Lets hear it for Riding School Numpties!

[Natch]

Sorry, title isn't really a dig at the person who posted about being annoyed at a RSN, or if it is a dig only a very lighthearted one that I hope they won't be offended by

Just wanted to hear some praise about GOOD riding schools, and how your experiences with them set you up for the big wide world of horses outside of the RS.

I'll start - I fell on my feet with the last RS I went to - they had forward going ponies and we could help out for free rides so I learnt how to brush/tack up sometimes not alltogether straightforward ponies, shock horror I also got to groom a well mannered stallion and understand the difference between the RS ponies and the "big horses" i.e. stallions, youngstock and mares.

We were rewarded with free rides, mainly unsupervised hacks around forests with little or no roadwork, where we bombed around and had a brilliant time, fell off, learnt how to stay on next time and (nearly) always came home in one piece. I rode a TB who I nearly fell off as soon as I got onher the first time (Looong 16.3 TB stride compared to 14.2 NF!

) and had my fair share of hairy moments both in lessons and out with her, but she taught me so much. And finally I got my first horse and kept him on working livery there, where the YO was there keeping an eye on us to make sure my "new-to-ownership" skills were ok and he never went without

Your turn!

 

[Tinkerbee]

I'm a riding school numptie

Although I don't even have a riding school anymore...

But yes, was always good craic, brill ponies, loads of oppertunities and we were a damn sight better behaved than some of the liveries, and fed/mucked out/got injured by their pillock horses

Bitten in the face, kicked and knocked out, you name it. So there's numpty liveries as well

 

[stencilface]

Mine was also very good - and is still going 20 years later. The ponies were great - very forward going, typical first canters were on a hack and you were instructed to hold onto the saddle and just follow everybody. Riding the ponies back to the fields bareback, trotting on hacks practising touching your toes, jumping and gymkhana games.

Lots of the ponies did RDA once a week, and we always went on the riding week where you got to look after the same pony all week. Still remember Wurzel, the pony who would tank off with everybody, even the instrutors but yet you would stil get shouted at for letting him run-off!!!! And Strawberry who was four/five when I had him for my pony on my first riding week - and was still there 13 years later - now thats a good school pony!

 

[jumpthemoon]

Mine was a good RS as well - many happy yearws spent on Pony Days etc

I also remember helping out and bringing ponies in from the field - riding bareback with no hat whilst leading two others!

There are plenty of good RS's around - I still go to a local RS for lessons

 

[Walrus]

The riding school I learned at in no way could be classed as a "good" riding school but it did give me a fantastic grounding to start from. From the age of 12 working for possibly the scariest woman ever (at the time anyway) - taught me how to work hard, handle lots of different horses, deal with kids (!), to this day I know if required I could stack an enormous muck heap beautifully (steps and everything). We were kept in our place, not allowed in the staff room and had to eat lunch in the freezing tack room - just taught us to wear more coats! Probably didn't improve my riding hugely but gave me a great grounding in practical horsecare and dealing with clients. Then was very lucky to be allowed to help out at a friends livery and dealing yard - lots of differnt horses, that improved the riding side of things. Now at a beautiful riding school with lovely nicely schooled quality horses and definitely learning a more technical and refined style of riding and enjoying it lots.

 

[girla]

When i went to RS many moon's ago the instructor there would take no nonsense. We had to work really hard, we were taught points of the horse, strip,clean & put together the tack. We were taught how to muck out & good quality horse management. We paid £1 for half an hour & £2 an hour. If you wanted a free ride you worked for it, we helped lead reining which was bloody hard when you were trying to get a fed up pony to trot on round a paddock which was 2ft deep and you were no more than 4ft yourself. I loved every minute of it and without the RS it would of been a lot harde fro me to move on with horses.

My nephew is 9 and very eager to learn, unfortunately his RS think it is good enough to take £19 of him plonk him on a pony and let him walk round an enclosed area with 10 others for an hour without teaching him anything. He gets there at 10am and comes home at 7pm, helps with anything they ask him to do and he has been there a year so far, he doesn't know how to tack up correctly, where the points of a horse are, doesn't even know where the frog is on a horse. It makes my blood boil sometimes. I am not envolved with horses any more due to injury and he is too far away from me for me to offer any help. I could scream when i go to watch him as you can blatantly see that he hasn't really learnt anything.

Well done for reading all this, rant over

 

[teapot]

See my signature

I used to ride at a fantastic RS with a massive variety of horses, fantastic teaching and gave me a very very good grounding. Spent 3 years working there too

They were always really pro-active about stable management and hacking out etc etc, no such thing as just getting on for 30mins then straight off again when I was there.

Things have changed since but think that's inevitable because of the current safety & insurance climate. Also cost is a massive factor & mainly why I'm not riding there anymore.

 

[Jingleballs]

My RS was a godsend - it really helped me to overcome my confidence issues (I used to cry if the horse so much as trotted faster than I wanted (I was 23 at the time BTW))

They really helped build my confidence and put just the right amount of pressure on me to ensure I was progressing. I was able to loan out one of the horses 1 day a week which got me used to riding and handling on my own.

 

[Shilasdair]

From the other side - I used to teach in riding schools and trail riding centres - so much fun - and to get paid to spend summer riding along the beach....

S

 

[Natch]

[ QUOTE ]
From the other side - I used to teach in riding schools and trail riding centres - so much fun - and to get paid to spend summer riding along the beach....

S

[/ QUOTE ]

paid? PAID? Huh, our payment WAS the ride.

Some people don't knwo they're born

 

[teapot]

[ QUOTE ]
From the other side - I used to teach in riding schools and trail riding centres - so much fun - and to get paid to spend summer riding along the beach....

S

[/ QUOTE ]

I got paid too

 

[Walrus]

£2 an hour - wow! We used to get "tokens" which we put towards a ride, you got 1 token per day and needed 4 to get an hours group lesson (£8) BUT the owner of the riding school would only give out 4 tokens per day, when me and my friend started helping we made 5 helpers on a Saturday so the owner said we had to take it in turns to get tokens - cue 8 weeks to save up for a ride so £1 per day. When I got a pay rise about 3 years later to £5 per day I was ridiculously greatful, then I could ride every week if I as I also did a paper round and promptly gave every penny I earned back to the RS owner! Hilarious, and I loved evry minute of it! We also only got "paid" for working on weekend days or pony days int eh summer holidays, if we went up volutarily on a day we weren't particularly needed we didn't get paid. Still, I think it was some of the best grounding in horses I could have had!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

[ QUOTE ]
From the other side - I used to teach in riding schools and trail riding centres - so much fun - and to get paid to spend summer riding along the beach....

S

[/ QUOTE ]

I got paid to take trail rides out when I was in Oz for a year.................................Ahhhh the hardship!!!!!

 

[duckling]

I loved my riding school - it was the first I went to that took rides in open order, not just nose to tail, and what the owner didn't know about horses wasn't worth knowing

I used to volunteer from 9 in the morning until 5 at night and learnt everything from mucking out to basic first aid. We'd almost always get an hours free ride if we'd worked hard - either leading a beginners lesson or being the back marker on a hack out, or occasionally joining an experienced group lesson (most of us rode on these anyway), then we'd ride the ponies down to the field bareback at the end of the day

Fantastic place, and still going strong

 

[Kenzo]

You must of read my mind hun, I was going to do this post but didnt want to connect it to the other post if you know what i mean, merely as a celebration of good riding schools. Kinda of explained why in the last post so can be bothered typeing it all again.

My mum thought me to ride as a toddler, I only started gong to a riding school on a regular bases when i was about 10, just because i enjoyed the whole getting up, the drive over with my dad and getting to ride my favourite cobs...Busby, Minstrel, Jinks a horse called Rocky, a pony called Jimmy that looked like Freddie out of that pony magazine, ermmm who else was there, little wick grey welsh pony called Rainbow and my RI was called Penny Lane! we used to have so much fun, a lady in our group every week always used to fall off (poor woman) but it was kinda funny too.

Other reason why I used to like going is because my mum always used to try and lead me on my own pony, or walk with me and grap the rein every 10 seconds when I wanted to do it myself! (she was a great horse woman but got very timid nervous of me hurting myself...when I was about 6! so I kinda understand now) so going to the riding school was great practice years later, riding all the other types and jumping and hacking out ...was great fun although she used to make me wear a tweed hacking jacket (yeah I know!) I looked like the stuck up kid with her own pony...not a good look!

Years ago I used to teach, and we all used to go for picnic rides in the summer and take the girls to the shows, it was great fun but I never got chance to ride myself on weekends so i gave it up and we sold all the bigger ponies and just kept a few favourites.

 

[Ziggy_]

Firstly, I am offended!

Secondly I learnt at an RS and it was brill, they taught us everything from mucking out to bandaging, they did demos on backing youngsters and then within weeks we'd be riding said youngsters in our lessons. As we hacked we covered ROAD SAFETY and took turns to take the lead. We were even taught human and horse first aid and the older girls were taught how to tow a trailer/drive a small horse box safely. We didn't just go round in circles in lessons, we learnt how to improve a horse's way of going, how to walk a course of jumps, you name it.

Thirdly my rant did not say that everyone who rides at a RS is an idiot - it was largely directed at crap riding schools where apparently you can ride for years and years and not even learn how to adjust your stirrups or lead a horse. As I haven't had this experience I didn't actually realise places that teach b*gger all actually existed!!

So apologies for insulting riding school peeps, but I am still annoyed that the moron set a horse loose on the road and I will continue to be annoyed!!