How did you learn to ride?

Vikki89

Vikki89

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 September 2008
Messages
2,693
Location
Wiltshire
Visit site
Do you think it makes a difference to how you ride, your experience etc. If you learn to ride on your own pony/horse being taught by an instrutor/parents or if you learn to ride at riding schools riding lots of different ponies/horses?
 
i was taught by my mum on my own pony first bareback then mum let me get a saddle and instructor
smile.gif
i dont think it makes a difference if your a good rider your a good rider if your not doesnt matter how many lessons you get might not work x
 
I sort of lurnt to ride at a riding school. My parents couldn't afford to pay for lessons so i used to help out whenever i could in the hope i would get a free ride. I lurnt to canter with a pony bolting with me out hacking (a week later i did my first sponsourd ride). I'm not a great rider in the competition sence but i will get on anything and can normaly sort it out. When you ride for free at a riding school you get all the naughty ponies no one else will ride
tongue.gif
 
I rode for 3 months about 5 years ago. I have just booked a riding holiday on Dartmoor in June with a friend, because I lost a bet. oh dear. I have ventured into racehorse ownership recently, so thats really my thing.
 
I only had one fortnighly lesson at our local riding school and didn't start riding until I was 14 yrs, ...... I am now a BHS qualified instructor (having trained at Tallands) and now own my own riding school, with 20yrs freelance teaching under my belt !! So taught right you can do it ... own pony or not !
 
I rode at a riding school from the age of 8 (not a very good one I hasten to add, although I had loads of fun!), helped from the age of 12 and then at 16 jumped ship to go and help and ride at my instructors yard (she was doing a bit of freelance at the riding school and when she left she took me and a small pony called Eric!). She bought and sold anything and everything as well as having fell ponies for showing and the odd showjumper - I don't think I learned to ride effectively until I went there and got to ride lots of non-riding school horses. However she did point out that when I started with her although I wasn't massively effective I wasn't detrimental - more that I just didn't do anything!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
i will get on anything and can normaly sort it out. When you ride for free at a riding school you get all the naughty ponies no one else will ride
tongue.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you think that is because you had ridden lots of different ponies?
I was discussing this with somone the other day. As horses/ponies are all different in ways do you think it makes it easier to get on anything if you have learnt on lots of horses, maybe not necessarily in a riding school.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i will get on anything and can normaly sort it out. When you ride for free at a riding school you get all the naughty ponies no one else will ride
tongue.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you think that is because you had ridden lots of different ponies?
I was discussing this with somone the other day. As horses/ponies are all different in ways do you think it makes it easier to get on anything if you have learnt on lots of horses, maybe not necessarily in a riding school.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there is an element to this, as with everything if you're used to it then it's less of a big deal. If you've spent a few years being chucked on everything from a stroppy 13.2 New Forest to an equally stroppy 17.3hh IDxTB then it's more usual to get on anything. There is also the psychological aspect - if you don't have your own pony as a pony mad child you end up (even as a pony mad adult) being so unvelievably grateful for anything to ride you'll get on anything at least once even if it trys to kill you!!
grin.gif
grin.gif


Saying that, I'm a big wimp but something I'm very clear about now after riding lots of different horses is the type of horse I like. I know for a fact that I get on with anything that's a bit dopey, dare I say thick (?!) and chunky. I'm a lot less comfortable and tend to not get a tune out of little spindly prancy things that are highly strung (hence me falling off twice on Satuday!). Although saying that it doesn't usually stop me having a go!
 
not sure i ever did really... I mean, I can ride, and I'm capable of tackling the stroppy/awkward/difficult ones, but I don't remember learning to ride.

I had lessons on our 13hh pony, but I rode up there myself so I must have been able to ride....
confused.gif


OH learnt to ride cos I told him to get on Ron, and he turned from spooky super-speedy fruitloop cob into beach donkey until OH got the hang of it.
blush.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Do you think that is because you had ridden lots of different ponies?
I was discussing this with somone the other day. As horses/ponies are all different in ways do you think it makes it easier to get on anything if you have learnt on lots of horses, maybe not necessarily in a riding school.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think you do need to ride lots of different ponies, Like you say not necessarily at a riding school. The liverys at the riding school used to swap horses all the time so they rode something different.
But saying that i am compleatly mad and am always on a crusade to help save some problem horse from the meat man. If only i had the room i'd have loads of mis understood (as i like to call them) horses running round.
grin.gif
grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]

I think there is an element to this, as with everything if you're used to it then it's less of a big deal.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is what i was thinking, I learnt at a riding school and since getting our own horses i have also ridden other peoples at times and have got on a range of heights 13.1h to 16.3hh and felt ok on all but until getting my own i had not experienced a buck or a rear and i definatly couldn't sit to my old 15.2hh Tb's bucks
crazy.gif
 
I was 16 when I taught myself to ride on a neighbours pony. I never had any lessons. This lasted for 2 years & then I left school. In my mid 20s I answered an ad in the local paper & started helping someone with their 2 horses. 2-3 yrs later owner died & horses were taken away by family. In my 30s I went for a day out with OH + baby & friends to bloodstock sales & bought a 2 yr old ex race horse. Then bought a book & with horse in one hand book in other (& baby on hip) taught myself to retrain racehorse. I am now an oap, have bred 2 fantastic horses, one from racehorse & one from that foal, which I still have & wish I knew back then what I know now.
 
I was slung on ponies and horses as a toddler, bareback as well as with saddles. I don't remember learning to things like rising trot, but I do remember falling off a lot!

When I got older, I too was given all the naughty/whizzy ponies to ride, not because I was better, but because I was braver. Not so brave now and I have managed not to fall off for a few years (touch wood!!)
 
I started at a riding school when I was 9. I was the sticky-bum kid that always picked the mad ones, given a choice.
crazy.gif
The riding school closed when I was 14, and for the rest of my teens, I rode mostly one mad pony: she belonged to a friend, but the friend had another horse to ride.

Then I stopped riding for a long time, because of going to uni in a huge city with no way to get to a horse. I started again a few years ago, and find myself a little more cautious---which is annoying! I now have my very own mad pony (he's not really that mad
tongue.gif
), but I still go to a riding school to keep sitting on a variety of horses.
 
Mother...worst thing she ever did, its all her fault
grin.gif


We had a couple of our own ponies that she taught me on, but I also used to go to a riding school as well, just because I enjoyed it and we didnt have a school at home with jumps etc in, my mum was too over cautious and didnt like to come and watch, so my dad used to take me every Saturday morning, we had some great times, all used to hack out, the not so good ones falling off left and right and centre and horses bombing off with us all...it was a great laugh, best way to learn! although quite dangerous at times!
crazy.gif
 
My dad bought me my first pony Poppy when I was nearly two but I am told that before then I used to sit on our jersey cow, Buttercup, whilst she wandered around the field (obviously whilst being held by parents!!). I then had my first lessons at 4 and my dad bought me a just broken section C shortly after...and so started a trend of pushing myself with challenging ponies. I've had private lessons on and off throughout my life but am mostly self taught.

I really will get on just about anything and I think that comes from it being seen as 'normal' when I was younger. My dad was a fantastic horseman and had a knack for spotting 'potential' so I would often come home from school to find an almost ferral pony in the field
tongue.gif
Sure as hell taught me to get a tune out of most ponies and horses!

I think that riding schools/lessons teach you the basics but you anly truly get a 'feel' for it by gaining experience yourself.
cool.gif
 
On the nextdoor neighbours "rescued" shetland as a two year old. I was taught to ride on the leadrein by her, as my parents were un-horsey, then when I outgrew him I was supposed to get a pony on loan but it fell through and I ended up at a riding school age six.

I spent the next 10 years having weekly lessons and working down the yard to try and get extra ones, it was one of those old fashioned riding schools that have never heard of health and safety so there was bags of experience with lunatic ponies and doing crazy things like jumping bareback etc. The owner was a right softie so there was often some rescue case in need of special help too. It wasn't the most technical of places, but I learnt to ride and jump and look after a horse and sit a buck. I also did my progressive tests there.

I stopped riding regularly while I did my a-levels and degree and then out of nowhere found myself sharing an ex-racehorse while I was doing my post grad. Got bitten by the bug and when the share ended found myself a new riding school (the old one had shut - probably due to health and safety) and got right back into it. That was possibly the best decision I ever made as it is also how I met my husband.

Lots of lessons later and I'm now much more effective, have done my fair share of competitions, ridden plenty of less bonkers horses and not fallen off quite so regularly. My instructor is bugging me to do my stages. And I'm also looking for my first horse jointly with my husband!

I think riding in a riding school really teaches you some valuable skills. I remember doing my pony club D test when I was about 7 or 8 and the examiner was dead impressed by the way I rode a pony I'd never met before. We often have students join our lesson when they are practicing for their exams and it is amazing how little experience they have of riding different horses, and horses that aren't straight forward.

So I'd say never underestimate a riding school numpty!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top