Adult new or returning riders up for a chat?

[Hereforthedramaz]

I have recently returned to riding after a very long gap.

I was a very casual rider as an early teen, happy hacking on plodding ponies rather than technical riding. I am thoroughly enjoying having proper lessons now.

I thought it might be nice to chat with other newbies or returners, all non-horsey people in my life and there is only so much they want to talk about it!!!

Also the stables I'm going to is so lovely and welcoming but, in their own words, aimed almost entirely at 8-12 year olds so it would be nice to talk to some adults!

At the last lesson I had, I Spoke with my instructor about giving up jumping. I get so nervous, even though it’s tiny and im
jumping from a trot. I questioned why I was doing something that made me shake with nerves. But I’ve decided to keep going. I used to love jumping and was happily doing 60cm rounds. Then I had a fall about 3 years ago and I’ve never got over it. I won’t be happy if I walk away. I have a beaming smile whenever I get through the jumping. I have an aim to jump from ak canter.

ill see what happens tomorrow!

@theferry Good luck with the jumping! if you can get to jumping from a canter I actually find it so much easier than from a trot. I don't do much jumping as we are trying to get my flatwork perfect first but have given it a few goes and I know what you mean about it being terrifying as an adult.

Guys 🥹

I CANTERED!

Literally feel amazing! I've been learning sitting/standing/rising trot with stirrups and without for almost a YEAR. Had poor confidence and fear for the first few months when even trot was terrifying and I forced myself to go to lessons. Even abandoned lessons at times as I couldn't get out of walk. Always catastrophising about horses stumbling and breaking into cold sweats at every sudden movement.

Well after a few lessons of sitting trot and kicking on to keep a nice pace and getting some accidental strides of canter, without feeling like I was going to die or come off I finally did it deliberately.

It is AMAZING. LITERALLY LIKE SITTING ON A ROCKING HORSE 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

@HMPPS well done 👏

Well done! It's an amazing feeling isn't it?!

@HMPPS yay!! Well done.

You sound similar to me…I could barely walk at one point without a leader after a confidence dip. It feels so much better knowing how far you’ve had to come to get to this point.

Fabulous Canter news @HMPPS well done! I hope to be there one day.

I’ve realised I don’t want to stop jumping. I’ve still been doing it at the trot over minuscule jumps but I’m happy. Still aiming to do it from canter but I’ll get there at some point I hope.

@HMPPS Well done on cantering! It’s such a lovely feeling, isn’t it?

@theferry I’ve always been a very nervous jumper, even when I rode as a child (although I used to happily get on pretty much any horse on the flat). I’ve been having lessons since June, after a 12 year break and have jumped (tiny jumps) a couple of times recently. What’s helped has been doing canter poles then after a few goes of that either raising just one end of the last pole or putting it as a tiny cross. Psychologically raising one end doesn’t look like a jump (as there’s only one block) so seems less ‘scary’ and you can choose the height - keeping towards the un-raised end is barely more height than the canter pole but still elicits a bit more of a jump than a canter stride. I’ve probably explained that really badly, but hopefully you get what I mean! I still prefer to do mainly flat work, but I’ve enjoyed my couple of jumping sessions, which has shocked me because I’d never imagined myself jumping again!

Got to my lesson this evening to find that the horse that I usually ride has been sold on - absolutely gutted! Anyone else experienced this?

Learnt so much from that horse the past few months.

I think it's nice for horses to have a limited time in a school then go on to find a 1:1 home or a change of scene. It's sad but the decision is usually taken with the horse in mind. If they are getting fed up they aren't ideal for teaching on either though

You are 100% right! A bit sad for me but hopefully a great new life for him

Hello all, hope everyone is well!
I went a little AWOL as I had quite a nasty fall a few weeks back and have been unable to ride due to concussion and a few other injuries. It was a completely unexpected out of the blue fall and it has really knocked my confidence. I have a lesson booked for Saturday which will be the first time back on a horse and I am already so anxious.
I have never been a hugely nervous rider or one to get upset after falls so this is new for me. I think because it was just so out of character for the horse I was on + I was walking on a loose rein when it happened rather than previous falls which have been while cantering, jumping, something obvious spooking the horse etc.

Sorry to hear about your fall. I find the older I get tge more fragile my confidence is. I've never been overly confident anyway as I was a late starter.

Sorry to hear that @Allthegoodnamestakken what happened?

@cakeforme it was just a completely unexpected bucking session, we were walking around warming up and the horse honestly just appeared to lose it out of nowhere, it was so unexpected I was on the floor in seconds. Hit the fence on the way down which was not fun.
I often ride a mare who is a bit of a bucker and am fine because you're always half expecting it (although not at walk) but this was so sudden and out of character I think that's what has spooked me a little. I have ridden him several times and the instructor considers him my easy ride, he is usually used with the more novice adults or experienced children and I get a go on him when my instructor wants me to focus on something very specific in my position or do no stirrups works etc. as I can focus on that instead of keeping him together, forward etc.

The school handled it brilliantly both me and the horse, we thought perhaps something we hadn't seen spooked him but he freaked with my instructor when she got on him the next morning. He has seen the vet, the physio and the saddle fitter all who haven't found an issue so he has been given a couple of weeks off and then the stable owner plans to bring him back and hopefully he was just a little fed up of school life and his holiday will help.

@Allthegoodnamestakken sorry to hear about your fall and I’m glad you’re ok now. Falling off as an adult is totally different to falling off as a child! Make sure you’re kind to yourself and don’t beat yourself up if you need to take things slowly to build up your confidence, even if that means having the instructor walk right next to you. You never know, after a couple of circuits of walk you might feel completely back to normal but it’s absolutely ok if not and it takes longer.

I’ve never tried it but one of my friends swears by rescue remedy, so if you’re feeling anxious it might be worth trying that before your lesson.

Do you know what horse you’re going to be riding?

@Allthegoodnamestakken that sounds like a difficult experience. It’s good they’ve had the horse checked over as out of character. I hope your lesson goes well and horse is ok after its ‘holiday’.

@Flyingcarpetintraining I don't know what horse I will be riding but the instructor has promised we will be taking it easy.

So frustrating as the last lesson I had before that was on the same horse I fell off and it was amazing. The school has mirrors and I could see how nice we looked while working through a dressage test. I got off feeling so confident that actually I can ride well and I was not a sack of potatoes compared to all the other riders at the school.
Perhaps this is a disadvantage of riding at the local fancy pants school that most of the other adults are much much better than me. I am not hugely interested in competing at high level dressage etc. more just want to enjoy it, learn to ride correctly and pop a couple of jumps for fun occasionally with the eventual goal of being competent enough to have my own.
But the more chilled schools I tried had really awful welfare standards, dirty under muscled horses, poorly schooled ponies being whipped around, absolutely no turnout ever type set ups.

How did you get on yesterday @Allthegoodnamestakken?

@Allthegoodnamestakken - possibly a daft question, but it may be a crab fly

https://bitebackproducts.co.uk/blogs/news/absolutely-crabulous-the-creeping-invasion-of-crab-flies

I'm quite near the New Forest and there have been a few reports of these locally, basically they send horses beserk literally out of nowhere.

@Flyingcarpetintraining it went well, still a bit sore so kept it easy but it was good to be back in the saddle and once I got going I wasn’t so nervous

@LadyFlumpalot not in the uk so I don’t think we have those, I had thought perhaps a hornet stung him but he did similar with the instructor the next morning.

I started again a few weeks back.
Used to be a very capable competent rider who could do leg changes, shoulder in etc.

Started lessons again and I'm in my 50's.

Soooo many bad habits I have to get out of!! Posture, not keeping elbows back, trying to let my knees out and keep my heels close.

But my instructor is lovely!

Hoping to go for some hacks soon as I'm sick of walking and trotting 🤣
But I know I need to relearn...
but ooh I love being back on a horse- the smell, the feel. Happy to spend a mortgage worth of money a month 🤣 (£40 for half hour 1:1).

Btw am v fat and am on a 17'3" beast!

Horse life update: very sadly Polo didn’t work out - he ‘woke up’ a bit too much as he did more work and although he didn’t put a hoof wrong out hacking he started being tricky in the arena and my confidence began to disappear again. Thankfully he was on trial so he’s now gone to a very experienced hunting/hacking home where he’s very much loved and having a fabulous life.

So I’m back to having lessons again. I went to Talland to do an intensive 3-day course but despite it being advertised as for adult novices and that the content could be tailored for each individual it turned out that they’d taken no notice of the email I’d initially sent (and to which they’d said ‘yes no problem’) and the first day I was presented with one of their advanced schoolmasters in a double bridle 😳.. it got a bit better from then on but it wasn’t the confidence boost I’d hoped for and nothing like as good as a short course I’d gone to in Cheshire when I first came back to riding and wanted to sort out my canter.

However I’ve just started sharing a lovely TB who’s on livery at a relatively local yard which is run by an amazing instructor - she normally teaches very high level showjumping but makes me feel brilliant in lessons despite being very low level indeed .. I had a great lesson yesterday which was using the Testt system - basically trying to straighten me out - it was like magic!

And for all of us thinking we’re too old, my share horse’s owner only started learning to ride at the age of 93 😮. She has now hung up her stirrups at 98 but proves it’s never too late!