We were very lucky with dpony,she was the 3nd pony we tried.She knows to go slowly with novices,yet DD2 was galloping around the fields jumping logs this afternoon.She is bombproof in traffic and jumped 85cm on Monday with DD2,one in a million.She has spoilt us though and I've been trying to find a smaller version of her since September 2011.The pony club website is a good place to find reliable ponies,but be warned that the ponies advertised won't necessarily have been to PC,and unscrupulous people advertise there too,like everywhere else.

There are no guarantees,they all react differently in different homes and with different riders.Ask around,if you go to see a pony,google the phone number,pony's name and see what comes up.If you know anyone locally,ask if they know the pony,it is amazing what you can find out with FB too.

Good luck,the right one is out there somewhere.

"i dont think RI would let me hack out until i have the basics under my belt tbh, she is a bit of a stickler for safety"

Weird how things have changed. When I learnt 35 years ago () we first learned by hacking out, being led from another pony. After a couple of goes at this we'd be let loose on the hack. Lessons in a school were for refining (ha, ha) your technique once you'd learnt the basics on a hack. My first canter was with half a dozen other ponies in a field (I fell off ).

been looking on the pony club classifieds.....

found anything vicar? horsequest might be a good site

Hacking is fab for confidence i agree. Also I always found drill riding brilliant for building confidence and balance.

It's amazing how a rider who's normally a bit cautious will forget their nerves when they're concentrating on keeping up with their partner/staying in formation. They tend to stop over thinking and just sort of get on with it. Great fun.

well, saw one that really took my eye on PC site but already has a deposit on it, so many on there would be wasted on me....im too old to event or show, and i doubt i will ever be good enough tbh.

will check out horse quest too - thank you. DH says i could really do to wait another 6 months but i could be searching for months so im looking now.

think i will talk to RI about it too.

incidently notgood thats how i rode when i was a nipper - but i cant say i "learnt" to ride - i learnt to stay on and that was about it! i could canter though....and trot. not anymore it seems! im sure my stirrups need to be a bit longer....
ive been saying it for ages and funnily enough when RI got on big lad for me yesterday she had to let her stirrups down and she is same height as me....

Is it possible to go for a few trekking centre rides? I was going to say this!

Last year dsis and I went pony trekking and there were a couple of young women who had never sat on horses before. They were given a 'lesson' which consisted of being told to keep their heels and hands down, then one of the stable staff ran up the road with us for the first five minutes shouting "up, down" to the 'girls' as we all trotted along. An hour later we came back and they were looking safe in the saddle having gone up and down some steep hills, and had pretty much mastered trotting. Their positions weren't at all bad! Thing is, they were relaxed, looking for deer and chatting rather than worrying whether they were doing it 'right', and they were on lovely safe horses who knew their job was to look after their riders.
Vicar I think you could do with a couple of rides like that. Let the horse follow the others and get the feel of the movement without having to worry about telling it what to do all the time.
Have you planned your holidays for this year?

Thing is though Vicar she probably sits deeper than you do so your stirrups will feel short to her. Also, having your stirrups too long will mean its harder to keep your legs in the right place if you're a bit inexperienced.

I would also say not to buy a horse yet . I know you are itching to but you do need to learn to ride competently first, really.

Also, being the same height doesn't mean anything. People who are roughly the same height as me often have longer stirrups though I don't ride particularly short. That's because I have short legs and a long body.

My RI is almost the same height as me and has her stirrups 3 holes shorter. Maybe I have longer legs? Mind you, she is used to a) doing cross-country and b) riding idiotic horses where short stirrups can give you much-needed stability!

i went on a ride at a different stables a few months ago as my instructor sounds quite similar to yous (although she does have horses suitable for me) we dont get to hack out often as her horses tend to get over excited. i went on a 3 day break to a stables in cornwall and was riding over terrain i would never normally ride overon horses i had never ridden before. im normally a nervous nellie with strange horses. the instructor who took me out wouldnt let me be like that though, he made me ride up and down steep banks and stuff. at the end of the ride, his horse spooked and span round, took my horse with it and cantered back down the track a few steps, he bailed out and i was back in control in a second. my very long winded point is, unless you are allowed to get out and about you wont learn to deal with even little spooks and you.need to be able to stay in control and ride the horse through it. i really wish you lived near me so you could come ride at my instructors yard!

i have long legs though....im sure my stirrups are too short but i will bow to those in the know.

i would love to take a trekking holiday. love it. ive dealt with a couple of little spooks before in the school - nothing major though.

i just feel my confidence ebbing away with each lesson. i know RI likes riders - and im not one. She keeps saying it will come but im starting to worry it never will....and yes, lack of suitable horses is probably a problem.

if i got my own i would continue lessons - but DH says i do need to wait 6 months for financial reasons and he says we need a car first....but he is lovely and would let me have one in 6 months or so.,,,he sees how much good its doing me.

i fear if i leave getting my own until i can ride i may never get one....maybe just getting lots of riding experience would be the thing that helped me - and at present thats not happening.

really not sure what to do. i feel that if i did get my own it would be fine - i have a knowledgeable instructor on hand....it would be well cared for....and lessons would continue, just on my own horse instead of hers.

no i appreciate everyones thoughts dog not offended in the least and in some ways i agree - but i live where there is a distinct lack of riding schools that actually teach - the ones i tried before i found RI were not in it for anything more than money - no teaching or instruction to be found. just stuck you on a horse and let you loose which wasnt what i wanted at all....i really wanted to learn to ride.....

Its not RI - when im on usual horse i do, and can do more, but its on the lunge.
in no natural thats for sure - and yes im probably getting het up now with lessons because im not very good....i know im not very good, but on normal ride i can trot and canter, technique does need working on. im also sure everyone is right in that im now feeling under pressure - i have the knowledge about technique but i need to practice it and not always under such scrutiny - or even feeling under scrutiny, which i do at present i admit.

thats why i think with own horse i would feel less pressure. i could go out and experiment on my own and find out what works and what doesnt without being watched all the time! i used to hack out as a kid - i was ok but it was practice and experimentation that got me to where i could trot and canter ok, and i used to have a friend with a pony - i remember galloping through fields and jumping logs and fallen trees....i never fell off and kept a light seat.
it seems a very distant memory now....

Don't give up Vicar