Ever get on a horse you just couldnt ride.....

Shutterbug

Shutterbug

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 May 2007
Messages
2,603
Visit site
Or are you the type of rider who can get on anything and make it look good - like those lanky ride judges at shows who you just want to drag off your horse cause they make you look bad :D

I went to try out a horse the other day - granted she was 17hh + and had legs made of rubber she was soooo bouncy and I just looked like I had never sat on a horse in my life before lol Hands all over the place, like a sack of tatties in trot although I sat her canter just fine. Im sure the poor girl who owned her must have been thinking I was completely at it. Glad to say I went home and rode my own boy and was glad to find that my loss or riding ability was merely temporary :D

Now I have ridden a horse like this before, and after half a dozen lessons in one week cause Im a stubborn bugger and refuse to be beaten, I was riding him really well according to my RI - but I so wish I was one of those peope who can sit on a horse and make it go and just look good on anything.

So which are you? Can you get on anything and make it beautiful, or do you take time to get to get used to a horses way of going?
 
I look rubbish on any horse - but I have a go - went out for a hack the the other day & got criticised by my daughter - I thought I was doing ok - its a good job i'm thick skinned :)
 
I rode a friends horse a few weeks back. I found him so strong and I think he just thought "Oooooooft lets have some fun with you!". Felt like a right numpty! But with some guidance, he did behave in the end, and popped him over a couple of jumps :)

I also thinks it depends on the type of horse too. I find that very well schooled horses can be more difficult as unless you know how to ask the question, they won't know how to answer.
 
I rode my friend's very expensive Belgian warmblood showjumper last summer, who she rarely lets anyone else ride. She said I rode him really well as not a lot of people get on with him, but he was just so different to ride to what I'm used to. I felt like I was just pushing all the wrong buttons!
 
RiderLizzie said:
I rode a friends horse a few weeks back. I found him so strong and I think he just thought "Oooooooft lets have some fun with you!". Felt like a right numpty! But with some guidance, he did behave in the end, and popped him over a couple of jumps :)

I also thinks it depends on the type of horse too. I find that very well schooled horses can be more difficult as unless you know how to ask the question, they won't know how to answer.
Click to expand...

Good for you for persevering :) The horse I had a go on was a 6 year old showjumper who was very well schooled - so maybe that explains a lot - wasnt me who was bad, she was just too good :D
 
haha i can't even get on my own and make them look beautiful !! But i can get on and ride adequately ;) the loan horse i've just taken on was giving my sharer a bit of a problem in trot, kept breaking into canter, i was sure it was because she was leaning forward but also didn't know if he was just being naughty so hopped on myself, i was actually quite impressed with how well i rode him lol, i generally don't think much of my riding but i got a fairly decent tune out of him and not one stride of canter when i wanted trot.
I don't like riding in front of people who i feel are going to assess my riding, makes me far too self concious which makes me ride even worse than normal:o
 
Yes! My friends extremely good trakehner! She's really fab and I was so looking forward to riding her...I just couldn't! Haha! She didn't put a foot wrong, I just felt so weird on her. I'm sure I'd get used to her if I rode her a bit more, but I felt like such a beginner XD
 
Ibblebibble said:
haha i can't even get on my own and make them look beautiful !! But i can get on and ride adequately ;) the loan horse i've just taken on was giving my sharer a bit of a problem in trot, kept breaking into canter, i was sure it was because she was leaning forward but also didn't know if he was just being naughty so hopped on myself, i was actually quite impressed with how well i rode him lol, i generally don't think much of my riding but i got a fairly decent tune out of him and not one stride of canter when i wanted trot.
I don't like riding in front of people who i feel are going to assess my riding, makes me far too self concious which makes me ride even worse than normal:o
Click to expand...

I spent an entire half hour lesson on a horse going from walk to canter - I couldnt for the life of me make him trot - took a few lessons on him to get it right. I also hate riding in front of people who I know are judging my riding (probably why I hate dressage and working hunter lol) the more nervous I get the worse my riding gets and the naughtier my horse gets
 
Nah said:
Yes! My friends extremely good trakehner! She's really fab and I was so looking forward to riding her...I just couldn't! Haha! She didn't put a foot wrong, I just felt so weird on her. I'm sure I'd get used to her if I rode her a bit more, but I felt like such a beginner XD
Click to expand...

When I rode the horse at my last yard which made me feel like I couldnt even do a reasonable rising trot - I booked 5 straight lessons on him so that I could get to grips with him so yeah Im sure if you had done that you would have been marvellous on her :)
 
I wouldn't say I could ever just get on any horse and make it go beautifully but when I have tried horses I have known pretty much straight away if they were for me or not. I used to be told i had an electric backside but I managed to 'control' this as I grew up! However, my mum used to make me try out prospective horses when we looked for my younger sister - not sure what that means really, did she not care what happened to me??! Lol

Anyway, as a result i dids at one point get launched off one rather spectacularly once. That was a strange and very complex horse!!! I wasn't about to get back on it. That is the only horse I have ever sat on and felt the human really had not much say in what it did!
 
When 'auditioning' for the riding club at my university, one of the horses I was given to ride was a 'proper' horse and a 17hh Warmblood - not the wee Heinz 67s I was used to! In trot I was literally thrown into orbit every stride and I was all over the place. The arena we were riding in had mirrors and I just looked horrific. The trainer kept yelling at me to shorten my reins, but I was so uncoordinated it literally felt I was steering the Titanic. :o
Not to mention the 4-year-old filly I tried out a couple of years ago who managed to buck me off 4 times in a row (the only time this has ever happened) yet the owner was all too willing to let me have her. ;)
Oh the shame...
I do take a little while to adjust between horses; the three horses I ride are so different that one would think I'm more than used to adjusting between them after 2 years, but after I've been riding the TBx for a little while (or been at uni for 4-6 weeks) I always get tanked off with by the two boys. Sigh...
 
Strangest thing is - when I went to view my current horse, as soon as my backside hit the saddle I knew he was for me :D
 
I once rode an extremely laidback hw hunter whose owner was a 6'6 well built man, i am tall but was around the 8 stone mark at the time & honestly don't think horse noticed I'd got on, had to resort to pony club kicks for every leg aid I needed, & almost swing off the reins to get any response. I was riding it on behalf of someone else, & was so grateful they'd seen me ride lots before.
 
when doing my stages you never knew what you were getting on, and had to get a decent tune out of it in front of examiners :-0
I can hold my own on most things. Not always pretty to begin with, but usualy effective
 
Rode my friends ISH eventer, who has a bit of a reputation for being a madam at times, and i couldn't so much as get her to trot! I think she knew I was a happy hacker and not a dressage pro!
 
Embarrassingly I struggled to get a very solid and safe (as in safe enough for anyone to be chucked up on her and taken for a hack) to do anything I wanted. I asked her to trot and suddenly we were blundering wildly back to the stables in the opposite direction- trouble being I found this so hysterically funny I couldn't take any action to stop her as I thought I was going to come off I was laughing so hard!!

My only comfort is my little sister, who genuinely appears to be able to get on a horse and have it behave immaculately could not get to grips with my old boy, despite him being just her type. She took him round a hunter trial course for me and every single fence she'd see the perfect stride, wait for it and he'd do something to throw her off balance- he took off 2 strides early over one fence! He was a monster though- if you were any good, he made it his mission to make you feel rubbish. If you were average he was a superstar!
 
The little cob I had on loan last winter was fabulous, but I never, ever managed to do rising trot on her. She had the weirdest action behind, so, I either sat, or, stood!
My friend's mare is hilarious, she regularly refuses to move at all when somebody new sits on her. A few years ago, they did a class where you had to swap horses. The rider who got the mare, had to do huge, pony club kicks just to get out of the collecting ring even though she'd just done two 3' clear rounds on her own horse!
 
I either get on with a horse and get a good tune out of it or I don't. And when I don't its catastrophic!

Thankfully I seem to get on with most. I'm not an amazing rider and it doesn't always look amazing at first but 9 times out of 10 I will get a tune out of it by the end.

I find that when you spend ages riding your own horse and get on something else its one hell of a culture shock!

I used to make a point of riding as many as possible to broaden my experience and I think thats a reason professional riders look so good on so many horses (apart from amazing talent) is that they have so many different horses to ride, they know how to fathom out a horse much quicker then us normies, and are therefore so much quicker to adapt
:)
 
After 31 years with my manic, no brakes cob which pulled your arms out, I cant ride anything which requires you to do any work with your legs.

I am used to the signal from walk to flat out gallop being a slight move in the saddle or at most a click.

I have tried to ride my daughters old cob but its such hard work. I can reduce the amount of effort involved if I wave a large schooling whip in front of her before I get on (just to make sure she knows I have it :D ) But even then its a lot of effort for very little.

I think I am a one horse person and will never really enjoy riding another horse.
 
I can't ride either of mine. I am merely a passenger, there at my horses' discretion. Having said that, as soon as my bum touches the saddle, I tend to know straight away if we are going to get on or not.
 
Yes a little Arab I was asked to warm up at a show! I couldn't even do rising trot on him!the owner wanted me to jump him needless to say I got off gave him back and walked away in shame. Telling my mum never to let me buy an Arab. What did I do a year later ,buy an pure bred Arab mare straight out of racing! She choose me though. :)
having said that I also rode (we shall use the term loosely )a friends part bred that was highly embarrassing!
I really think horses either like you or they don't . There have been a couple I have got on and people have been suprised including myself at how well they would go for me!
 
Yes! I got on my friends 17.3 hunter and I couldn't even get him to move! When he DID move I wanted to get off straight away because i felt I was heading for the floor... And the floor was a loooooong way down! Very hard to explain, but I just felt he was all muscle and moved like a tank! When my friend rides him, he looks amazing. Maybe I was tense before I got on him and he felt the same about me...

I am used to 15.3 ponies....

I did have a 17.2 on loan once but I didn't feel like I did on him as I did the hunter!
 
Last edited:
My husband can NOT ride my horse AT all... He used to hack out for miles on his own on my old mare, took lessons and used to exercise a friends big WB for her... but he couldn't even get my horse to walk in a straight line!!! It was hilarious to watch. My poor horse just kept looking at me as if to say 'are we finished yet?'. I had big plans for my horse to teach husband to jump so he could have some fun with him while I am pregnant, but he couldn't maintain a trot. Husband was mortified when I told him how well my 14 year-old sharer is doing with my horse!!!! All he could say was 'she must be a really good rider then.'
 
Oh yes...

Worst was when I went for a Dressage lesson with a new instructor, she told me to wait in the office while she sorted a horse out for me... I was expecting a school horse or a working livery, then out she appeared with her own advanced dressage horse :eek: Her words were, "he can do everything I'm going to ask you to do in his sleep, I want to see how accurate your aids are".

Lesson was tough, I was very honoured to ride him but did not do him a bit of justice lol. Bounced about all over, had him too collected, then too long etc etc etc...

At the end of the lesson she told me I was starting to look very smart and harmonious! Didn't feel harmonious at all. She likes to stretch people and let them be independent in riding with their own ideas, the following week she had me riding a rising 5yo to try and teach him how to go on the bit... lets just say I felt as far as my riding went I felt better than I did on the dressage horse
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top