Has it "all changed"?

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RidingAgain

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Hello,

I'm just getting back in to riding after a 13 year gap. I learned to ride as a child and had my own series of ponies and a horse up until the age of 21.

Now in my mid-thirties I've been attending lessons at a local riding school. Though I'm rusty I can still tack up with my eyes closed and feel pretty confident.

One thing that's bothering me is that my (quite young) teacher keeps saying that "everything has changed" since I learned to ride. Apparently the leg position is different (knees away from the saddle, engaging more at the calf, without rotating feet out in what feels a v uncomfortable way). Today she said that "the way we ask them to canter" has changed too, though didn't elaborate.

Is this true? And if so, who has changed everything? Did the horses have a conference? Did the BHS put out a press release that everyone had to change technique?!

I'm really keen to learn and develop - and not precious at all about my technique or lack of it - but I don't want to re-learn everything for reasons I don't quite understand and also want to make sure I'm not the butt of some kind of stable yard joke!

Thanks in advance.
 
haha, had a giggle at the conference idea.
I do think some things have changed quite a bit. I went to a RS in the beginning that taught us to keep our knees closed on the saddle so tight that you could grip a banknote! I think that's a very old fashioned style now...
 
I dont think there was a conference more that as the sports have developed we've adapted the way things are done, there's more influence from the rest of the world (mainly europe) as communication is so much easier!

Teachings now to tend to steer away from gripping with the knee, i think this is just a general development, much like people dont really get taught to throw your hands to the horses ears when you jump, but much more to maintain a soft contact with a soft release over the fence. I dont know if the way you'd ask for canter has changed (how did you do it before?) but certainly i always remember it being inside leg on the girth outside leg behind the girth, which is still how i do it nowadays - however other people now go by the opposite, inside leg back, outside leg forward.

Perhaps try and get to some clinics/ demos in the area and watch those lessons too, they will be very different to riding school lessons and more representative of how the 'outside world' ride nowadays rather than just how your riding school do things!
 
Thanks so much! This makes total sense and getting to some local demos sounds like a plan. I suppose it's felt a bit hard to get back in to the swing of it as they've started by taking away my stirrups, reigns and doing a lot of lunge work focusing on a leg position I'm finding very hard physically to get. So I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a particular fascination of this riding school. I'm not sure they teach a lot of people who aren't learning their from scratch (the horse I rode today clearly hasn't cantered much in a school for a while!) so I think I probably need to go somewhere else too.

Canter - yes I'm more inside leg on, outside behind. Happy to adapt anything to improve but also need to get a bit back in the swing of it after so long out of the saddle. Feels great to be riding again. Already guiltily sneaking looks at the 'for sale' boards.
 
I think the modern saddles, with rolls etc, put you into a different position than the old hunting saddles. And yes, I can remember the old boy at our local riding school making people ride with a coin between your knee and the saddle -woe betide you if you lost it. Nowadays its 'drape your legs around the horse'. But a soft hand contact, and being in balance and rhythm hasnt changed. A good rider from the 60's would be a good rider now.
 
I had a very similar gap to you and got back into it about 3 years ago. I honestly can't say I noticed that riding methods varied greatly at the riding school I went to when I started again to those used at the one I was at in the 90s. The latter was a really good place with nice horses though, so perhaps it wasn't quite as old school as some of the methods people are talking about?

The main difference I found was with rugs!
 
LeannePip said:
I dont think there was a conference more that as the sports have developed we've adapted the way things are done, there's more influence from the rest of the world (mainly europe) as communication is so much easier!

Teachings now to tend to steer away from gripping with the knee, i think this is just a general development, much like people dont really get taught to throw your hands to the horses ears when you jump, but much more to maintain a soft contact with a soft release over the fence. I dont know if the way you'd ask for canter has changed (how did you do it before?) but certainly i always remember it being inside leg on the girth outside leg behind the girth, which is still how i do it nowadays - however other people now go by the opposite, inside leg back, outside leg forward.

Perhaps try and get to some clinics/ demos in the area and watch those lessons too, they will be very different to riding school lessons and more representative of how the 'outside world' ride nowadays rather than just how your riding school do things!
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Gripping with the knees went out rather longer than 13 years ago, I have been teaching for 30 plus years and have never taught anyone to grip with the knees and I was not taught to either, as far as I know at the basic levels not much has really changed fundamentally but the overall standard of what we are expecting and achieving in our riding has risen.
The BHS seat has remained much the same but I think with more people training through colleges and less out in the real world hunting/ hacking, generally finding your own balance and style, means the average "young" instructor has probably decided it is all a new way of riding rather than the way they were taught in order to pass their exams, the improvement in saddle design has allowed our position to become more easily established without being influenced by something pulling or pushing you in the wrong direction.
 
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LeannePip said:
however other people now go by the opposite, inside leg back, outside leg forward.
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Eh? Really? Is that actually being taught? I'd be interested to know the reason behind that one.

I've always done inside leg on girth, outside behind: 1) to stop the horse falling out and 2) to aid in striking off on the right leg
 
When I started to learn to ride in the late 1960s we were taught to grip with our knees and in fact I spent a lot of time trotting with 6d coins (the little silver ones) between my knees and the saddle. I was also taught to canter by outside leg back, inside leg on the girth. In the mid 1970s I got my first pony and then didn't have formal riding lessons until the mid 1980s at which point I discovered that gripping with your knees was know frowned upon and was then taught as the OP described. I was also taught to ask for canter by pushing my inside seatbone forward and up rather than leg back, leg on the girth.
 
Things have definatly moved on apparently! I remember my mum used to put a sheet of paper between my knees and the saddle to make sure I wasn't flapping and drilled the whole heels down thing into me 😂😂😂 I can't change my style of riding now it's too ingrained and kept me firm in the saddle through some very hair raising moments! I tried lessons a couple of years ago because i wanted to be able to do some ridden classes with my mare but my brain and muscles won't allow me to change and the old school style works for me so I'm sticking with the hacking and in hand shows lol
 
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eggs said:
I was also taught to ask for canter by pushing my inside seatbone forward and up rather than leg back, leg on the girth.
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That was something else too. Not sure if the times have changed or it was just straight up bad teaching, but I was taught to ask for canter and to maintain the canter by imagining that I was painting a strip onto the the saddle with my bum.
 
I learned to ride in the early 1990s and was taught to hold a bank note in between knees and saddle. It was clearly a very old fashioned set up!

I now ride with relaxed knees especially on hot horses seems to keep them more calm. Not sure that's correct...

My mum was a BHSAI 35 years ago and she definitely has a different outlook on management to a lot she of people now, e.g. a lot of horses are over "pampered" (always in turn out boots, over rugging etc.).

I think in many ways with more science things have improved greatly but we've lost a bit of that gung ho attitude that could teach stickability, especially with kids.
 
I've just got back into riding after a ten year ish break and I (so far) haven't noticed any changes at all...apart from feeling old when my instructor said she was born 10 years after I started to ride originally
 
SpringArising said:
That was something else too. Not sure if the times have changed or it was just straight up bad teaching, but I was taught to ask for canter and to maintain the canter by imagining that I was painting a strip onto the the saddle with my bum.
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I seem to remember my father saying (and OMG had he been taught seriously, pre-war) "imagine you're polishing the saddle with your arse". Can't say it ever seemed to work for me! I fear I will never make a classical rider, which is sad.....
 
Hey look, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

There is something about fashion that seems to like to bin everything before the latest fad without looking and thinking "now, what was useful?"

I was taught to grip on in the 80's. After a break, just like you OP, I met someone at work after a 6 year break and went for lessons and it was all "leg away". So that was all a huge learning curve, all long-legged and sitty-trotty stuff. Actually it felt pretty amazing and my horse changed shape so much for the better... fast forward a decade and there's some truth in the old grip you know. It's been a really massive learning curve for me, maybe circle actually!

So now, after even more than a decade, I'm rediscovering my thigh muscles and knees.... more about weight and seat bones rather than actual "grippage" but there is an ounce or more of truth in it.

If you fancy it, do pick up a book or two just to get your head properly swimming in some deliciously deep and dark theory. If you're anything like me, you'll still be like... "er... what?" but it's all starting to make sense now and I have discovered new bits of my body I've never even heard of and and I can actually turn my 15.3 mare just by a bone somewhere near my foo foo.

(p.s. turning said mare was rather like turning the Mary Celeste in a cross wind... circle??? What circle?)
 
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I learnt to ride 31 years ago in a well known BHS establishment, we were not taught to grip with our knees and nothing really has changed with the basics since.

However things have most definitely moved on, there is now much more in the way of systems, ideas, visuals etc to help both horse and rider achieve the ideal position and way of going! So many more tools for the good instructor to make use of!
 
Right Tallyho, that's enough of your sitty-trotty and foo foo bone! Riding consists of keeping the horse between yourself and the ground, all the rest is just frills: horses have been ridden for upwards of 3,000 years, in a variety of styles: there is nothing new.
 
Well, my riding 'instructions' circa 1970 were:

'Sit up, look up and relax; back straight, knees into the saddle ... these are the reins & these are the stirrups ... light hands, stirrup on the balls of your feet, heels slightly lower than toes .... Oh! And try not to fall off. It hurts.'

Pony Club was a hell of a shock! Whadayya mean? 'Diagonals and correct canter leads?!' and 'Seeing a stride'?!

Anyway. I am aware my adult-self probably has some terrible habits; a bit like clutch-sliding to junctions in my car!

I don't have an instructor, partly due to lack of confidence in my abilities these days and partly due to cost. BUT I have been watching the Mary Wanless 'The Seeking Reflexes' lecture demos. They make sense to me as they look at the biomechanics of how a rider can affect a horse and I've put into practice. It has certainly made my horse's way of going much more fluid, so I'll be sticking with it.

Upshot of my ramblings ?

People who can ride - and I mean REALLY ride - do so instinctively. The rest of us need to be taught ... and there will always be a new way of reinventing the wheel, which the 'newly enlightened instructions' will want to claim as their own.

Go with what you think by listening to your horse, making considered adjustments and assessing the results.

As Cortez says, not all the changes have been for the better :)
 
Quick just buy a horse and hide away riding your own style how you remember and be happy :D

Rugs have changed yes but for me coming back its the breeds .... everything is a breed now and i dont remember it playing such a big part when i was younger!
 
Cortez said:
Right Tallyho, that's enough of your sitty-trotty and foo foo bone! Riding consists of keeping the horse between yourself and the ground, all the rest is just frills: horses have been ridden for upwards of 3,000 years, in a variety of styles: there is nothing new.
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So so true......��
 
It's not changed a lot in 13 years. I learned to ride 30 years ago and I was never taught to grip with my knees.

The "breed" thing is down to passports I think. Lots wouldn't have bothered to register or note the breed but now there is a passport you are more likely to know what it ate for breakfast before you bought it never mind breed.
 
Antw23uk said:
Quick just buy a horse and hide away riding your own style how you remember and be happy :D

Rugs have changed yes but for me coming back its the breeds .... everything is a breed now and i dont remember it playing such a big part when i was younger!
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Ha! Don't tempt me too much. I think actually if I just could potter about with a horse for a bit and get that connection and feeling back first it would help hugely but it's all good fun, eh?!
 
TBH I can't remember the technique I was taught (in quite a formal dressage yard in the early 90's) - by the time I had my own horse and was on a much more rough and ready yard I was just riding instinctively. Probably picked up some terrible habits though!
 
Mrs B said:
I don't have an instructor, partly due to lack of confidence in my abilities these days and partly due to cost. BUT I have been watching the Mary Wanless 'The Seeking Reflexes' lecture demos. They make sense to me as they look at the biomechanics of how a rider can affect a horse and I've put into practice. It has certainly made my horse's way of going much more fluid, so I'll be sticking with it.
Click to expand...

Thanks will check that out!
 
stormox said:
I think the modern saddles, with rolls etc, put you into a different position than the old hunting saddles. And yes, I can remember the old boy at our local riding school making people ride with a coin between your knee and the saddle -woe betide you if you lost it. Nowadays its 'drape your legs around the horse'. But a soft hand contact, and being in balance and rhythm hasnt changed. A good rider from the 60's would be a good rider now.
Click to expand...

I've always been a soft hand riding - much more about seat and legs. Think I'd have learned in a more modern saddle - am 34 and started riding aged 7?
 
junglefairy said:
I learned to ride in the early 1990s and was taught to hold a bank note in between knees and saddle. It was clearly a very old fashioned set up!

I now ride with relaxed knees especially on hot horses seems to keep them more calm. Not sure that's correct...

My mum was a BHSAI 35 years ago and she definitely has a different outlook on management to a lot she of people now, e.g. a lot of horses are over "pampered" (always in turn out boots, over rugging etc.).

I think in many ways with more science things have improved greatly but we've lost a bit of that gung ho attitude that could teach stickability, especially with kids.
Click to expand...

Yes, I mentioned I used to ride the horses in from the far paddocks in headcollars only and there were lots of mutterings about health and safety. Decided not to mention that we jumped the picnic benches too!
 
so, how are we supposed to ask for canter? I was taught outside leg behind the girth inside leg on the girth
 
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