Do you think we improve as riders exponentially?

[DonskiWA]

At the start, progress feels quite slow, but as we progress, do you feel we get better, faster? Or does the learning slow down? Or is it gradual slope - hopefully upwards.

Just musing...

 

[Lipglosspukka]

I've stalled. I don't think I will get better now. Hopefully not worse for a while yet! Riding doesn't really come naturally to me.

 

[milliepops]

At the start, progress feels quite slow, but as we progress, do you feel we get better, faster? Or does the learning slow down? Or is it gradual slope - hopefully upwards.

Just musing...

I can't remember the beginning much, but it definitely slows down, progress at the moment is hard won and slow. both in terms of learning how to do stuff (lots of trundling along and then suddenly a lightbulb moment) and getting the body to comply (practice, pilates, practice) !

 

[LeneHorse]

I learned to ride in the 1970s and have spent most of my time since trying to unlearn all my bad habits! At least you are learning in more enlightened times

 

[AFB]

I learned to ride in the 1970s and have spent most of my time since trying to unlearn all my bad habits! At least you are learning in more enlightened times

This - granted I was 90's but spent 10 years in a riding school and was never taught about contact/straightness/impulsion. I can sit on a horse in almost all circumstances - we were taught stickability - but I'm having to totally relearn how to do it with some grace.

 

[tallyho!]

Absolutely LeneHorse and AFB!

I think some people are born with an affinity and can still learn. If you are like me, a keen wannabe, I think you only stop learning when you want to, there's ALWAYS more to learn about riding, believe me, and every clinic, every teacher, every rider I see, every book (even if I read it 20times) has something new to teach me... every lesson I have I come away with an "aha!".

My slope looks more like sand dunes to be fair, with odd tangents going off into the wilderness and others heading out to sea.....

 

[Kat]

I think it starts off as quite rapid progress, then slows down.

Progress can be quite lumpy though, there are phases when you feel as though you aren't progressing at all then there are lightbulb moments when things click and you make a leap forward.

When you are first learning you will learn new things every lesson, then it can feel quite disheartening when you get to the stage where progress slows down. The first big hurdle is rising trot. Then around the point where your balance and seat needs to improve to enable you to have proper control rather than just being a passenger. Then again around the contact/outline stage.

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

My progress has definitely slowed, alot to do with chronic pain issues as well as getting older..!!!

 

[stormox]

I have just started lessons age 68 after riding old fashioned hunting style in the 60s and 70ss. I hope both me and my mare are improving

 

[milliepops]

i think it's a bit similar to training a young horse, you have that phase where they take huge strides forward in learning but it's all quite crude - achieving those *firsts* feels like a massive achievement but there's not a lot of finesse in beginner rising trot, or baby horse stumbling about gormlessly.

as you progress the steps are smaller and take longer to climb - rider learning to keep their legs steadier or horse learning to always strike off correctly

and smaller.. rider learning an elastic contact, horse understanding how to collect and extend

and smaller and smaller and smaller until you are making small adjustments as your expectations around the kind of horse or rider you want them to be develop and refine. Someone that wants to just stay on and get about on a horse might be quite content at the zooming along making huge progress stage. someone who wants a highly trained horse will still be nitpicking years later.

 

[teapot]

My riding's improved exponentially over last year (well six months of saddle time), with a pattern of climb, hit a chasm, then climb again. I basically relearnt how to ride from June 20 onwards, physically and mentally.

I'm at a finesse and poise stage polishing stage on a long term aim and it's harddddd.

 

[Tarragon]

I think that my graph would look like waves on the sea, with gradual increase in knowledge and then the penny drops and I just enjoy using my new found understanding, then I start again on a new aspect.
I do like learning, and if I had more money and time I would have loads of lessons, and I wish I could go back and start again with my 16 year old pony that I backed as I would do it very differently, knowing what I know now.

 

[stormox]

Remember the pattern of learning- unconscious incompetence- conscious incompetence- conscious competence- unconscious competence...

 

[Bernster]

Agree, bigger peaks at the earlier stages, then ups and downs and plateaus as you go along. I can’t find that cartoon of what you think it will be v what it’s actually like.

 

[canteron]

Remember the pattern of learning- unconscious incompetence- conscious incompetence- conscious competence- unconscious competence...

I like this.
And after 40 years I am in the conscious incompetence bracket - progress is progress!!

Seriously OP I think you are right, at some point confidence may become an issue which can blow it off course!

 

[Elno]

I like the Dunning-Krüger effect. I find it rings true most of the time when it comes to learning something ?

 

[TheProdigal]

'Good horses make good riders'!

 

[honetpot]

I think the big light bulb moment is when you realise that your physical ability is never going to be amazing, but by understanding how the horse reacts to aids/ certain situations, that you can get far more out of it than your ability.
Like most people I wish I had been taught properly from the start, you then have to rebuild everything and try and erase ingrained habits, so you feel bad, about doing it badly, when really it's not your fault. So then you become obsessed with doing it better, which is fine if you have the ability to do it better, which by that time many of us have not, and it can take all the enjoyment out of riding. Some people ride technically very well but will never be able to take that out of a lesson situation.
Thankfully horses in the main are very forgiving creatures, as long as you are not trying to ride the equivalent of an equine sports car, and they will comply even with the riders incompetence. When I look back on riding of forty years, there is not much joy in riding the perfect circle or the nearly perfect halt, the joy moments come from trotting in the snow on a sunny crisp morning, cantering through a wood or watching my daughters ride a PC a pony that we have trained from scratch together.

 

[tallyho!]

Can’t quite remember where I read it... I have tried searching my books too.
I was looking for a quote about an old man who was dying and he said that he wasn’t ready to go because he’d not learnt everything about his horses yet... iirc he said something like “I need a whole other lifetime to understand”... I thought that was very touching.

 

[Meredith]

My graph would be a very long gentle uphill slope followed by a down ward almost vertical drop.
This is explained by an eagerness to learn with limited talent and many years of no tuition followed by inabilities caused by ageing.

 

[McGrools]

I feel i do. I am constantly striving to improve and learn. I am 47 and have ridden my whole life. Every time i ride i feel i learn and improve across all disciplines and on different types of horses. The day i stop learning and improving will probably be the day i give up! My dream life would be to train every day with different coaches on different horses. I love the learning process! Xx

 

[Wishfilly]

Progress is neither consistently linear or exponential.

There may be times when it appears exponential (although how you can apply that to a non-numerical concept, I'm unsure), times when it may be steep linear progression and times when it may plateau or stagnate.

There may also be times when we appear to regress in our riding, e.g. following nasty fall or loss of confidence.

But I do believe that every experience and every ride contributes to something long term, and you may feel like it's making no difference, but as long as you retain the same physical capabilities, you are learning something long term.

 

[Lady Jane]

Remember the pattern of learning- unconscious incompetence- conscious incompetence- conscious competence- unconscious competence...

@Stormax - spot on. But I think some of my riding falls into unconscious incompetence and some conscious competence, ie I know I am good at some aspects and not great at others. I think this applies to most things we learn eg work skills, ski-ing, riding. I will never make unconscious competence and doubt many people on this forum will

 

[magicmoments]

I have been riding since I was six and am now late 40's. In most of that time I have struggled to keep my stirrups in trot, and this includes the period I attained my AI. I watched other riders with envy. Finally I can lengthen my stirrups and keep them in trot. For me that is a breakthrough. Finally got there I feel, through lessons with Mary Wanless instructors in the last couple of years. I too find riding well difficult, certainly not a natural.
Not sure which famous rider said it, but they said "by the time you are good enough, you're too old to ride", or something along those lines. I feel that is so true. Riding well looks effortless, but for someone like me it is anything, but. The timing of aids is only something that I became aware of quite recently, as is the positioning of your pelvis for certain movements which is seldom mentioned in many books, or indeed riding lessons that I have received. If only I'd have known these when I was alot younger. Riding for me is constant striving to get better. I don't think I'll ever arrive at a place I'm truly happy with.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Progress is neither consistently linear or exponential.

There may be times when it appears exponential (although how you can apply that to a non-numerical concept, I'm unsure), times when it may be steep linear progression and times when it may plateau or stagnate.

There may also be times when we appear to regress in our riding, e.g. following nasty fall or loss of confidence.

But I do believe that every experience and every ride contributes to something long term, and you may feel like it's making no difference, but as long as you retain the same physical capabilities, you are learning something long term.

And every horse has something different to teach us.

 

[Wishfilly]

And every horse has something different to teach us.

Oh, completely.

It's not quite the same thing, but when I've been at my "best" riding-wise is when I've been riding lots of different horses.

I think especially riding horses outside of one's natural comfort zone can teach you a lot!

 

[little_critter]

I feel that I didn’t progress much with my first horse, she wasn’t very cooperative (i still have her, she’s retired). Mostly I learned from her what not to do, what to nip in the bud, how to ‘school’ a horse rather than just ride round in circles. But it took years to glean that knowledge.
I took that learning forward to my 2nd horse, I had more idea what ‘good’ felt like and how to get it, I knew what to nip in the bud. So progress on horse 2 has been much faster. We are still at a relatively low level so I’d imagine we will plateau at some point. Then maybe sometime in the future horse 3 will have the benefit of what horses 1&2 taught me.
So I think you can fast forward through stuff you’ve covered with previous horses, but with each horse you will hit a point where you are doing new stuff and progress will slow down again.

 

[canteron]

.....
Not sure which famous rider said it, but they said "by the time you are good enough, you're too old to ride", or something along those lines. I feel that is so true. Riding well looks effortless, but for someone like me it is anything, but. The timing of aids is only something that I became aware of quite recently, as is the positioning of your pelvis for certain movements which is seldom mentioned in many books, or indeed riding lessons that I have received. If only I'd have known these when I was alot younger. Riding for me is constant striving to get better. I don't think I'll ever arrive at a place I'm truly happy with.

You could be my twin!! Love the quote ?

 

[sbloom]

The more I learn about saddles the more I think that a certain, smallish, proportion of people improve at a good rate despite saddles that don't fit them. Witness CDJ, she sits better in some saddles than others, but still of course achieves at the very highest levels.

The rest of us mere mortals are hindered by saddles that don't suit, but the industry is light years behind, and still looking at basics like deep seat and big blocks being the solution (they're not).

I think improvement slows down for most people, with occasional breakthroughs, light bulb moments. And that without dedication, bodywork, understanding the theory of equine learning and biomechanics, it's hard to make progress.

 

[Skib]

I learned to ride in the 1970s and have spent most of my time since trying to unlearn all my bad habits! At least you are learning in more enlightened times

I dont agree in bad old ways. Things change. Cultures change but often we revert to old ways with horses and discover there were benefits. I once hacked out with someone taught the old ways and we rode the differences and discussed the pros and cons.
Whether one continues to learn to ride better surely depends on whether one decides to go for tuition? What clinics and demos one attends. Tik Maynard was my latest before lockdown. And one remembers possible solutions to things one finds hard. So his advice on light seat stuck with me because my teachers probably rightly concentrated on balance (forward and back). But he talked about leg contact and communication with the cantering horse.

I was thinking about my old horse, how people said she would do anything for me. And it was true. And staff asked me to ride her halt to canter. And I would say I couldnt, but she always did. And I was thinking this week that one only needs Halt to canter when driving cattle. The horse I ride now, would not do halt canter. I dont imagine she has ever been asked. So that is a skill I have lost.