Has it "all changed"?

Learnt in the 60s - pony club, dealers ponies and whizzy show jumping ponies. Definitely grip with the knees. Only fairly recently discovered that's not the done thing and still getting out of the habit!
 
Lexi_ said:
The main difference I found was with rugs!
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The big difference I have found is that there is so much more to spend money on! Matchy matchy saddle pads and bandages, everything has bloody sparklies on it (which I detest!) and more complete feeds, balancers and supplements than you can poke a stick at. When I started you had to know about balancing different types of chaff, bran, oats etc. to make up your own hard feeds ("making porridge" the current boss calls it). Pretty much the only supplement was good old Livamol and if you used it you were awfully serious! :D

I was raised dressage, starting in the mid 70s. Even just fanging about riding in a paddock had its basis in classical principles. I was never taught to grip with the knee or thigh. The emphasis was on balance with good contact but soft hands. There were more leg aids and less foo foo bones involved. I'm aiming to get back into the saddle and get my dressage chops up again in the first half of next year, but first I've promised myself lessons on an equisimulator. I've been reading Heather Moffett's books and a lot of what she teaches is what I tended to do instinctively anyway, but I'm sure there will be 'new' ways of doing things that will need some finessing before I get on an actual horse.
 
It has changed, but I'm I'm talking from my time, the 70s. Rugs were awful, jute at night, New Zealand's that never dried out. And it was all grip with the knees and virtually throw yourself at horse's head pre jump. Remember a major Buckley shouting at me in a lesson: get your arse out of the saddle! I was nine and shocked. Fell off six times in that lesson. Great teacher....
It is much better now, like so many things in life.
 
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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How boring. If only I knew that was all there was to it, I could have given up years ago.

Harrumph.

:D
 
I find all this talk of foo foo a little sexists. Some of us don't have one. Does that mean we cant ride or only in straight lines?
On a more serious note, back in the early 60's when I first started riding there was a 'way' to ride. In the twenty first century there is a 'way' to ride. Perhaps in the 22nd century people will be taught that you should ride the horse that's under you, not what the book says should be under you.
 
What HAS happened to rugs? They've become like dressy-uppy Barbie accessories, that's what. You can now outfit your horsie in a range of weights, colours, deniers, necks, fastenings and "properties". I'm not remotely against rugging - I have two, clipped, in the shed with their rugs on (their ONLY rugs, poor abused things) - but the concept that horses need not only "clothes" but an entire SS/SW wardrobe and have to be dressed and redressed according to the slightest change in temperature is a new idea that baffles me.

Edited to add: PLEASE don't let this become a "rugging" thread! Please.
 
I have found that the way I was taught 20+ years ago is the same as now. Soft hands, using seat and legs, knees relaxed.
Canter - I have never heard of outside leg on girth, inside leg behind. Would be interested in more about this?

Rugs and feeding I would say are the main changes to care as there is so much more choice (and not always better for the horse.
 
skint1 said:
I hardly rode as a child but was taught the grippy knee method and I can't stop it, drives me mental
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Likewise. Lunge lessons and riding without stirrups helps but still my default position! Was after some breeches recently and the ones I liked which fitted the best had knee grip patches so they had to go back on the shelf straight away. Don't need any help there!
 
RidingAgain said:
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?
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You're a little younger than me but started riding a bit younger too so we'd have learned at the same time. I was always taught to ride with a very loose, relaxed leg and not to grip. Unless the place where you learned was very old fashioned, I would think you were taught the same? I take my niece to lessons now and I don't think that much has changed since I was doing what she's doing now. My mum, however, (she rode as a kid but has never been tempted back into the saddle by my interest) noticed huge changes between when she was learning in the 50s/60s and when I was in the late 80s.

I wonder if, as your instructor is young, she automatically thinks anybody who is older than her must have been taught all those archaic ways without actually paying attention to what you're doing or asking you how you learned to ride?
 
I learned to ride in the '60's, and did the whole grip-the-sixpence-with-your-knees thing, as well as low, flat, piano hands and tipping forwards from the waist, but swiftly got that knocked out of me when I (very fortunately) went to Germany and Spain/Portugal as a teenager. You CAN change learned behaviours, but it is much harder than learning the right way in the first place. I provided a great deal of amusement when I first went over to Germany ...........:-)
 
I would say you're doing yourself more harm than good at that riding school. Also the instructor sounds painful to me, a gung ho youngster critiquing your every move! Obviously they feel they're not doing their job if they don't, but are used to teaching people how to ride and you know how to ride.

You would be much better off trying to organise a share or giving someone a hand to ride out their horses, you could advertise to find someone. After a few years abroad I came back horseless and a friend asked me to ride out with her on her second horse. We'd great fun, big long hacks and exploring forestry; then we went hunting. She wanted to sell the second one, who was a bit of a handful and needed him to be in work and getting experience and I wanted a horse to ride - so it was perfect.

IME you don't forget how to ride. And by having the opportunity to just enjoy yourself riding, you'll get riding fit again. At the very least it sounds like you're in the wrong RS, if they are mainly concerned with teaching beginners. There are centers with a higher standard, like people competing, sending RC teams to the nationals, that type of thing, where they will appreciate that you can ride, and won't be trying to reteach you the basics - it's a bit like reinventing the wheel! It doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me - and it's supposed to be enjoyable:)
 
smja said:
I learnt to ride on naughty ponies. The correct way was the way where you didn't fall off! :D
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I was just about to post similar hahaa. There is a lot of good things to come out of being taught to grip with your knees and the main one is you can generally stay on longer should your mount decide it doesnt want you in the saddle anymore :)
 
This thread is bringing back memories of lessons with no stirrups and a riding crop behind you elbows and mugs of water in your hands to stop your hands from falling in on a lunge... my poor daughter has the water torture now, as least she has waterproof jodhpurs on.
 
I went back to riding after a 10+ year gap but in Germany, with lessons in German, when I barely understood German. This didn't work so well! What an idiot I was...

I have to wonder if there isn't something in the "chuck your hands at his ears as he jumps" thing. Whenever I look at shots of horses free-jumping they really stretch their necks down and forward –*far more so than they do with a rider. Would it be better for them to stretch like that with a rider or is our weight what makes them keep their neck shorter?
 
to be fair I started having lessons again 2 years ago, after having owned my own horse for 15 yrs but not having an official lesson for about 20 years! i do feel like I've totally learnt to ride again! I thought it was just that I'd forgotten, or had bad teaching before, but maybe it is because things have evolved, and now I am taught by a dressage rider, so that probably helps
 
SEL said:
I learnt to ride on the lunge (1970s) & that seems to be a dying art these days sadly.
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No it isn't! I've done my fair share in 80s, 90's and 00's! Actually, I find it quite useful to reconnect with a bit of no stirrup, no reins on the lunge type of riding... in fact, I quite enjoy riding with no saddle..

Everyone has their own version of what is right. Having moved around the country fairly regularly and wanting to compete and develop, I try and find teachers who teach a certain way, or follow a particular "School of riding" so to speak... even so, everyone has something different to add.

Yes, of course, the "art" is keeping the horse between you and the ground but none of us are built exactly the same - heck some riders actually don't have foo foos!! Imagine that!!! Where does that thing go???!! No two horses are the same and some like you slightly further back, some like you do be a bit further forward - I know plenty of horses that "put" you in a particular position. Hoicking you back or nudging you forward (and you will blame the saddle - although thats always possible).

I still like to hear and try what more experienced people think, somewhere in all of that is my truth. Is what resonates with me and the horse I ride. Many roads to Rome and all that...
 
I'm 20, and was/am taught that gripping with knees means slow/stop, legs behind the girth controls the as end, in front of girth/on girth controls head end, and I can honestly say there aren't many horses i'd ride the way I ride my own. I ask for a canter by sitting and a click, and a nudge with the outside leg if she's feeling lazy. I'd love love love to find someone to put me on a lunge line so that I could focus on myself and what I'm doing.
 
Thought I would add that my horse hasn't been right recently and I bought her an old Barnsby saddle. Not much in the way of knee rolls. She rather likes it and has returned to her very forward going self. I've found myself gripping with my knees at the hotter prancier times due to the lack of knee rolls on the saddle. Seems to work :D
 
Just to say, if you are engaging the calf, it's normal for your toes to rotate out (to about 45 degrees when jumping aka gripping for dear life). When you then relax your calf, your feet then come back parallel to the horse.

I think it's quite useful to grip with the calf when jumping to fix your lower leg. I was always under the impression that gripping with your knee made you top heavy as you can't absorb the movement as well (knee joint can't be used) so more likely to tip over.
 
tallyho! said:
Yes, of course, the "art" is keeping the horse between you and the ground but none of us are built exactly the same - heck some riders actually don't have foo foos!! Imagine that!!! Where does that thing go???!! No two horses are the same and some like you slightly further back, some like you do be a bit further forward - I know plenty of horses that "put" you in a particular position. Hoicking you back or nudging you forward (and you will blame the saddle - although thats always possible).
.
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this is a really good point and something I was just thinking about this morning :)
Been riding my YOs horse and I've done all his trotwork sitting because otherwise he tips me off my seat. He's really easy to sit to, even when swinging he's not much of a back mover, but develops greater expression in his shoulder and hindlegs.

Rode my cob this morning. We've an eye on medium classes in the new year so it's time to sit more on her.. totally different. She is SUCH a back mover, although it's comfortable it requires a lot more effort and she tends to throw me to the back of the saddle. This is going to take a while! :o
 
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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Oh Cortez, how I love you :D You call a spade a spade and always give me a chuckle. Thankyou :D



I have changed riding styles twice in the last 10 years, first to Western - that was a laugh, 40 years a la BHS, and I had to learn to forget everything I had ever known or been trained to teach - apart from keeping the horse between me and the ground , and that wasn't always successful :) I didn't even attempt to ride English over here because that was just too different.

Two years ago, I had an epiphany, changed again and converted to gaited horses, riding was no longer painful.
Forget BHS, forget western even, a whole new way again, which suits me perfectly, on my little horse I am merely required to sit there, don't move, and steer when a tree gets in the way occasionally.

Now and then I put videos up, I did today in fact (in Videos) and everyone on here is very polite, hold their tongues (or fingers) and don't have hysterics at my clockwork pony, or what I ride her in, and, bless you all, no-one has ever suggested that I re-train her or try a snaffle :)
 
I have really enjoyed this thread.I learnt to ride on some very naughty ponies,ha ha ,also rode bareback in a headcollar to the field and crossed a main road to get there.Cant ride at the moment,dont know if I ever will again,hey ho.Good memories.I watched a lesson a few weeks ago and kids don't seem to sit on their bottoms any more,and a lot of sterring with elbows out.Looks all wrong to me.
 
nothing much has changed in 13 years though 30 perhaps 50 definitely I was taught to ride by joining an hours hack and had to keep up or fall off 52 years ago. 25p an hour has changed quite a bit too. I would guess in the last 13 years the biggest change has been away from sugary feeds, a drop in level of work for the horse and more numpty owners who decide because it is cheaper to own a horse than pay for lessons for a family its a great idea to buy a cheap one.
 
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Palindrome said:
Just to say, if you are engaging the calf, it's normal for your toes to rotate out (to about 45 degrees when jumping aka gripping for dear life). When you then relax your calf, your feet then come back parallel to the horse.

I think it's quite useful to grip with the calf when jumping to fix your lower leg. I was always under the impression that gripping with your knee made you top heavy as you can't absorb the movement as well (knee joint can't be used) so more likely to tip over.
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Ah... yes classic misinterpretation example here (not you btw, just in general)... "knee" gripping, or is it that your weight needs to be "down towards the knees"?. I've heard so many different expressions. To my mind, it is to keep the joint articulate, yet firm up the inside thigh, near the knee. This at least keeps me flexible and able to use my seat and legs independently. Thoughts?
 
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