How much did you pay for your first riding lesson

In 2000 in Cheshire my lessons were £8.50 an hour...it's about 5 times that where I am now in London - but luckily I work there so I don't pay!
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i have been riding 4 neearly a year now and i pay 19 pounds for an hour

i personally think its a bit of a rip off- ok i no that the horses have to b looked after and cared 4 etc but even still.

Any way i am ok with it cuz if you enjoy something then u pay the price 4 u taking part.
 
In 2004 my lessons cost £25 for a half hour private in Southampton.

Now my lessons cost £28 for an hours private with sole use of the school
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but am i the only one who doesnt actually mind paying 4 it if i enjoy it.
or does the price put u off from wanting 2 ride every week?

i dont mind paying every week because it is the only thing that i look 4ward 2 in the week
 
Me and my sister can't remember, but both seem to think that 10/- notes had something with it! We both think that means that it was probably 5/- each, we will check with mother tomorrow, she may remeber 'cos she did the paying
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This was the mid to late sixties and on into the 70's, so probably went up at some point.
 
Sussex, 15 years ago....10 quid for an hour group I think? Always got irritated when I saw the lesson list and we were hacking rather than in the school ( You paid for either, it changed for either lesson/hack), as the hack normally involved heavy traffic and no off road.
 
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£5.50 and you started at 8am and finished at 12.00 you groomed,tacked up, had lesson, did a bit of whatever you wanted and finished with a hack!

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Did you have to muck out too? joking it just sounds like you were paying them for the priviledge of doing the work for them. My mum used to say its slave labour. HAHA

I started 'helping' at the riding school catch all horses between 7 and 8 am groom, tack up, leading round taking hack out when I was about 13. I beleive you have to be 16 or 18 now to escort a ride. All this for a ride.
 
My OH started riding about 1967 and remembers paying 10/6, but she used to pretty much stay all day.

In 1982 / 3 when she persuaded me to take up riding, we paid £10 each, for about and hour and a half to two hours riding.
 
In Canada when I started taking lessons in 1987 it was about $17.00, then I started again in 1989 it was $25.00 (don't know what that equals to in 1989 £ sterling) but looking at my old riding school's website: http://www.cemicheval.com, the group lessons are now $40.00!!! No way I could afford that now, I used to have to scrap the money together each week from baby sitting to pay for it as a teenager.
 
£2 for an half hour's beginner lead rein lesson (this was about 1980) then you progessed to the hour group lesson and that was £3 and £3.50 for a hack
 
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but am i the only one who doesnt actually mind paying 4 it if i enjoy it.
or does the price put u off from wanting 2 ride every week?

i dont mind paying every week because it is the only thing that i look 4ward 2 in the week

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Not at all. I just was thinking how much I paid for my first lesson to learn to ride years ago and thought it would be a good question to post to see how much it has gone up. But when I had my first lesson it was very basic and after that you learned to ride or fall. The lessons were not like they are now, but also the horses even privately owned ones were not so highly strung as they are these days. When someone was selling a horse and told you about it you could beleive them. Those were the days. You also learnt to ride out in the fields not in enclosures so if horse buggered off with you, you soon learnt how to stay on. It was great. Too much H & S these days. But I know we need it. We didn't even have to wear a hat then, or if we did they were no good floppy and worn out.
 
nowt, as i recall. dad just shoved me on the nearest pony and off we went - must have been about 4 or 5 years old. later, when circumstances changed, i remember the grand sum of 50p being parted with for half an hour in the school followed by a short hack for anothr half hour. happy days!
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Three quid for a half-hour private (in 1988). Once I'd been going a while, it also cost three quid to take a horse out for a 45-minute hack (alone). Absolute bargain, IMO!
 
10/-, which went up to 60p (12/-) on decimalisation. I think hay prices shot up that year though. All a very long time ago .................
 
15 years or so ago, about '92 & I think it was about £8/£9 for a 1 hour group lesson (Gloucestershire). And as a bonus you were allowed to groom, tack up, untack, brush off & turn out!
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I was so pony mad I was even keen to do tack cleaning & used to think it was the best thing ever!!!
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10/- - the riding school was operating from the end of a girl's garden! She put me up on an 11hh, told me how to sit and hold the reins (heels down, grip with knees, elbows in and head up - kick to go, pull to stop). She got up on her own horse and we rode up the road to a field where she gave me a lesson and then she got back up on her horse and we went for a canter around the field. I still remember the magic sensation of the wind in my face as I bobbed along behind her - I was in heaven.

The riding school grew out of the garden and into a proper yard (still going strong). Bobby the pony lived to be ancient and taught many many children to ride - he had a big bushy mane that was perfect for clinging to in times of crisis. He also taught respect as he could nip if you took liberties with him.
 
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