Is this typical of riding school teaching these days?

Unfortunatley a lot of riding schools around this way are like this. The one I started at was amazing, you learnt your basic position in walk and trot, and you had to know your diagonals before being let off the LR. I went there for years and went from riding a 14.2hh connie learning the basics myself to jumping their ex racer and being let to take him for canters round the tracks once they knew I had a secure position and understanding of the aids. They run pony weeks where you learnt about stable management, ailments and illnesses and how to treat them etc. People leaving were fully prepared and able to own a horse / pony :D

Unfortunatley the riding school changed hands many years ago and is now a very run down and un proffesional establishment :(
 
Seems to be very common :( where I learnt was (and still is) very good, very basic facilities compared to most riding schools but the instructors (there are only 2 or 3) are good and happily take your reins off you and once they feel you are able to, they let you ride bareback etc. My little brother had a lesson at another riding school and the first thing they did was give him a crop... he was on the lead rein and for a whole half hour it was 'kick, smack, kick, smack' and he was allowed to use the reins to balance in trot. When asked why they didnt tell him to hold the saddle or use neckstraps they said it was not needed!? We never did go back there and the friends I have who have left only ever go on about how now the realise how little they actually learnt from there.
 
Nice to hear people have had good experiences too. For some people who want to ride and their families are very un-equestrian going to an RS simply is the only way unless you have willing friends or family.
Not all of them are the same and shouldn't all be generalised as such.
Mine is fantastic, I have to been to some less than impressive ones but I could also say the same about many other things.
Please dont just put them all down on one or two bad experiences :)
 
I learnt a lot from my riding days, maybe not how to be an awesome dressage rider, but about confidence, horse care etc. I mean, I was 8, I don't wanna know about ALL the boring stuff!

However, my biggest bugbear was that they forced me to jump. I had no interest in jumping. I have memories of my instructer shouting at me until I jumped. He used to send people after me to make sure I wasn't hiding in the toilet at the mention of the word jumping. I also used to try and sign up for the pony who couldn't jump if I knew we had a jumping lesson coming up.

I didn't want to jump, and without knowing how to ride properly, the experience was painful.

Within a year of leaving the stables I was jumping 3ft on a 12.1hh pony (the same pony I had often refused to jump at the stables!).

Last lesson I had the instructor said that everyone should be riding like I was. But didn't say how I managed it nor did she try and improve on what I was doing. I had a lovely lesson working on the pony, but she pretty much left me to it to work on the others. Booooring!

Private lessons all the way now!
 
My last riding school was fantastic - learnt pretty much most of what I know off and on the ground horse wise from them :D

Shame they've got so expensive otherwise I'd consider going back for the odd lesson.
 
I teach at pony club (I have my Lunging & B test, working towards AH) and love it.

What I find difficult is keeping the fun element whilst still educating - it is very difficult. Trying to make games so they learn to ride a circle properly, or teaching them to go deep into corners and ride the arena - its harder than your think!!

It is MUCH easier to just let them jump so that they have fun and pony club mothers see that they are "improving" - its not difficult to have them jumping that bit higher than normal over a single fence, and they also feel they have really achieved things!

Teaching about diagonals is very difficult in reality IMO as not everyone "gets" it the first time round.

I love teaching but keeping the balance of fun and instruction is difficult!

Generally, the older they get, the balance is more in favour of instruction whereas the younger they are balance is heavily on fun - they have GOT to enjoy it otherwise whats the point?
Put it this way - those who were taught to play a musical instrument, did you enjoy the practising?!

Agree though, if they have been jumping they should at least know what a diagonal is!
 
flamehead said:
Yes. And it happens on here too. Kids who cant ride adequately enough to jump are already jumping, and then falling off and wondering why. Their position is pants, and yet they're still jumping.

But its because parents want their little darlings to be william fox pitt and cant wait. and kids are spoilt brats and want to be jumping rather than learning the "boring" things.
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And then there are those of us who WANT child on lead rein untill they are ready to come off it Who are told by the RS child must be off ASAP.
Who want their children to enjoy their hobby while learning properly only to be undermined by the RS glossing over important things.
Bitter? Not much :p just pi55ed off trying to find a half decent school-child is nearly 6,can tell when to change diagonals without being told(none of the other RS clients could!) and I don't see the point in paying someone to teach him less then I can but would rather not have the "Muuum stop it" parts :p

However,good schools are out there.When you find one suport it and pass it's name on!
 
Afew years ago i took my nephew for his first ever riding lesson, the young girl was trying to teach a 5yr old the principles of leg to hand, i thought this was maybe a little advanced though bless him he gave it his best shot, the look of concentration on his face was something to behold!!!! Anyway didnt go back for a few years until his sister turned 5 and once again i booked them a lesson (my brother and his wife are desperate for them not to have anything to do with horses but hey:D!!!)What a great time they had, it was fun, the girl was bubbly and chatty, and they got to have a trot on the lead rein and thoroughly enjoyed themselves,´it soo depends on the instrutor having confidence and enjoyment for their job.
 
I think it really does depend on the school and the instructor!
I have a friend who has her PTT who works as an RS at a riding school. She wants to do her Stage 3 so came to me to ask if she could practice jumping on my sjers. She rode my really steady horse who is 7 but happy jumping 1m20-30 and NEVER stops! She within 5 mins had him refusing a cross pole and saying it was all his fault!
Now i don't believe that someone who is not confident of jumping cross poles should be teaching at all but i suppose it is really the fault of the legislation for allowing people who are not fully qualified teachers to teach (ie AI)
and this is a riding school belonging to the wife of a very well known eventer.............
 
Before i say anymore, i know there are plenty of riding schools out there which are perfectly fine, and care for the basics.
I suppose its down to the fact that lessons usually only last one hour, meaning the instructor has their work cut out keeping a group of young children happy. As for children, fun in riding is jump, jump, jumping. As what child would be happy to spend an hour on trot and canter work?
The instructor will want the 'students' to come back, as this helps their pay check, therefore a fun lesson of jumping and quick flatwork will encourage younger riding school pupils back.
Also, groups are sometimes full of diffrent ability levels, so if their is one slightly behind the instructor is hardly likely to halt the others lesson to help one on their rising trot. If this is the case, they ought to reccomend private lessons.
Riding schools offer a diffrent range of ponies, so being carted from one pony to the next every week wont help her confidence or style.

I know i go on, i apoligise. (also for my spelling!!)
 
When I had lessons (between age of 8-11ish) i was never taught about diagonals....My RI just used to yell "you're on the wrong diagonal, sit for 2" which made no sence to me and it was never explained. Looking back my RI clearly didn't trust me/think i was a good rider as she never pushed me, i spent most of my 30 min lesson trotting, didn't learn to canter for about 2 years and never learnt to jump....as far as i can remember I was never an unbalenced rider, i could do sitting trot etc rather well.

I was also talking to my mate about it the other day aswell....apparently she's the only person in her group riding lesson that knows about the correct diagonals...All the other can walk, trot, canter and jump a decent fence, but ask them to tell you if they're on the correct diagonal and they have no idea. Her instructors a decent guy....he just let it go for too long and now none of them understand when he tries to explain.
 
YES mostly, sadly :(. I have been lucky recently as I have found a really brilliant local riding school, with a fabby instructor and good horses. I think the problem a lot of the time isn't just the instuctors, it's the horses too - a lot of riding schools I've ridden at have horses who are totally dead to the leg and ploddy, don't bend, don't know how to work on the bit - so really the only way the instructor is going to teach you to get them to move is by giving them a great 'thwack' with your legs!

But yes, I think the standard of instruction, generally, is poor. When I started again after a break, when I was 11, had lessons for over a year at a place where we were taught nothing of diagonals, correct legs in canter, using body weight & legs to control speed and direction rather thana sharp tug on the reins and booting the poor ponies in the ribs. We would just repeat the same things each lesson, and they would always try and get you to canter & jump, doing no work on position or anything deeper than kick and steer! Quite appalling really when you think about the cost of lessons.

Luckily, I then found several different riding schools, which were a bit better, then went to several places where it was women who had there own horses, who wanted to make a bit of cash on the side - not only were the women good teachers, but the horses were actually capable of working on the bit, leg yield etc, and listening to subtle aids like shifts in weight and squeezes etc. I think it's really good that you're letting this girl ride your horse as it will mean she'll really progress with her riding.

:)
 
I rode at a riding school for 3 1/2 years until I started riding privately owned horses (prior to riding at this establishment I'd been riding for 18mths)... whilst I was there I mastered the basics, rode in a double and snaffle bridle, did dressage, went xc, rode on the beach, did lateral work (when I left I was just starting to master half pass and flying changes), showjumping with endless gridwork lessons both with and without reins/stirrups (we did grids and bounces for about 8 months before moving onto a course of jumps). I rode a variety of horses from point to pointers to ex eventers, 13hh to 18.2hh, just broken youngsters up to ancient schoolmasters. So no I don't think all riding schools can be tarred with the same brush... riding lessons are what you make of them. I did have private lessons and kept the same instructor for the time I was there. I left this riding school because 1 hour of riding each week was not enough- I'd hit a brick wall and needed to be riding more often, so went onto riding privately owned horses.
 
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I only started riding 2 years ago (aged 28). A few months after I started learning, my nephew (aged 9 at the time) got a pony and started learning as well. Let's just say his teaching was very different to mine!!

I spent literally months working on getting the horses going forwards, and weeks of lessons without stirrups to improve my seat and my position. I didn't even attempt canter until I could maintain a good walk, rising and sitting trot, steer properly, with and without stirrups, on the right diagonal. This was with young instructors who had just qualified.

Nephew was cantering before he had grasped rising trot.

I moved onto group lessons - the kiddy WTC groups weren't really suitable, so I joined an adult flatwork group who were more experienced. At first it knocked my confidence, as they were looking fab with green horses, and I was struggling with canter transitions, but it gave me something to work towards. In this lesson I learnt to squeeze, steer with my legs, use my body weight to direct the horse and control speed, leg yield, shoulder in, turn on the forehand.... all before I'd seen a jump!

Nephew can do none of the above, but is jumping every week, in PC rallies and trying cross country. He still doesn't know his diagonals...
 
Simply tarring all riding schools with the same horrid brush!

Quote:
Originally Posted by skewbald_again View Post
A lot of riding schools pressure the instructors - children these days MUST have fun, they must not have to work for anything, so they must be 'jumping' from week three, and there is a lot of cantering while being led from the ground which I despise. Trot diagonals and often canter leads ignored, as long as there are games fun and jumping, and mummy will play up if dear little Jessica doesn't get to do as much fun stuff as little Chloe does.
Out the other end, it results in foul teenagers who are utterly convinced that owning your own pony is lowlife and actually they know far, far more than any mere horse owning friend who actually has to look after her pony herself.
Oh and Pony Club Centre Members get something called Bronze, Silver, Gold and the Platinum for just about being able to stick on for half an hour a week while real Pony Club kids are still toiling away somewhere between D+ and C being made to do everything properly.
Can you tell I'm just a little bitter?!

Ex- Riding School Instructor and mother of two On a Budget DIY pony owning daughters!



There it is again! That brush!
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Excuse me, why have you decided that my opinion is 'that brush' ?

It is my considered opinion after many years of teaching in riding schools donkeys years ago, and more recently, having a good deal to do with girls who ride both their own ponies and at riding schools, and a good deal of frustration at the issues mentioned.

You don't have to like my opinion but just because you don't does not make it a worthless generalisation.

Perhaps the fact that the general concensus on here seems to be that the majority of riding schools (No one said 'all' - I said 'a lot' of riding schools.) are like this is because ... er the majority of riding schools are like this?

Large number of people independently giving similar opinion - does not necessarily equal - 'tarring with the same brush'.
 
TG, it was you I was talking about!

When you first came on here, you said you NEVER jumped apart from once in a blue moon. Since then, almost every post I've seen from you is jumping - and whether or not thats because you've had private lessons is irrelevant! IMO you shouldn't be jumping because you're not secure enough in your seat and your basics aren't there - thats not against YOU, its against your riding school. IMO thats like me saying, well I know vaguely where the pedals are and what they're meant to do in my car, but I'm not 100% sure but what the hell, can I go on a motorway now? Uh, hell no!!!

When I was taught to ride, we walked, and trotted. We did diagonals ad nauseum, and it was a REALLY big thing to get one canter at the end of the lesson. When we were then cantering regularly when I moved up a group, we spent time cantering without reins (!!), without stirrups, through cones etc etc etc. Once in a blue moon - and I mean literally once a year - we would jump a SMALL cross pole.

Now I'm not saying thats the RIGHT way to go because clearly I could have benefitted from doing a little bit of jumping! And I'm by no means the best rider going. BUT - every single time someone sees me ride, without fail they say that I must have been taught well because my basics are excellent.
 
Tiggerlilly said:
Before i say anymore, i know there are plenty of riding schools out there which are perfectly fine, and care for the basics.
I suppose its down to the fact that lessons usually only last one hour, meaning the instructor has their work cut out keeping a group of young children happy. As for children, fun in riding is jump, jump, jumping. As what child would be happy to spend an hour on trot and canter work?
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Err,mine :p
He has got it into his head that he will jump the Hickstead bank one day (when he is a big boy-like 10 or something :D ) and wants to learn(which is why I am so annoyed that finding a good school is proving so difficult,esp since when I was in London I had 2 in easy reach!).

Personaly,for younger children( up to about 8) a 30 min lesson is long enough,push it longer and it will get difficult to keep their concentration.
Their bodies are still young and will tire easily,they lack the ability to concentrate for long periods and it IS a hobby so does need to be kept fun.
IMO,you do that by playing games. I taught a friends child to steer by sticking wiggly eyes on some cones and putting soft toys in the arena.

She was in fits of giggles the whole time and learned in 30/40 mins what she had failed to grasp in 6 months of lessons.
 
I have decided!

If they are happy for me to do so, I'm going to watch one of her lessons. I wont slag anyone off, I just want to see how she's being taught so that I can try to fill in the gaps when she's riding my horse.

Ideally (ulterior motive alert! ;) ) I'd like her to get to the stage that she can ride my mare properly for when my filly is backed. Then she can escort me and the filly out on hacks. We have two years... so it must be easily achievable! :)

It's so hard when someone thinks that they can ride and you don't want to be nasty to them, but they can't ride well enough to do the things they want to (on my mare) yet. As I said, I don't want to shatter her confidence, I want to build it and her riding skills.
 
Faracat said:
I have decided!

If they are happy for me to do so, I'm going to watch one of her lessons. I wont slag anyone off, I just want to see how she's being taught so that I can try to fill in the gaps when she's riding my horse.

Ideally (ulterior motive alert! ;) ) I'd like her to get to the stage that she can ride my mare properly for when my filly is backed. Then she can escort me and the filly out on hacks. We have two years... so it must be easily achievable! :)

It's so hard when someone thinks that they can ride and you don't want to be nasty to them, but they can't ride well enough to do the things they want to (on my mare) yet. As I said, I don't want to shatter her confidence, I want to build it and her riding skills.
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Good plan :)
As she is 13,tell her what you have just said there-her RI can't teach everything in a hour group lesson,so you would like to fill in the gaps and help her along.
She should snap your hand off for it,and the carrot of riding your mare long term should help her motivation!
 
As a manager of a a riding school I have to agree that unfortunatley a vast number of places do not provide sound instruction including the basics and allow parents to dictate the pace that their child learns, coupled with dreadful ponies that really would rather be elsewhere. However there are some of us that try to bring up the standards. I may be biased but my kids very rarely jump and then have to be able to canter independently and do sitting and rising trot and know there diagonals and do it all on fast and slow ponies without hauling them in the mouth or kicking them in the ribs! I am very strict and any pushy parent is told to go elswhere if they dont think there child is progressing fast enough. Its not about speed and if they break it down most kids at riding schools ride for about 30 hours a year if they are lucky. None of our kids come off the lead rein until they can do rising trot and until then they hold the saddle or neckstrap, we are lucky and have a simulator so most of the kids learn to canter on that before a pony. We are lucky though because our ponies are fab and are virtually all competition ponies or ex ones- nothing dead from the ears back. The only way to improve is better regulation but no one society wants to deal with it. We are ABRS approved and they watched one instructor teach one lesson for half hour and approved us !!!!!! Without the hours for the AI now how will anyone get experience the AI will not be worth much(teaching wise) if all you do is complete a portfolio. And our council licence doesnt care if an AI is around at all, our insurance company do though! I know of riding schools that use ponies that look like hat racks, use hats that are years out of date(with the dodgy elastic strap underneath), dont check girths and think it is ok to stay on the same rein for 30mins and have a chat on the mobile while teaching!!! Please dont put us all in the same basket as some of us are we believe very good! For those of them that arent contact the local authority or ABRS or BHS if approved or Pony Club if a centre then perhaps we may shut them down so those of us left can actually makea living out of it!!!:)
 
I didn't take lessons at a riding school, as such, but with a woman in the village who had nine or ten horses on her farm. We not only learnt to squeeze with our legs and keep our heels down, but she taught us to do leg yields, flying changes, changing reins, serpentines etc. We did many lessons without stirrups, and only learnt to jump after mastering walk, trot and canter. In addition, we had lessons on grooming and horse care, mucked out until the cows came home, and regularly took quizzes on tack, feeding, horse sports etc.
I'm not suggesting that people entrust their child to the nearest crazy horse lady, but good establishments can be found (or at least that was the case twenty years ago, when I first sat on a horse).

From my observations at US riding schools, things progress a lot more slowly, and there is a huge focus on correct equitation, not least because of the prevalence of "big eq" and hunter classes at American horse shows.
 
Faracat said:
I have decided!

If they are happy for me to do so, I'm going to watch one of her lessons. I wont slag anyone off, I just want to see how she's being taught so that I can try to fill in the gaps when she's riding my horse.

Ideally (ulterior motive alert! ;) ) I'd like her to get to the stage that she can ride my mare properly for when my filly is backed. Then she can escort me and the filly out on hacks. We have two years... so it must be easily achievable! :)

It's so hard when someone thinks that they can ride and you don't want to be nasty to them, but they can't ride well enough to do the things they want to (on my mare) yet. As I said, I don't want to shatter her confidence, I want to build it and her riding skills.
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You sound very kind! I bet she'll kill for that opportunity!

Do you know a freelance instructor that you approve of? If it suited you, why don't you suggest she swop some of her RS for lessons on your mare?
 
Ohhhh just remembered example of RS teaching.

A girl came to view to see about loaning a horse at our yard, Apparently she's been having private lessons for 18 months, and came to try out the big grumpy old grandpa who's dead safe and very well schooled (can do med-level dressage movements with ease). The poor girl had no idea, she was rather unstable, hands all over the place, jabbing the horse in the mouth and kicking at the same time etc, understandable the horse decided to do what he wanted and rip the poo out of the poor girl, yet they came back to try a few times.

The poor owner was torn between letting them loan, just so she could improve the girls riding, which would defeat the object of loaning, and putting them off, which she did. I was sat talking with her about it as everytime i saw her ride i wanted to go in to RI mode and start teaching, she said she had no idea what RS's were teaching nowadays.
 
OP - what about taking child and pony to a pony club rally?

Erm... while I trust my mare at home in the menage or in the paddock (think butter wouldn't melt ;) ) she is a different horse out and about. She doesn't do anything awful, just a typical arab/thoroughbred 'yay, this is fun!' and this girl doesn't have the riding skills to cope with that yet. In the future it would be fine though. I really think that she could become a lovely rider.



Do you know a freelance instructor that you approve of? If it suited you, why don't you suggest she swop some of her RS for lessons on your mare?

When I've found a good instructor for me, I might suggest that.
 
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When I was looking for a loaner for my fairly elderly but still capable and very feisty 14.2hh mare, I had one woman gush to me on the phone about how many hours of lessons she'd had, how long she'd had lessons etc.
She turned to ride the horse (Okay, so I have a high opinion of her, she was a showing champion....... in the early eighties :o (s*** I'm old :( )) got on board, after again saying how experienced she was from this fancy riding school.
Hobby (now ridden by an eight year old!) unfortunately does as she is told to. I say unfortunately, because RS (and I confirmed this at the end!) had taught that to trot a massive welly kick and a yank on the mouth are the correct aids.

Hobby, my darling, begged to differ, and promptly put in a teeny tiny buck, before slithering to her bottom and refusing to move. :D

Apparently she was 'gathering the reins' -sure, to six inches long!) and being firm!
 
EventingDaun said:
When I was looking for a loaner for my fairly elderly but still capable and very feisty 14.2hh mare, I had one woman gush to me on the phone about how many hours of lessons she'd had, how long she'd had lessons etc.
She turned to ride the horse (Okay, so I have a high opinion of her, she was a showing champion....... in the early eighties :o (s*** I'm old :( )) got on board, after again saying how experienced she was from this fancy riding school.
Hobby (now ridden by an eight year old!) unfortunately does as she is told to. I say unfortunately, because RS (and I confirmed this at the end!) had taught that to trot a massive welly kick and a yank on the mouth are the correct aids.

Hobby, my darling, begged to differ, and promptly put in a teeny tiny buck, before slithering to her bottom and refusing to move. :D

Apparently she was 'gathering the reins' -sure, to six inches long!) and being firm!
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If I'd been there, I may have pi**ed myself laughing!

'Gathering the reins' will take on a whole new meaning for me now! :p
 
Faracat said:
If I'd been there, I may have pi**ed myself laughing!

'Gathering the reins' will take on a whole new meaning for me now! :p
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When I gently tried to explain to her the correct way ( even getting someone else on board to show her) she was adamant that this was the way that she was taught and it was correct!
Though I suggested and gave her the contact details to a very good, reasonably priced private trainer, years on having refused my advice she is completely overhorsed with an overbitted and overtacked dumblood. I regularly have the pleasure of watching her 'dressage' tests at my local venue, which consist mainly of spinning in circles, poor horse! :mad:
 
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