Beginner asking for advice

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Solari

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Hi all,

I would really appreciate some early "career" advice from the wise membership of this forum.

I took riding lessons for around a year as a child, I must have been 6-8 years old.

Now I'm 25 years old and I re-started riding around 7 months ago. I currently ride once per week on a Saturday morning for 45 minutes with the same instructor in London, (but the horse can switch between 3 main horses - all with different strengths/weaknesses).

So far my lessons generally involve:
- walk/trot/canter transitions
- 20m circles, 4 loop serpentines etc
- no-stirrup work
- light-seated cantering
- trotting poles

My main question is.... what do I need to do, focus on or change if I want to reach a level where I can compete in some capacity in the next 2-3 years.

Ultimately I really enjoy riding as a hobby and I feel like I have the motivation to push myself to perhaps achieve something in it. I just want some advice on how I can maximise my chances of doing that, since I'm still at an early stage.

I'd really appreciate any help guys!
 
If you have an instructor it would be best to diascus this with him/her, explaining your goals and ambitions
 
What sort of competing do you want to do? There are so many different roads to go down in the equestrian world!

You probably need to be riding a lot more than once a week, so you'd need to think about getting some sort of horse-share I'd suggest as first step, and then just get time in the saddle.
 
VRIN said:
If you have an instructor it would be best to diascus this with him/her, explaining your goals and ambitions
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Yes this would certainly help and I plan to do so whenever there's a chance. But it's not practically easy to do... My lesson is at 8am and after me my instructor is fully booked with other lessons. Unless I take her out for drinks on an evening, it's not going to be easy to have a one-to-one sit-down with her. :D
 
JennBags said:
What sort of competing do you want to do? There are so many different roads to go down in the equestrian world!

You probably need to be riding a lot more than once a week, so you'd need to think about getting some sort of horse-share I'd suggest as first step, and then just get time in the saddle.
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Thanks for the tip on my frequency and horsesharing, very helpful indeed. I didn't know horsesharing was a thing, but it makes a lot of sense. I'll do some research on that.

Regarding competing, I guess this is part of the issue... I don't really know of the different ways to compete. I guess one can compete on many different levels, even as an intermediate rider. But where do people do this? Are there clubs? And do you need your own horse? These are the kinds of questions that come to mind.
 
Have a google of some low level unaffiliated events in your area and go have a look. I'd agree that it's harder to do this via riding lessons and you'd need plenty of lessons and regular riding.

My riding really came on when I got my own horse, but I'd owned and ridden as a youngster and got an experienced sharer from the start.

Sharing a privately owned horse would be a great way to progress. Might take s while to find the right one but they do exist! You also get into the horsey scene more easily I think, and realise there is a massive horse community locally, well that was my experience anyway!
 
yes you would generally have to have your own horse (or share horse or loan horse) to compete.

Sometimes a riding school will run it's own competitions for customers but they don't tend to be regular.

You have the Riding club route of competing - a quick search online should show you your nearest RC and their competition dates. Typically an RC will have in hand classes, ridden classes (but not dressage on a standard 'show' day - dressage tends to be on a different day) show jumping. There will be affiliated and unaffiliated classes at each show. Some classes will qualify you to go to a larger show (if you win the class that is).

If you want to move up then there are county shows and the affiliated route for dressage (BD) showjumping (BSJA) and eventing (BE).

Classes at local shows tend to be breed driven (mountain & moorland, foreign breed, youngstock) type driven - show hunter, show cob, working hunter, or rider driven - equitation etc.

I'd say go along to a local show and have a watch at the different classes - it can be fascinating and a real eye opener!

In your position I would look to ride more than once a week and see if your riding school offers any sort of horse care/stable management training as that would stand you in good stead when looking to share someone else's horse. Get your riding as good as you can over the next few months and then look for a horse to share.
 
Most riding clubs would run their own summer and xmas shows. Might be work having a look at their facebook pages to see if they do that. It's alaso worth taking 5 mins out during the lesson to discuss a plan and your aims with your instructor. If you can't do it during your group lesson, book a private lesson.
 
I would also look and see if you can occasionally ride/ hack a horse that is not used in the riding school. I've seen riders that can ride well on a school horse but are taken aback by things that a privately kept horse (who may have a different education to a RS horse/ be fresher) can throw at you when out and about. Sitting all these little problem moments and being able to deal with it all will really improve your 'feel'.
 
A good entry point into competing (for non owners) is with a riding school that holds their own shows and will allow you to hire a rs horse. You can maybe start at Intro level dressage say for some competition experience then maybe some jumping when you are ready.They are bound to have a class that suits. If not then go to a school that does.
 
caileag said:
A good entry point into competing (for non owners) is with a riding school that holds their own shows and will allow you to hire a rs horse. You can maybe start at Intro level dressage say for some competition experience then maybe some jumping when you are ready.They are bound to have a class that suits. If not then go to a school that does.
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Ditto this. Which part of London are you in? I used to ride at Lee Valley riding centre and they had regular competitions (dressage and SJ on a regular basis, plus a showing show a couple of times a year) that you could enter on the RS horses, which was a great way to get competition experience.
 
Solari said:
Yes this would certainly help and I plan to do so whenever there's a chance. But it's not practically easy to do... My lesson is at 8am and after me my instructor is fully booked with other lessons. Unless I take her out for drinks on an evening, it's not going to be easy to have a one-to-one sit-down with her. :D
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Instead of riding, book you instructor for a discussion on your riding, could be at the school or at that time take out for a coffee.
 
Or get your instructor's phone number and call some evening they're not teaching or during the day. There's lots of great advice above about competing in London and once you've done a share horse you could also look at loaning a horse, if you wanted to dip your toe in further. Good luck with it OP, it's a really great hobby.
 
As others have said, some riding schools run regular competitions using school horses. I know of at least one that will also take students to other unaffiliated competitions (generally British Riding Club ones), and a further step is to take a riding school horse on part loan. The one I know generally wants you to have advanced a fair degree through their own grading system, as well as have sat some of what used to be the BHS Horse Ownership exams (what are they called now?). The part loan seemed to be a really good introductory arrangement: the horse stayed at the school, and the rider had specific negotiated riding privileges and care duties; on other days, the horse was used as a normal school horse (what one would call working livery with a private horse). I know several people that took on horses in this way that ended up eventually buying them, or going on to loan horses elsewhere/buy privately.
 
j1ffy said:
Ditto this. Which part of London are you in? I used to ride at Lee Valley riding centre and they had regular competitions (dressage and SJ on a regular basis, plus a showing show a couple of times a year) that you could enter on the RS horses, which was a great way to get competition experience.
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I'm in North-West London actually. I had a look at Lee Valley, it could be an option for me but ideally would find a place a bit closer. Thanks for the tip though!
 
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spookypony said:
As others have said, some riding schools run regular competitions using school horses. I know of at least one that will also take students to other unaffiliated competitions (generally British Riding Club ones), and a further step is to take a riding school horse on part loan. The one I know generally wants you to have advanced a fair degree through their own grading system, as well as have sat some of what used to be the BHS Horse Ownership exams (what are they called now?). The part loan seemed to be a really good introductory arrangement: the horse stayed at the school, and the rider had specific negotiated riding privileges and care duties; on other days, the horse was used as a normal school horse (what one would call working livery with a private horse). I know several people that took on horses in this way that ended up eventually buying them, or going on to loan horses elsewhere/buy privately.
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Thanks. I didn't really know much about the "British Riding Club" thing. I didn't realise the place I go to isn't a BRC school.

The loan idea is a great one actually, seems like a very good stepping stone.

I need to look into these BHS exams, could be useful to try.
 
Thanks for all the help guys.

It's clear that I should double my horseriding time every week from 45 mins to 1hr 30 mins or so.

I guess the main conclusions are:

- look for a good club that is well positioned to train and encourage beginners to enter competitions on the club's horses, or to loan one of their horses. I assume the BHS website will be useful for doing this?

- try to have a chat with my current instructor to help direct my lessons towards what I want to achieve

- look into the BHS exams etc to learn more about stable management and horse ownership for the future

- look into joining the Riding Club London
 
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