Increasing Saddle Time

Ambers Echo

Ambers Echo

Still wittering on
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13 October 2017
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My YO and her daughter often ride 8 horses a day - anything from backing youngsters to competing clients' horses. My daughters swam 10 hours a week, my son plays about 10 hours of tennis. If he misses a week he can tell the difference. In all sports you need to put in the hours to really get a feel for it. So how can you do that with riding if you only have 1 horse to ride?

Are there off-horse options? Do people have lessons on other people's horses? Am I too soft on my horse and she could cope with far more hours. (She is worked 5-6 times a week on average but that includes lungeing, walking hacks and competing where you aren't really on board for very long.)

I am acutely aware of how many aspects of my riding need improvement. I can't even sit to Amber's trot! Jumping a course yesterday I was trying to recite 'look up, heels down, shoulders back, hands lower, balance the canter, wait for the fence, look ahead to the next fence....." none of that was automatic and the video makes me wince because I typically forget at least 2 instructions!

I was wondering about booking lunge lessons at a riding school. OH would consider it crazy to leave my horse in a field to go and spend money riding someone else's. But would that be a good short term investment to quickly improve my seat?
 
Lunge lessons are a good idea, I feel the same about paying to ride someone elses horse when mines stood in the field too!

There are also off horse exercises that can help, i.e. pilates for core strength etc.
 
Pilates and stretch/balance exercises are super for core strength and balance. Lunge lessons would be great too especially if you can do it in addition to your own horse. Like you say, you need to clock up the hours and if you can't afford another horse (time/money etc) then going to a riding school for lunge lessons is a good solution. Or even just riding lessons where you're on a different type of horse. I was lucky enough to have a pony of my own from age 7 but for at least 7 or 8 years I still continued having lessons at the local riding school once per week. At one point I had ridden every horse that was there from small ponies to 17hh horses. It meant regularly riding one that was different and you have the benefit of additional coaching. When I was training for my BHS exams I had a horse on loan, a horse to bring on (paid to ride then took on the ride with no money exchanged) and my own horse to back. 3 very different horses but I still went and had lessons on a couple of other horses to get my jumping confidence up. The loan horse wasn't enough to get my jumping confidence up without anyone on the ground to be adjusting fences and changing things and I needed experience riding other horses. I found it invaluable to be doing once per week/fortnight of riding a more schoolmaster but still with quirks and still making me ride.
So, if you can find the time to add a weekly lesson on top of working your own horse (maybe the days you do lunging with your own) it would really benefit.
 
That's a really interesting comment about how much people practise other sports, OP. I've no answers but I've found the only thing that has improved my riding is riding. Do you have regular lessons on your horse? With a really good instructor, who pushes you, you can improve enormously.
Do you ever search youtube for clinics, lessons etc and watch other people riding? I find this really helpful when a top trainer is filmed giving a lesson( top trainer not just a top rider, cos the rider often have no idea how to explain what they're doing)
 
Super timely thread for me! I had a lesson yesterday which really brought home my limitations that I'm hindering Topaz by :o...

I do have another 2 to ride, but only really the baby horse to school. Though I am going to make a much more conscious effort to do more sitting trot as it wont improve by me not doing it :o;)!
 
Having lost my older Appy mare earlier this month, after a few months of her not being "right", I have made the decision that before I crack on with the younger girl, I will have some lessons at a riding school. This is to give me the opportunity to ride a few different types and also to get my riding muscles back in shape properly. I have done this before and although the same RS is not still a going concern, I am going to give a different one a go.
 
Pilates & Yoga did wonders for core strength, balance and muscle tension. Cycling did wonders for my legs (i mean standing up and cycling, lots of hill work etc as opposed to a gentle cycle - also helps develop heels down and cross country stamina). Running or any intensive sport to generally work on your fitness. Eating healthy like every other athlete generally to feel better about yourself and keep yourself tip top - why spent £££ keeping your horse fit and then let yourself down?? Have lessons on others definitely!! Get on as many different horses as you can to work on YOU and not how you alter your riding to suit your own horse - you'll really feel the difference when getting back on your own as a "fresh" rider. After jumping 20 different horses you also change your thought process, its less guessing the individual horse and more believing in you and your set up for them. Lunge lessons and stirrup-less sessions help no matter what ability and will really get you to sit into the trot - My particular favourite still is a session of rising trot, jumping etc without stirrups, I really develop my lower leg. Go into your riding with an action plan to make the most of your time so your not just aimlessly trotting circles - youtube tutorials and a book series called "101 schooling/jumping exercises" are both brilliant.

Saying that... i bought a new horse, took forever breaking her in and generally discovered my love for chocolate brownies... I've started professionally riding again and all i can say is wow im unfit
 
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Providing your horse is sound and fit there's no reason why you couldn't be riding her more than once a day. When I was competing I had several that went out both morning and evening; better for the horses - 45 mins - 1 hour a day isn't even near the horse's capacity and most would benefit from more work.
 
Cortez said:
Providing your horse is sound and fit there's no reason why you couldn't be riding her more than once a day. When I was competing I had several that went out both morning and evening; better for the horses - 45 mins - 1 hour a day isn't even near the horse's capacity and most would benefit from more work.
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Yessssss... but possibly not loads more school work which is I *think* what the OP is thinking of? Though it does sound like the OPs horse could up the workload a bit.. If I had the time I would add in a hack on a schooling day, but not add more schooling days to the week IYSWIM.

I have 2 to ride, and I know I'm better when I have 2 in full work. Fortunately both require precision (or at least, as much as I can muster) in different ways - one training advanced and the other barely prelim :D So I am always practicing riding better :p The older one does 4 longer sessions a week in the school and the younger one 5-6 shorter spells, and both hack in between.
I hate it when there's only one in full work because I feel like I'm not on my game properly. I do ride lots of other peoples horses too though so virtually always get in the saddle twice a day.

I think I'd explore the option of lunge or good schoolmaster lessons to bump you up in addition to your own and anything else you can get your hands on :)
 
My core strength needed some work so I have been swimming daily which has helped. I am 3 classes in to a equi pilates class which has really made a massive difference, it's a small class and the instructor picks up on really small details to correct and it's really helped my awareness.
 
You could certainly work your horse more - I'm guessing you probably school three times a week, on average, so if you work twice a day you could up that to four or five, and still lunge and hack.

I'd also have lessons on the lunge elsewhere, and Pilates and fitness training - but don't beat yourself up by worrying too much about the ten hours swimmers fit in: swimmers don't have to scrub out the pool after they're done :p
 
Theocat said:
don't beat yourself up by worrying too much about the ten hours swimmers fit in: swimmers don't have to scrub out the pool after they're done :p
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HAHA yes very true. My horses are virtually another part time job! And I still don't feel like I ride anywhere near enough.
 
Or think about mechanical horse sessions, can be very taxing if right instructor!

OP, before I go to RC camp, I end up riding twice a day for the 3 weeks prior, having been previously doing 6 days a week. Consists of a busy hour (minimum, usually more) hack and a 20 to 30 min schooling session, or a 2nd hack with friends after work, when I try to employ a lot of position work on myself.
 
I do think most horses could probably ride more than we let them. If she is a sane sort who wont blow up could you ride twice a day? 45mins AM and 45mins PM wont be that much when you think about what a riding school horse does, and you will more likely get a better ride on your own horse than a riding school one.
 
My riding definitely improved when I had 3 months off between jobs and was exercising polo ponies for hours every day. It was mainly canter work but my then instructor noticed improvement.

Paid work does get in the way of riding time! Plus at this time of the year I spend most of my horse time hauling barrows through mud, filling hay nets and wishing for 24:7 turnout instead of actually riding......
 
Theocat said:
Ha ha!!! This is briliant!! Ambers Echo, I've found that truthfully nothing helps riding like more riding, but that aside there are lots of other useful things we can do to help our riding. I've found that the most useful things for me are swimming for aerobic all round fitness, and pilates for core strength and balance. But try to do more riding if you can, maybe there is another livery at your yard who would appreciate your help in riding their horse sometimes?
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Can you offer to help ride friends horses for them? Having finally quit my office job i'm riding and schooling more and more, mainly green riding school horses but the variety and bum in the saddle time is invaluable at improving your own riding.
I also joined a stage 3 riding training at a bhs centre weekly throughout last winter and riding different schoolmasters every week really ups your game.
 
Well rode 4 times today! Rode my daughter's pony twice and Amber twice.
And another livery has agreed I can ride hers. And I'm booking a lunge lesson.

So that should all help....
 
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