KK557
New User
Hi,
hoping someone can give me some guidance about a recent experience.
Sorry about the long post!
I have always loved horses, but growing up was never in a position to have riding lessons. I was, however, fortunate enough to live in a rural area where lots of my friends growing up did have horses. Therefore I got to experience riding and got to the point where I could walk trot and canter on one of my friends safe horses.
Before Covid I decided now was the time to develop this passion and started riding lessons at a lovely stables where I explained I needed to go back to basics and learn properly as apart from kicking the horse, rising in trot and being able to stay on in canter, I didn’t really know what I was doing!
They worked with me on technique and I had worked my way back up to having a few canters when Covid hit. I managed to have some ad hoc riding lessons on the owners horse but unfortunately for them they changed the way they ran the riding school (sold most of their horses) and I had to find a new riding school ?
I have had 3 lessons at a new riding school and the first two times I was on the same horse. I could barely get him to walk and when he did it was to pull back to the instructor, or basically go wherever he wanted to. After about 45 mins I eventually got a few strides of trot. The next time on home was the same. They said it was because I am a novice (true) and that I need to learn to handle a stubborn horse (also fine). not the experience I wanted but I am there to be a better rider so appreciate I can’t be on steady cooperative horses to achieve that.
However on my last lesson I was on a different horse, I was told he was better than the previous and should enjoy him more. When she was adjusting his saddle I noticed him stamping his front foot quite hard and laughed him my head “he doesn’t look less stubborn”. He was fine for the first couple of minutes but wasn’t responding to leg so she told me to be harder, he bucked but I managed to stay on. Her advice was to ‘ride through it’. She instructed me to do various things to get him to move on in a quicker walk, harder kicks, squeeze, waving the crop and sometimes was fine, sometimes buck. All in all he bucked about 5 times during the lesson. It was a car crash as he either wouldn’t listen or buck. At the end abs explained that because he bucked at first and then I was less confident with him, he got his way and he managed to get out of working harder so next time I need to come back more confident.
Whilst I agree with all this in principle, I abs explained to them that I wanted to go back to basics and learn to ride properly as I feel I am the equivalent of someone who has been taught to drive a car by their dad.
is this a good way for me to learn and I should stick with it or is the horse unsuitable for me (as my partner is suggesting)?
apologies for the long post but I don’t want to give up, appreciate i am a novice, but likewise it has knocked my confidence.
many thanks
hoping someone can give me some guidance about a recent experience.
Sorry about the long post!
I have always loved horses, but growing up was never in a position to have riding lessons. I was, however, fortunate enough to live in a rural area where lots of my friends growing up did have horses. Therefore I got to experience riding and got to the point where I could walk trot and canter on one of my friends safe horses.
Before Covid I decided now was the time to develop this passion and started riding lessons at a lovely stables where I explained I needed to go back to basics and learn properly as apart from kicking the horse, rising in trot and being able to stay on in canter, I didn’t really know what I was doing!
They worked with me on technique and I had worked my way back up to having a few canters when Covid hit. I managed to have some ad hoc riding lessons on the owners horse but unfortunately for them they changed the way they ran the riding school (sold most of their horses) and I had to find a new riding school ?
I have had 3 lessons at a new riding school and the first two times I was on the same horse. I could barely get him to walk and when he did it was to pull back to the instructor, or basically go wherever he wanted to. After about 45 mins I eventually got a few strides of trot. The next time on home was the same. They said it was because I am a novice (true) and that I need to learn to handle a stubborn horse (also fine). not the experience I wanted but I am there to be a better rider so appreciate I can’t be on steady cooperative horses to achieve that.
However on my last lesson I was on a different horse, I was told he was better than the previous and should enjoy him more. When she was adjusting his saddle I noticed him stamping his front foot quite hard and laughed him my head “he doesn’t look less stubborn”. He was fine for the first couple of minutes but wasn’t responding to leg so she told me to be harder, he bucked but I managed to stay on. Her advice was to ‘ride through it’. She instructed me to do various things to get him to move on in a quicker walk, harder kicks, squeeze, waving the crop and sometimes was fine, sometimes buck. All in all he bucked about 5 times during the lesson. It was a car crash as he either wouldn’t listen or buck. At the end abs explained that because he bucked at first and then I was less confident with him, he got his way and he managed to get out of working harder so next time I need to come back more confident.
Whilst I agree with all this in principle, I abs explained to them that I wanted to go back to basics and learn to ride properly as I feel I am the equivalent of someone who has been taught to drive a car by their dad.
is this a good way for me to learn and I should stick with it or is the horse unsuitable for me (as my partner is suggesting)?
apologies for the long post but I don’t want to give up, appreciate i am a novice, but likewise it has knocked my confidence.
many thanks
