Did you teach yourself how to ride?

i never had a lesson till i went to college, i was kinda self taught throu necessity as my dad was a dealer and put me on loons from quite a young age!!
 
Kind of self taught, learnt on friends shetland as a young child but must have drove adult liveries mad asking for advice & tips & used to hack out with them to get help. Rode bareback mostly so never got chance to get major faults. Had my own later on too. Then got loads of training as a working pupil for years. Looking back I wouldn't change it.
 
Self taught, used to ride the beach ponies from their field to the beach,
about two miles bareback, the rule was if you could catch a pony you handled
it for the day, ride to beach, walk it up and down beach for hours then ride
back to field, once got badly saddle sore, it was agony but happy days
 
Self taught. Can count on one hand the number of lessons and didn't learn anything but bad habits from them!

Unfortunately learning bareback means I loathe saddles. The stirrups spend most of the time crossed over the saddle on a ride.

Pan
 
started in a RS and learnt to walk and trot then the 'real riding' was taught to me by the ponies at the place i worked for a while when i was a teen, then i went to college and drove my instructor mad by being effective but totally unBHS lol, tried for a while to be BHS but then gave up horses completely for 10 years, when i got back into it i just went right back to 'real riding';):)
 
i don t think 44 is that all but im going to sound it in a minute!!!
Not much money in our house for horses or lessons. I can remember crying my eyes out because i wasn t allowed to enter a win a pony comp.
I looked after four horses for a local farmer and then worked in a hunting yard come stud farm. I only ever rode big 16 hh hunters with the result im terrified of ponies evan now. I bought my own ex hunter 3 years ago and discovered that 16 hh is a lot bigger to a 40 year old than it ever was to a 20 or 16 year old... I ve had a couple of lessons but tbh and this is disgusting i know.. i just sort of sit and steer and we are both happy with that!
I would get laughed out any school or riding club so i hide from the horse world!
 
luckyoldme said:
i don t think 44 is that all but im going to sound it in a minute!!!
Not much money in our house for horses or lessons. I can remember crying my eyes out because i wasn t allowed to enter a win a pony comp.
I looked after four horses for a local farmer and then worked in a hunting yard come stud farm. I only ever rode big 16 hh hunters with the result im terrified of ponies evan now. I bought my own ex hunter 3 years ago and discovered that 16 hh is a lot bigger to a 40 year old than it ever was to a 20 or 16 year old... I ve had a couple of lessons but tbh and this is disgusting i know.. i just sort of sit and steer and we are both happy with that!
I would get laughed out any school or riding club so i hide from the horse world!
Click to expand...

I just sit and steer too but I figured if Bridie knows what I mean, then hey ho who's going to judge me!:D
 
luckyoldme said:
i don t think 44 is that all but im going to sound it in a minute!!!
Not much money in our house for horses or lessons. I can remember crying my eyes out because i wasn t allowed to enter a win a pony comp.
I looked after four horses for a local farmer and then worked in a hunting yard come stud farm. I only ever rode big 16 hh hunters with the result im terrified of ponies evan now. I bought my own ex hunter 3 years ago and discovered that 16 hh is a lot bigger to a 40 year old than it ever was to a 20 or 16 year old... I ve had a couple of lessons but tbh and this is disgusting i know.. i just sort of sit and steer and we are both happy with that!
I would get laughed out any school or riding club so i hide from the horse world!
Click to expand...


LOL, I remember the win a pony comps and did enter but was never lucky enough to actually win it! I never had a lesson, first ride ever from a riding school (9 years old, pretended I could ride - how the hell did they not stop me!!) and put on a huge beast for an hours ride both on and off road. I did ok til the customary gallop across the cricket pitch, stayed on but was petrified!! I went on to deal with people's problem ponies, both breaking and schooling, by the time I was 11, so am more of a pony person still today. I was an instructor in my late teens but now resemble a sack of spuds in the saddle because I am lazy, all my natural position seems to have been lost along the way!
 
My parents were horsey but decided to let me learn the basics at a RS just to see if I actually liked it. After this I got my own pony and they 'taught' me from then on, as well as PC lessons and rallies.

I now have regular lessons with trainers so I doubt much of what I know is self taught.
 
Self taught as a 9 year old on a 11.1hh Welsh Mountain pony.

And I used to cycle 6 miles to get to him! :eek:

Never had a lesson until I was in my twenties and now at 37 I have probably only had maybe 6 lessons.

I have had horses my whole life.
 
Bit of both, had lessons till I was about 7 and then taught myself until having lessons as an adult (probably explains my inability to ride :p )
 
Dragged up by my insane horsey family that found me riding show ponies of all types for business, being chucked up as first 'passenger' on just about everything due to my size (portable), from 3 onwards. I had critiques rather than lessons, enough to get me to do the job required, then when i got to my mid teens and had to perform more than look neat, my lessons got more intensive.

That was 30 years ago, I have ridden sporadically since then. I recently had a couple of lessons at a fairly reputable school because I thought I should if I was going to start helping a friend with her horses, I found out two things:

I am not anywhere near as brave as I was when I did this every day/was younger :D

According to the instructor, I "haven't lost my seat," and my biggest fault is that I look down (probably due to looking to see how young horses are going in my murky past).

I am hopeful of still being an effective rider, it was amazing how much I remembered, but equally scarey how much I have forgotten :o I was also pleasantly surprised by how nice the two school horses I rode were. :)
 
Not allowed riding lessons as a child-too expensive. Read all the Jill Pony books I could get & had pony rides at church garden fete. Constantly asked for a pony for Christmas & parents said when I grew up & had a job I could buy myself one. I was 31 when I bought my horse & taught myself, horse in one hand book in the other. Now, 30+ years on,I have the luxury of regular lessons to support the book!
 
I have had horses for 36 years and have never had a lesson. I just bought a horse and got on with it. He was a newly backed part bred Arab. It should have been a recipe for disaster but it worked for both of us. We went on to have a long and successful jumping career and I now have stallions at stud. I have lost count of the number of horses I have backed and taken on to countless jumping wins. I do think that some people have a natural affinity with horses whilst others have to work hard at it. It never ceases to amaze me when I see some people who have had riding lessons for years, many of whom are dreadful riders and totally lacking in confidence. :eek:
 
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