How do u feel when someone rides your horse better than you?

WishfulThinker

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I ask because last night I was jumping in my lesson and instructor commented that Beau was making a nice shape over the fences with my sharer, and what the h3ll was I doing tonight as we looked a bit pants - He is fully clipped and although we wrote our lesson on the board someone wrote one in after ours and so we had to ride outside as 1 lesson, 1 lunging(!!!!!!) and 3 being ridden in the indoor school was stupid and dangerous! So he was cold, I was so cold I couldnt feel fingers and 1 of the flood lights has stopped working right next to the woods and the gate so he was spooky, and stroppy!

I used to be ok with hearing how other folk ride him better, but now its starting to bug me! I think he was however trying to egg me on which did work, but as hard as I try I still think that I jstu cant ride! I don't really ride other peoples horses - mainly as the few I have I dont like their way of going, or I have seen them behave a certain way and I just dont want to have to deal with it.
 
Well I share with my sister and we have the same instructor so hopefully we are just as good/bad as each other
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However when our instructor gets on, she makes him do all the fancy stressage stuff and it makes me mad but in a good way if you get me (and very envious) and at least I know he can do it, she just has to teach us numpties to be as good as her!
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In short, I assume that they are a better/more balanced/ more experienced rider than I am - sometimes all three. Don't have a problem with that, there are thousands and thousands of people out there who are better riders than me.

I am not sure that drawing a comparison is useful though, except to identify that your horse is capable of good work, and that on that occasion, you were not able to emulate it - and look at why.
 
What can I say? Maybe your sharer does ride better than you. Lots of people ride better than me...but a fair few are worse too....everything is relative.
Riding is like every other skill...takes hard work and the willingness to learn...as you're having lessons, you're obviously working so will improve.
And if your sharer is better than you - use it to your advantage and get her to school your horse for you! Much better than a sharer who can't ride at all.
S
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I'm quite used to it. Jayne, who rides all our horses, is one of the best jockeys around, and there is nothing nicer than her riding a horse at the yard, then passing it over so I can "have a sit on it". Just for long enough until they realise it is me on board and not her and then I get off!

Just be pleased that your horse is able to work correctly.
 
Certain people will always ride Pride better than me but he will not try as hard for them...

Eg. My instructor is a GP SJer and obviously when he sits on Pride he is amazin, well he makes him look that way anyway
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However he once said to me that Pride will only ever jump to a certain height with another rider, once it goes past that height he will only perform for me because it is me who he trusts.... Needless t say I thought it was a lovely comment and deep down was so happy!!!
 
Yes have had 2 that really couldnt ride him when got down to it and it meant he was a b*gger for me!! I never really hear much about how she rides and have only seen her on him once - but when I do hear its always "** did this great, etc etc" .

I think that the conditions did count against us, plus he was not happy to leave the party in the indoor school, and Instructor and I were having 'personal' issues throughout the lesson so I was either wanting to kill him or laughing like a loonatic! It just felt sooo crap!
 
Miffed...especially when its your 11 yr old daughter.lol.
She gets a better tune out of my cobbie AND she rides the RS horses better than me too.
I reckon its because she hasn't got the bad, lazy habits that I have accumulated over the years. Thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it
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Try having your OH as a professiona!
It is both amazing and soul destroying.
Amazing because I love watching how well she can go, also inspires me to raise my game.
Soul destroying - when I get a good 5% lower on average in competitions than him and struggling to get her to go as well.
 
I'd be quizzing her about how she does it! Like Shilasdair said, it's much better to have a sharer that can ride well, even if she gets a better tune out of your horse than you, than someone who rags him round and ruins him
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He did however say that Beau must love his mummy as he saves me a lot! As we hit one jump badly and instructor actually said he cr*pped himself as he though Beau was going to go over on me, but I sat it out and in fact it felt like a normal jump - but looked like a car crash !!

I would expect certain more experienced people to be better than me and get a good tune out of him - Well I would hope they would! Someone even once got a Medium dressage test out and got 5th!! No way I could do that.

I'm just really surprised as never felt jealous before
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, but I think that I am also scared my instructor will favor sharer over me as I was like his little buddy, but now she is friendly with him , and he likes re4d heads and she is a readhead - all be it 14years younger than him! OMG, I am such a child - I am off to hide in a corner and look for my maturity............it has to be here somewhere!!
 
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OMG, I am such a child - I am off to hide in a corner and look for my maturity............it has to be here somewhere!!

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LOL
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To be honest a couple of years ago I would have probably felt the same as you
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but I suppose you just grow a bond with your horses over time and it some ways it just doesn't matter as long as everyone involved is safe and happy!!

Good God - how cheesy do I sound now
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I think it's interesting to watch other people ride your horse, everyone rides differently so I wouldn't take it to heart, but it's interesting to see what other people can get out of him and maybe use it as a learning curve in your own riding. Don't get too down hearted, your his mummy so he loves you the mostest anyway!
 
We've had this all the time with our nice youngster. The pro who broke her has continued to ride her and my daughter had to put up with things like "Isn't that S? - she looks far better when B rides her" all the time she was trying to get to grips with the little mare. Daughter isn't riding her any more and the mare is turned away until I've lost enough weight that she can be brought back into work and then I can hopefully exercise her to fitten her so that B can event her for me next year. But of course I'm then going to get the comments about how she goes better for him but my reaction is going to be "Well durr he's a pro and I'm a fat middleaged woman who had 25 years out of the sport - are you surprised? If she went as well for me as she does for B then I'd be competing her not him!"
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And yes it will bloody well hurt to have to say it!
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Just to add though - each time I see her going beautifully for B my heart just swells with pride that I found and own this gorgeous animal - even if she doesn't look like that with me!
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My horse is quite hard to keep together and everyone that has ridden him, although they have loved him they just havnet quite managed to get him working like I do, he usually ends up in a longer outline with his back end trailing behind him, lol. Im not being big headed as it has taken me a long time and a lot of lessons to know how to get him working to his best. My sharer I would say gets him going as well as I do but she has shared him since I bought him, we have lessons from the same instructor and really work together as a team with him (shes my best mate).

My instructor has got on him though and he went so lovely, that just made me proud that my horse does have more in him that I can get from him as I know I have something to work towards.

I have to say though I think I would be a little miffed if someone got on him and rode him better. I do let a 15yo jump him sometimes, she gets him over the huge jumps as she has much more confidence than me as he knocked mine a little last year, I dont mind as I know he would jump it with me on, I am just too much of a wimp incase he stops
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I do think it was a little mean of your instructor to say that though, but I guess she was just trying to give you incentive and didnt mean it in a nasty way. Hopefully next time you will get the arena to yourself
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Great! Because than I know it's me(the cause of the problem,) and not the horse....rr

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Ditto! When partoow got on P I was
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And I loved it - has pushed me into riding better
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My friend rides my horse occasionally for me, and she competed him at dressage this yr.
I have to say I am thrilled that someone so talented has been riding him, and it's great to see my boy do so well at dressage.
I would be much much happier seeing someone ride him that he goes better for, than someone that rode worse than me!! That I wouldn't be so keen on, it would hardly be benefcial to him in any way.
 
fair enough if a better rider gets the most out of him, and i haven't had him for long so i know its the case. It also lets me see what he can really do and therefore encourages me to ride better.
 
Well, if an instructor gets on him they should be able to ride him better than me, otherwise why would I pay them to teach me!! If it was a friend, well< i might be a bit jealous but as weezy etc said above, it would motivate me to try harder! My lad is pretty quirky though so luckily for me I do usually get the best work out of him....I've learnt how far I can push him before he sticks two fingers up at me and tells me exactly where to go!
 
This is one of the (very, very few) things that doesn't really bother me. When I bought Maiden she couldn't canter on the left rein. I had had her about three weeks and then went away on holiday, and persuaded a friend to ride her. By the time I came back she would canter perfectly on the left lead almost every time I asked. I was amazed and very pleased! It certainly didn't bother me that C was obviously more capable than I was at getting Maiden to canter correctly, and it meant I could move on more quickly to working on other things.
When I used to ride Cookie, his owner hated it. She never really admitted to it, but TBH I could tell and that's why it ended so badly. I certainly wouldn't say I could ride him better than her all the time, but she can't quite get as good a canter out of him as she can a trot, and I'm much better at cantering him. She usually didn't watch me riding, but one day she did (while warming up for a small dressage competition) and I did two of the best walk-canter transitions I've ever done. That really peed her off, but it was un-intentional! I then went on to win the class and qualify for the championships...
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but honetsly, she can ride very well and never gives herself enough credit for it, and it was her schooling in the first place that meant Cooks was in-tune enough for me to get on and just do it! Shortly after the competition she told me I wasn't allowed to ride on the flat any more and I could only jump him. Then it went completely pear-shaped but that's another story.
I haven't seen Berlin's owner ride so I have no idea what she's like, but I can't ride him for toffee so she's definately better than me! Kit's owner is only a novice and the reason she wants me to ride the horse is so I can hopefully teach her a bit and show her the world, so I'm sure she doesn't mind. I just hope I can persuade her that the best way to show her the world is to take her hunting
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I confess its useful seeing how she goes with other people. I have an eventing friend who rides my horse for me sometimes (just schooling) and I am amazed at the difference when I get back on her. She has also helped me with some other technical things. She did say that my mare kept looking at me though at the end of the session and wanted to go back to mummy. lol. The end of the day, its useful but it doesn't affect the bond you have with your horse.
 
Years ago I loaned out my old horse to a lady who was a really good rider, I was so impressed with the way she rode when she came to try her that it made me more inspired to improve.
Thats why I'm always having lessons both on April and on other horses to get more experience. I'm much better than I was but there's always lots to work on
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