Hello all,
I would appreciate some advice from experienced riders on some situations I've encountered at a riding school. Quick background: I used to ride a lot in my teens / early twenties then stopped so I am very rusty (at best). My daughter (10 yo) started riding last summer and has regular one to one lessons - I will join in occasionally but very much just fit in with what she's doing.
About six months ago, DD was in a lesson riding a pony she knows well - he's a really good pony and tries hard to do what he's asked. The only time she had ever had trouble before was when she was learning the right way of asking for things eg he didn't realise she wanted him to canter because she hadn't got the signals quite right.
In the lesson in question, the instructor had five trotting poles on the ground very close together - if I was walking over them, I would only need one step between them. I've always seen them much more spread out (eg 3 pony paces between them). The pony is about 14hh.
The pony tried to walk over them but ended up knocking into them and getting flustered. He was raising his hooves so not dragging them but just seemed to get confused by how to walk over them all.
He then refused to go over them again (which I kind of understood given he'd had a difficult time with them before) and DD was uncomfortable trying to make him as he'd never refused to do anything before so she didn't want to push him.
DD got quite upset at the instructor trying to make her make the pony go over the poles again and I was worried that the stress wasn't doing anyone any good. I have never commented / intervened in one of DD's lessons before but I suggested to the instructor that things were getting a bit stressful so maybe they could end the lesson there or move on to something else.
I've also experienced something similar where I've been told to whip the horse I was riding to get him to do something he obviously was uncomfortable doing - I was being asked to go over a combination of jumps where I felt one of the angles was too sharp for him as he is quite big (tall and heavy set). Again, he had never refused to do anything before so he's not a stubborn horse who needs a strong hand.
I wasn't happy doing it so I said I'd rather just end the lesson or just go straight to a cool down (we were almost at the end anyway).
At no point did I suggest not paying the full price for the lessons and I was very happy to do so.
Can I ask for thoughts? Am I being a bit too precious and DD and I should just have made our pony / horse do what we were asking? I don't know if I am being a bit of a wuss and should have pushed through.
Thanks all!
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Can experienced riders give me some advice on riding lesson situation
Ginandcolic · 22/04/2022 09:17
JustAPony · 22/04/2022 09:30
How close were they? If you put one foot in front of the other (toe touching heel) then they should be 4-5 of your feet depending on stride length and the size of your feet obviously!
If they were at that distance then the pony should be fine trotting/walking over them. If the pony was being a bit stubborn then it is better to push them to do it or they will start taking the piss in other areas.
Though this is only if the conditions were correct -no back pain,poles too close together etc…
Soultrader · 22/04/2022 09:35
The argument about not letting a pony take the piss is a common one but that depends on you having a child on board that's confident to push the pony on. If she's not confident to do that then it's better to take a step back and build her confidence in ways that don't rely on her having to have a confrontation with the pony. The traditional way to get the pony through that exercise with a beginner on board would involve a whip, in my experience of riding schools. Which teaches the child nothing except that it's ok to hit a horse that won't do what you want, and does nothing to address why the pony didn't understand what was being asked of him.
Maverickess · 22/04/2022 09:51
I feel It's always better to go back a stage than force a confrontation imo, either when you're schooling a horse or teaching a rider. So you're still moving and doing something (so the horse doesn't learn that refusal means everything stops and then refuse to do anything) but you're also not creating a bad experience by pushing the issue.
In the situations you've described I would expect poles removed, even going back to starting with one and then adding them back in gradually as confidence grows, or dropping the refused fence and then building back up. And then out of lesson time an experienced and strong rider trying the exercises to work out what the problem is. When time is limited though because your lesson is coming to an end that can be an issue.
The pole spacing doesn't sound like an issue as in they were wrongly spaced, rather the horse lacking confidence to do it and not getting that confidence from the rider (not a criticism of your DD) and some horses need a lot of persuasion to attempt something they've got 'wrong' again, my horse was like this, he'd jump 1m40 for fun, but if he got it wrong and had an issue, he'd sometimes refuse to go anywhere near the fence itself or even the wings of the jump, rather than fight it out I'd work around the jump, aiming to get him through the wings and over a small fence then rebuild from that - he'd happily go over a larger fence that he hadn't had an issue with though in the same session, just not anywhere near that one.
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