Bizarre comment tonight from fellow livery...!

Sol

Sol

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Apparently, I ride for far too long! :p

I'd been in the school for probably 30mins already, so warmed up and done a bit of lateral work etc, a bit of canter. Another woman comes along on her horse, and my mum offers to open the gate for her...
Livery: Has she (meaning me) finished?
Mum: No, I don't think so
Livery: Well, what's she doing? She's been out here more than long enough already!
Mum: I have no idea....

The woman then rode for all of about 15 mins. Another young girl came in not long before I left the arena too, and rode only for 10mins! Why would you bother? In my mind, warming up takes at least 10 mins, cooling down 10 mins.... so there's a 20min schooling session without any 'work' :confused:

These people & horses are all capable of a normal length schooling session by the way, otherwise I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I wasn't aware that 40-45mins was 'too long' to school a reasonably fit horse?! :p At least I had the decency to a) warm up, b) cool down, c) allow my horse breaks during the session and d) washed him off afterwards given that he'd sweated up because he'd actually worked!

I'm totally baffled...

Sol x.
 
That seems a bit ridiculous, how rude!

i couldn't be bothered even to tack up and get my hat etc on if i was only going to be on for 10 - 15mins

och well just ignore them hun , seems your doing fine by the sounds of things :) x
 
I would ignore them, most people dont exercise there horses for nearly enough time, they then proceed to feed them far to much and wonder why they have problems.
My 6 year old daughter is a very keen rider and rides most days for 45 mins to an hour i also take her out hacking for 1 1/2 hrs he is probaly the healthiest looking pony/horse on hour yard and regulary gets placed in showing and showjumping the teenagers leave there ponies or ride for 10 mins and wonder why they get eliminated!!!!!
I also work at a private yard and our horses get a minimum of an hour a day exercise.
So i really wouldnt worry what you are doing is completly normal.:)
 
When I read the first line I thought she meant your stirrups were too long!!

I think your about right for the time you school, I wouldn't get my tack dirty for 10 mins!! Unless of course I was just bringing horse back into work which you have said they are not!! When I have my lesson my horse is worked hard for 30mins to 45mins with a good warm up and cool down. He does usually get the following day off, not so much for him but for me to recover!!
 
Its definately not too long, especially as you allow him time to cool off and warm up, with breaks to give him (and his mind if its lateral work) a chance to take in what he's just been doing. This is especially important as he's quite young. (I know 6 isn't *that* young, but breaks are good :) ) Riding for 15 minutes is pointless really, what can you achieve in that time scale?! You won't have a fit horse by riding it for 15 mins, so it won't have the relevant muscles to perform in any type of competition, be it low level or high ;)
 
I would see 45 mins to an hour as a normal length schooling session - but I've had this issue too! Most people at our yard school for 15-20 minutes so I've always been the odd one out. I like to spend 10-15 minutes working long and low in walk, trot and canter before building up to progressively more collected work. If I only rode for 15 minutes I'd never get anything done.
 
Why were they so bothered how long you were riding for!! do they not like to ride in the same place with someone or something lmao some people are strange ... I school for 1 hr as my horse takes forever to warm up but on a warm day 45mins which id say is pretty normal and actually works the horse lol. I no someone who rides for literally 15 mins if at all and i dont see the point tbh!! It takes them longer to groom and tack up than ride
 
Glad I'm not the only one who sees this as totally pointless! But I've also heard that my hacks are ridiculously long before now, mainly because I like to feel like I went somewhere, when I went hacking with someone else, they went half way up the road and turned back..... :o

Don't think I'll be changing my schooling habits any time soon regardless of what's said to be honest! ;) I'll also continue to work my horse twice a day if I feel like it, now I wonder what they make of that! :p
 
I bringing a horse back in to work and we do at least half an hour - just slowly. No point in tacking up for much less.
Strange people
 
Sol said:
I'll also continue to work my horse twice a day if I feel like it, now I wonder what they make of that! :p
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:eek: How very dare you, that's just cruel don't you know :p

Ignore them, if it's not hurting them it's none of their business I wouldn't bother tacking up if it was only for 15-20 mins either, i usually book the school out for an hour and use a good 50 mins of that. As you said, 10 mins to warm up then the same to stretch & cool down and that's 20 mins gone already. Occasionally if i'm really pushed for time i'll go for a quick ride around the block or school for half an hour but thats not the norm.
 
You can have a meaningful session less than 30min - if the 'goal' of the session is simple, and the horse not very advanced. With babies where the whole aim is to be able to walk a 20m circle, or to make a correct transition to trot, I'd not be on for long - however long it took to get it would be enough, and since we're not working hard, warming up/cooling down doesn't take as long. I get better, more focused work out of youngsters in a shorter session.

For a more established horse, it would be hard to get any schooling done if you allow for 10min warm-up, and 10 min cool off, and only ride for 20min, I agree. I wouldn't school much longer than 30min though, as feel that the real 'schooling' is often best in short bursts (10min) - suits my attention span and theirs!
 
Lol what work can you do in 15-20 minutes?!
Last time I schooled a friend's horse, I was in there an hour with warming up, cooling down, breaks and a swap from indoor to outdoor halfway through and didn't even realise the time - I don't particularly like schooling at the best of times, but I got a bit carried away and the horse is such a joy to school - when we reached the yard afterwards, all I got asked was "was she good?" they don't tend to be so bad on our yard - I've seen someone a while ago, tack up, go into the school, walk round for 5min and then throw themselves into jumping 2-3ft :eek:
 
What a prat! I normally school for about 40-45 mins including at least 10 minutes warm up, then go along the bridle path for 15 minutes to cool off ... please stop me, I'm clearly a terrible horse abuser!
 
It is baffling isn't it??? I am classed as slightly odd at my yard, because I hack - for about 3 hours!! Most of them think of hacking as something that takes about 20 mins......we went for an absolute blast today - excellent ground YAY!!
and came back, sweaty and muddy but still full of go!
 
we have a school, round pen and a jump area, if i was riding for less than 20 mins, i'd go for a plod round the village or in the woods, or ride round the other area's, no way would i ask if someone was done or how long they'd be or ask to leave so i could use it alone, its bloody rude! i was schooling (my version) for nearly a hour today, a girl came in and said do u mind if i come in, literally rode for 3 or 4 mins, then left, and bathed her horse to cool him down! he was hot after not even 5 mins......she's crazy
 
I have often wondered about this. Do people think that 1 hour is the correct lenghth for a hack because riding schools have 1 hour lessons ?????:confused:
 
i have to book the arena at my yard to use it- the bookings are in half hour slots. to me this just isn't enough time to warm up and warm down properly and do a decent session of schooling with lots of short breaks so i tend to book an hours slot (i wait until later in the evening so i'm not taking up 'peak' times)- try to do about 45 minutes.
 
moses06 said:
It is baffling isn't it??? I am classed as slightly odd at my yard, because I hack - for about 3 hours!! Most of them think of hacking as something that takes about 20 mins......we went for an absolute blast today - excellent ground YAY!!
and came back, sweaty and muddy but still full of go!
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Only 3? :D Exactly! When I hack (not very often, i'm not a huge hacking fan!) I like to GO somewhere! I hacked my mare home when we moved her from a livery yard to home, it was a good few miles but not worth getting a box for, it was great! :D
 
I sometimes only ride for 15-20 mins.

I might ride becuase she has been in all day, but I have to go back to work later. I might get on and shes soft, responsive and well behaved from the start, so I get off, if shes done everythign I ask, nicely, first time. We can have two or three hour long battles over the simplest things.
 
I'd just ignore the silly old bag! Clearly your yard has a policy of people being allowed to use the arena together so what does it matter about how long you have been.
 
ah thats weird! i dont see the point in grooming/tacking up/getting ready just to ride for 15mins if the horse is capable of doing a full hour schooling session?

i could understand if the horse was unfit and being brought back into work but if it's fit and able ... then i dont understand why you'd only ride for 15mins? :confused:
it takes me about 10minutes to do a good warm up so i'd no way be finished in 20mins.
 
BubbleDog said:
I'd just ignore the silly old bag! Clearly your yard has a policy of people being allowed to use the arena together so what does it matter about how long you have been.
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I think all you guys are missing the point here. The comment was clearly made to get you to hurry up and get out of the arena so she could have it to herself.
 
BubbleDog said:
I think all you guys are missing the point here. The comment was clearly made to get you to hurry up and get out of the arena so she could have it to herself.
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Ah...*taps nose* I think you may have a point.
My brain really has gone walkies I didn't see that! :p
we usually get "how long do you think you're going to be?" when I've just got in and walked the circuit once and I'll say "don't know, at least another 25 minutes!" :p
K x
 
BubbleDog said:
I think all you guys are missing the point here. The comment was clearly made to get you to hurry up and get out of the arena so she could have it to herself.
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Most probably! She could have quite easily gone and used the other arena (which is free for liveries so long as there isn't a lesson going on it it or it's hired already) and nobody would have complained! That or she could have actually asked how long I'd be, and I'd probably have started cooling down at that point anyway, because I'm nice like that :p

Don't think I'll ever get over how odd some people can be xD
 
My yard owner told me my horses legs would fall off because I evilly forced him to be ridden twice in one day!

The irony is that she used to event so surely she'd know that horses can cope with more than 40 minutes work a day!
 
Sol said:
Apparently, I ride for far too long! :p

I'd been in the school for probably 30mins already, so warmed up and done a bit of lateral work etc, a bit of canter. Another woman comes along on her horse, and my mum offers to open the gate for her...
Livery: Has she (meaning me) finished?
Mum: No, I don't think so
Livery: Well, what's she doing? She's been out here more than long enough already!
Mum: I have no idea....

The woman then rode for all of about 15 mins. Another young girl came in not long before I left the arena too, and rode only for 10mins! Why would you bother? In my mind, warming up takes at least 10 mins, cooling down 10 mins.... so there's a 20min schooling session without any 'work' :confused:

These people & horses are all capable of a normal length schooling session by the way, otherwise I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I wasn't aware that 40-45mins was 'too long' to school a reasonably fit horse?! :p At least I had the decency to a) warm up, b) cool down, c) allow my horse breaks during the session and d) washed him off afterwards given that he'd sweated up because he'd actually worked!

I'm totally baffled...

Sol x.
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This is the exact situation I find myself in! My schooling sessions are never shorter than 45 minutes involving your exact routine. Two weeks ago I was riding a horse for someone at my yard. Said horse was very stuffy and although was keen wasn't actually moving forward so I decided to have a gallop down the long side as part of my warmup - something I do with most horses I ride as it really opens them up. Anyway said gallop ended with me falling off due to saddle slipping but thats another story and after it happened owner said ' why did you do that?' and when I explained she said 'but I don't do that' 'why did you do it?' after repeated explaination she still didn't get it (and for some reason attributed the fall to the gallop). anyway I got back on (baring in mind I had been on the horse about 15 minutes by this point and within 2 mintues she said ' you're going to hav eto cool her down now I've got to be somewhere'. I couldn't believe it! how does she expect anyone to be able to show them what they can achieve with her horse in a 20 minute session???

anyway she then said 'i don't work her like that' and even when I said 'neither do I, that was just the warm-up' she wasn't happy and I just said 'you're obviously not happy with me riding your horse so I won't'. and left it at that! lol!
 
CBFan said:
This is the exact situation I find myself in! My schooling sessions are never shorter than 45 minutes involving your exact routine. Two weeks ago I was riding a horse for someone at my yard. Said horse was very stuffy and although was keen wasn't actually moving forward so I decided to have a gallop down the long side as part of my warmup - something I do with most horses I ride as it really opens them up. Anyway said gallop ended with me falling off due to saddle slipping but thats another story and after it happened owner said ' why did you do that?' and when I explained she said 'but I don't do that' 'why did you do it?' after repeated explaination she still didn't get it (and for some reason attributed the fall to the gallop). anyway I got back on (baring in mind I had been on the horse about 15 minutes by this point and within 2 mintues she said ' you're going to hav eto cool her down now I've got to be somewhere'. I couldn't believe it! how does she expect anyone to be able to show them what they can achieve with her horse in a 20 minute session???

anyway she then said 'i don't work her like that' and even when I said 'neither do I, that was just the warm-up' she wasn't happy and I just said 'you're obviously not happy with me riding your horse so I won't'. and left it at that! lol!
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Eep! One reason I hate riding other peoples horses - you're likely to do something that they don't! You certainly were nicer to her than I probably would have been ;)
 
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