What to expect in an adult private lesson

[Tupperwarelid]

I would welcome some advice on this please as I'm not sure if I am being unreasonable or thinking I'm better than I am! I started riding again in September as a 50th birthday present to myself. I hadn't ridden for years but am old and quite heavy(!) so went to a large well know riding school near me that has a number of horses rather than just ponies, an indoor school, does evening lessons etc. It's not the cheapest in the area but I can't ride in the day due to work so was sold by the amenities and the choice of horses to ride.

So I have been having weekly 45 minute lessons for about 5 months and it's all started coming back to me and I'm starting to feel confident in trot and getting there with my canter. But I'm getting bored and don't know where to go from here. Buying or loaning my own definitely isn't an option. My lessons seem to consist of a few halts then into trot and some circles. Occasionally trot-halt-trot transitions and a bit of leg yielding and then a couple of canters followed by a long walk on a long rein to warm down. I had a different instructor today and they spent most of the time picking up poo in the arena while I just trotted round the outside of the school.

I know only riding once a week I'm not suddenly going to be able to do flying changes and half passes but I feel like I should be doing more challenging stuff. Can anyone tell me what they do in their lessons or what they would teach a returner at my level? I'm feeling a bit despondent and like I wasted my money today.

Thanks everyone

I'm a ex instructor , very experienced but rusty too

To answer your question it's difficult to say what you should be expected to be doing now without knowing what standard you were previously and possibly if you are now heavy / big / unfit/ unbalanced it may limit what will be expected from you or available to you

However a good instructor should be able to keep the lessons flowing and interesting, perhaps give you a dressage test to learn at home and then ride it in your lesson ? Get some ideas on improvements to it them try the test again in a month to see if you have improved? Join in a small group as much can be learnt from others as well, go for a hack once the lighter evenings arrive,, work towards joining in some in house competitions, in house tests , own a horse rally's etc etc

Your instructor should NOT be poo picking whilst teaching , I always impressed upon my young instructors that whilst they may be teaching rising trot for the 98th time this week it was the pupils ONLY time and the lesson must be as crisp and interesting as possible

Hope this helps

If it’s a big stables could you try a different instructor . I went back to riding a few years ago , over 50 , fairly fit but hadn’t ridden for 20+ years . However I’ve been a continuous horse / pony owner since I was 13 and was a very competent rider before I gave up . First lesson in ( private ) it all came back to me , I had the horse working in an outline and by a few lessons in I was cantering and jumping small jumps . I had regular lessons again ( a mix of private and an adult group) for about 2 yrs and in my privates I basically schooled as I wanted and chatted to the instructor ( an old friend ) so all good from my POV . I’ve now had to give up again as the hair / straw / shavings / hay / dust has played havoc with my lung disease .

I do a bit of instructing in my spare time. It is hard to say, if you are still getting to grips with canter you will still be quite novice and I’d probably not want you jumping etc.

However there are ways they could make it a bit more interesting for you. Learning an intro or prelim dressage test, polework, lots of transition work, “games” are good for improving steering etc.

I think for sure try a different teacher, without seeing you it's hard to say what you should be working on but your description of a typical lesson doesn't sound like you are getting a lot out of your 45 mins. Depending on your fitness levels and that of the horse you might not be able to spend loads of time in canter for example but you can be working on your seat, doing without stirrups work, stretches (horse allowing), lateral work in walk and trot, practising lots of different transitions and school movements etc. You could start working over poles and developing a light seat in preparation for jumping too. Every lesson can be a bit different and basically you should leave, if not feeling as though you improved, at least specific learning points were identified. I think it's fine once you are at a certain level for the instructor to not be actively 'teaching' every single second of the lesson, it's a skill to develop in itself to be able to go away and warm your horse and yourself up independently, assess the horses strengths and weaknesses, decide a plan and think of exercises to improve and so on, without being constantly told what to do. But if this is the case the instructor should be clear they are going to leave you for 10 mins (or however long) and then come back and have a feedback/discussion session, then send you off again and so on. They shouldn't just leave you trotting aimlessly round and round without intervening or getting on with chores (or on their phone as I sometimes see the young teachers at my yard doing ).

Have you thought about trying group lessons if they have a suitable group to join? I know lots of people aren't fans but I like them, you can usually ride for a hour for the price of a 30 min private, and you can learn just as much from watching the others and hearing the feedback they get as from your own. Plus it's often just a bit more fun. But you do need a good teacher who puts the effort into keeping things varied and interesting, not just an 'all trot round together and one by one canter to the back' set piece type...

Thank you for all your suggestions. The stables do run dressage competitions and that is something I would like to aim for so I will mention that to my normal instructor. I am also looking forward to hacking when the nights get lighter.

I will also see if there are any group lessons I can join although it's a long time since I have ridden with other people so that will be interesting!

I appreciate your replies.

Have you discussed your goals with your instructor? I’ve been having private lessons since the summer and for each block of about 6 half hour sessions we talk about what I want to be doing by the end of the block.

So at first it was work on my position - I had lots of lunge lessons, no stirrups/reins etc. The next goal was being confident enough to join the group hacks - I needed to be competent in W/T/C, steer, stop and so on. My latest goal is to be as effective in canter as I am in trot (hence my excited post about cantering circles).

My instructor is very young but she’s lovely - really engaged and pushes me out of my comfort zone but never asks me to do anything she’s not completely confident that I’m capable of doing.

It's a private lesson so you can request. When dd2 was having trouble getting her share pony to canter for her to learn and because he's a bit of a little git I booked her a private lesson at a stables and told them it's canter I wanted her to concentrate on and she then spent much of the lesson doing just that. From that she picked up a more secure seat and was more confident pushing naughty git pony on as she knew she could sit to it. If you're bored how about some pole work for example? Not sure if canter is still a work in progress that more complicated flat work is really an option just now. If you want to concentrate on your canter work you can ask that too. Have you tried a bit of hacking? You can naturally learn quite a lot a lot the feel out your horse without constant direct instruction.

"Your instructor should NOT be poo picking whilst teaching"
Im an exceedingly competent rider who's trained at some of the top trainers at some of the top centres, instructors have often picked up poos done by the horse I'm actually riding this is normal especially in a school with a top quality surface sometimes they may also pickup one thats been previously missed.
OP talk to your instructor set realistic goals what would you like to achieve say over the next three months and TBH from your description you sound like a very novice rider so ask her what you can realistically achieve. Have a lunge lesson this will help you balance. One lesson a week means your progress very slowly. Can you as suggested above join group lessons and ride more often? Youre just "getting there" with canter so Im not sure what else an instructor can do to do more advanced work e.g shoulder in flying changes etc you need an independent seat and a more advanced horse which I suspect the stables wouldn't be currently happy with you riding.
But the other hand you could start thinking about the way the horse is going. The I teach I tell people you must not be the passenger you should be in control you are the driver all good riders are not passenger you make the decisions. I was alsoonce told that two pillars of the 5 pillars for success are obedience and rhythm and what ever level you ride at you can work on this. . So your horse should trot when you ask it too and halt when you ask it too and canter etc. Ride the horse into the corners of the school when youre going large, many riding school horses cut of the corners (this is when you need to be the driver not the passenger), a 20 m circle at A or C cuts of the corners. If you ask your horse to halt at say X make sure it does halt at X your shoulders should be at X not the horses head all that takes practice and control, learning a dressage test like an intro test will help with all of this. Then rhythm a trot for example should be a rhythmical 1-2-1-2 as you turn circle be it 20 m or 10m go across the diagonal etc the 1-21-2 rhythm should stay the same use your body if shouldn't be too fast if it is slow your rising down.
Circles are good it encourages the horse to bring his hind leg underneath him, move around the school doing circles of different sizes and in different places 20m 15m and 10m keep changing the rein in all sorts of places not the usual places, make the horse concentrate on you because he doesn't know what's coming up next. I used to have an instructor who used to make you ride a clover leaf changing the rein after every single circle. Go down the long side see how many circles of 20m you can do you dont have to only circle ar A C B and E. Do have circles back to the track. transitions are good as well again the horse will start concentrating on you on a 20m circle do 5-6 paces in trot them walk then halt then trot then walk don't make it predictable, it come back to obedience you want him to do all of these when you ask not anticipate ir ignore you. If you can do 5-6 strides in canter then back to trot then canter this will improve your seat and aids making them clearer and well.
Try another instructor even if its just for the occasional lesson they will see something the other hasn't or word soothing slightly differently and you may have that light bulb moment.
Finally do you ride the same horse every-time? There are positives and negatives about this. The horse will quickly learn what you can and cant do and what you're expecting this can be good because even though loads of other people may ride that horse between lessons he will remember you and you learn what works for that individual horse. On the other hand you may learn more if you ride different horses, you will have to adapt your riding for each horse.
Lastly you could try another stables? Large well known stables may ultimately be more interested in competent capable competion riders who have serious ambitions and are just taking your money (obviously they are not going to admit this) I used to ride/train at one and I noticed novice riders were generally taught by more junior instructors and had a very limited choice of horses because the majority of horses were only suitable for advanced riders and hacking was very limited. Small stables may have a bigger cross section of horses and maybe "more fun" and the instructor may have more experience of teaching more novice riders. Just a thought.

Thank you for all your suggestions x

The other thing you can think about is ensuring your horse is bending correctly from nose to tail and that when you change the bend (and diagonal) especially in trot that your horse really does change the bend. Decide exactly where you are going to change the bend most change bend as the cross the centre line so if your horse is bent to the left as you cross the centre line ride him straight for 1-2 strides then bend him to the right, use you legs not your hands to create the bend practise giving correct aids clearly, 3 and 4 loop serpentines are good for this. Also lots of horses as part of cutting of a corner fall out through their inside shoulder as they go round a corner dont let your horse do this. You could also try walking an accurate 10 m circles (as in into test C) or practice being completely straight in trot down the centre line the first movement in most dressage tests and surprisingly difficult think about making positive entrance!
Get someone to photograph you or even better video you (this can be a depressing experience) discuss what you see with your instructor. Lastly if it is a "large well know riding school" and if it has some top competition riders training there under the eye of the senior instructor(s) ask if you can watch one of the lessons. You'll not only see how really good riders ride and how they work their horses you'll also realise that even top riders make mistakes! See if you can see and understand the comments the instructor are making can you apply any of these to the horse you're riding and your own riding.

Being a really good capable rider takes years of training and practice, you have to anticipate all the time and also ask yourself if every stride is correct if not why not and what can you do to make it right. its inevitable that you'll have moments when you feel totally demoralised but dont give up. Good luck.

What have you asked to do? Have you any goals? You should ask your coach about goal setting and agree what you are targeting. Maybe to learn some dressage, if it's possible to enter an open dressage event. Or perhaps to do some jumping with an aim to do that in an open event? How about booking with other stables if yours doesn't offer a variety of horse-related activities - such as having a go at endurance, riding cross country or even pub riding in an age-appropriate group.

I had some private lessons a few years ago, and tried 3 different yards. I have owned my own horses all my life, and still do (and did) but one of my horses had really knocked my confidence, and I'd lost my "horse of a lifetime". . I dont know how experienced you are, but I found the lessons dreadful. Like you, I was bored and would have been happier if they'd just let me ride for an hour. That said the calibre of riding schools here is poor.

I ended up finding friends with spare horses, hacking out with them and having occasional lessons with a freelance instructor.
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Haven’t read all the posts. I recently started riding again too but for my 40th. I now do group lessons once a week. We are doing all the basics, diagonals and different sorts of trot etc, but also jumping little courses and sometimes have team games. I would definitely recommend a group lesson.

See if you can go to a few different riding schools. Try to watch at least one lesson and make notes. Consider what skills you need to tune and so on. Wanting to improve dressage skills is one thing, wishing to try a hack is another. Check the website information etc as well and then decide. Ask about ways to spice up the lessons, polework is a good activity.

I share a lesson with a friend - it’s a good hybrid between being able to do ‘fun’ stuff and getting lots of attention. Last week we did some practice riding centre lines and circles, then rode through a random Intro test. This week is ‘poles week’ (we do a three week cycle flat-poles-jump).

I agree on the goal setting, maybe print off one of the dressage tests and ask if you can work through and learn the test.
It can be difficult teaching someone if you don’t know what they want to achieve, but the onus is on your instructor here to ask, but if they don’t know what you want to achieve then tell them.
Maybe ask if there anything you can work on during the week to help your riding. For instance the Nike app has some yoga and Pilates videos- ranging from 10minutes lessons to full sessions. It can be difficult to get riding fit on one lesson a week, and you end up knowing what you want your body to do, but not being able to quite manage it. So maybe see if there is something, balance, flexibility, stamina or cardio that you can do for 10 minutes each day to help you.

I’ve been doing a resistance exercise programme specifically aimed at riders and it’s been really helpful. I’m much stronger, my balance and seat are way better, my lower leg’s stopped creeping forward so all great for improving my riding. It doesn’t take long so it’s easy to fit into your day. I’ve also started running again - half an hour, three times a week - it’s not so much that I feel I can’t manage it but it helps my general fitness.

The programme I’ve been using is Activate your seat

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I have lots of ideas to talk to her about and see what is possible.