Pick a pony joyriders that CANNOT ride

[horseygirl28]

Am still recovering from seeing possibly the most chronic riding I have ever seen. A woman came out to try one of my horses, i fully described that the horse was green and not suitable for a novice, anyway she said she was very experienced and confident etc etc.

She turned up to try the mare and i would say she had barely ever sat on a horse in her life. Anyway rode the horse for her first then she was very eager to try her. So she got on and the mare sensed she was a bad rider and would not co-operate so this woman gave her a number of very severe hits with the whip on the shoulder, ive never seen anyone hit a horse so hard.

I was so angry i made her get off the horse immediatley. It shocked me people have the cheek to do that to someone elses horse. And why do people make themselves out to be much better than they are and then waste time for everyone.

Anyone had similar situations??

 

[MooMoo]

OMG! that's horrible, what a cowbag!! i hope you kicked her butt.

 

[horseygirl28]

I managed to refrain, JUST! I was seriously annoyed, raging infact! I just cant believe she started hitting her so violently for no reason, idiot.

 

[Syrah]

Gawd, I can't imagine ever hitting someone elses horse unless they instructed me to do so.

Good for you in getting her off though.

 

[horseygirl28]

I know, i wouldnt dream of ever hitting anyone elses horse. I hardly ever ever have to even tap mine with the whip, only if they need a reminder when jumping. As a rule i just dont ever get after a horse.

 

[PapaFrita]

WTF?

I'd've been very tempted to hit her right back!

 

[ginger111]

Well done for telling her to get off. Although it would have served her right if she had been bucked off! I had a similar situation when I was selling a pony. Although I told the people on the phone that he was a youngster and very green they came and put their son on him who I would think had only ridden a handful of times. My pony was an absolute saint but was cleary upset by the lack of experience of the rider and wasn't sure why he kept on being turned into the rails of the school!. I had to in the end say that he wasn't suitable and that the boy needed a schoolmaster. They weren't happy!!

 

[skewbaldpony]

QR: This is what I mean (see: sundry other threads) when I say I don't see how 'more people with more money' in 'equestrianism' is necessarily a good thing.
Seems to me this is your classic person who might like to see Katie Price at HOYS, has plently of money, watched the Olympics, has been told by a grasping riding school or yard owner that she is a good rider, and has absolutely no intention of learning a fat lot more.
If, as was suggested on the KP thread, more money is the holy grail and will pay our judges our prize money and to build us facilities, they you will have to put up with people like this. You (not 'you' horseygirl28, I mean 'one' but don't want to sound like Princess Anne

)can't have it all ways, and this is why I would be far happier with a minority sport populated by people who give a damn.

 

[244jimmy]

Gawd, I can't imagine ever hitting someone elses horse unless they instructed me to do so.

totally agree !! that is so rude ...

 

[skewbaldpony]

Been thinking about this in the shower (how sad?) and it struck me that if, as a result of the Olympics, lets say, a huge tide of wannabe gymnasts or swimmers floods the sport, it doesn't matter a bit if 90% of them are absolutly hopeless. The sport gets their money, they buy the kit, they take the lessons, the sports centres get upgraded, the competitions get more support, it's great, and who cares if they will never get beyond a wobbly handstand?
Unfortunately, if the same happens in equestrian discplines, horses get abused and ruined, and potentially, people break their necks. It's not the same at all.
There. That's my thought for the day!

 

[Puppy]

My goodness that would make my blood boil!!

Hope your green horsey isn't too upset by it all

Last thing a green horse needs...

 

[natalia]

hehhee, the best I ever had was a lady who said she was very experianced and cam,e to try a little hunting cob I had in. It went in to trot and she fell off slaimning that it "bolted" funniest thing was she fell right in to a big puddle and lay there winded for ages, when she finally got up she was obviously quite embaressed about the whole thing and started wailing that her leg hurt, her husband and daughter scoped her up and had to help her out the school while she had the most rediculous limp ever, we knew she was faking it though as ever so often for a couple of strides she would forget to hop and walk perfectly normally! She then proceeded to make one of us drive her car to the school to which she promptly climbed in and left. It was so stupid it was funny!

 

[alleycat]

This just sounds like an ignorant person who has been told to take a strong line with a "disobedient" horse and who hasn't actually learnt her own limitations. If she learnt on a riding school horse that knew just what was expected of it, wasn't phased by bad riding and didn't need rider input to do it right, but was inclined to get a bit bolshie when it thought it could get away with it, what she did to your horse would probably have worked. I can just see the insructor saying- "Be FIRM with him! Don't let him get away with that!" Trouble was, I suspect, the woman didn't know what it was like to ride something other that a been-there done-it-all riding school horse and didn't realise how much of a novice she was herself or how her riding could upset her mount. Not that I am condoning what she did; I would have been furious- but I think this is common and understandable.

I used to have a beautiful, responsive, feisty but biddable Welsh pony mare who gave quite a lot of people their first taste of non riding school riding; I soon learned that the first instruction had to be "DON'T kick to make her go". (When the rider had realised how small a signal was needed to get a response, then you got to see how well that rider had been taught / could actually ride; because that pony WOULD do what she was asked. The well-taught were in the minority but the pony would go beautifully for them; others clearly had been taught nothing, even though they had good balance and you could see they would ride well, given a chance; like one girl who was so keen to learn, and was being taught to jump at the local riding school- but HADN'T BEEN TOLD THAT YOU HAD TO USE YOUR LEGS AT ALL OTHER THAN FOR KICKING THE HORSE ON AT THE START.

This is going back a few years; so starry-eyed incompetents coming to try horses that are too good for them isn't a new phenomenon. In fact, I was once one myself; although I suppose I was more aware of my shortcomings than your own novice-from-hell, and would never have dared to wallop the ex-racehorse that I eventually bought in installments!

I couldn't agree less, though, with the idea that riding should be kept as exclusive as possible; just for the people who already know what to do. (If indeed they do. Some of the worst riders on my pony were the ones who had mucked about on ponies all their lives, and learnt by falling off & sticking on, without much regard for how they did it). I think its more a matter of early teaching so that the rider learns both finesse and humility right from the beginning. They seem to be able to do it in Germany, say, or Sweden, so why not here?

 

[Chestnut_filly14]

I understand where everyone is coming from, but if I'm honest alot of these stories sound quite arrogant - I'm an RS rider with a pony on loan [who would just DIE in an RS environment] and alot of my friends at the riding school are very considerate riders.

We have a few horses that seem more like your horses outside and RS environment [i.e. only suitable for experienced riders] but most of them are able to go nicely under a good rider.

Not blowing my own trumpet but me and a friend have worked through the horses, getting onto better horses, and now have gone back to riding the ponies, having a laugh and trying to make them go better - i.e. having a pony that has only ever had beginners on and trying to get him working through from behind, on the bit etc. etc.

So not all Rs riders have been taught to "just kick". Please don't group all RS riders into one, useless group - how else do you learn? It would be stupid if I tried to get a pony when I first started to ride - I wouldn't have known poll from dock! So I learnt at the RS, and still have lessons there.

Every rider is different, taught different with different attitudes. You can't group them all together - it is rude, judgemental and arrogant.

Em
x

 

[charlotte24]

the_skewbald you are completely right. I think people should have licences to keep horse and have to do a test like a BHS owners test. This way there serious about having a horse and they at least have basic knowledge.
How many people on here could say they have had an owner on there yard not look after a pony properly.
I only rode a lovely arab for a lady who had a deep litter bed that hadn't been changed for 3 years.

Horses are hard to look there's no if and buts about it.

If someone looked at my horse and whipped it like that I would want to do the same to them. But someone some where will sell that lady a horse and ruin it.

Its sad

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Chesnut filly I know what you are getting at. The trouble is that nowadays a lot of people have a few lessons at a school, decide they can ride, don't want to pay for lessons anymore and so get themselves a horse instead. It would be great if everyone spent years learning in a school, progressing onto better horses gradually as well as learning about horse care but sadly this is often not the case. I can understand why people buy their first horse whilst still so inexperienced, lessons are expensive, at times more so than the cost of a weeks DIY livery so it may seem like good economy to just buy your own but unfortunately horses are complex creatures who need a lot of time and understanding and many novice first time owners don't appreciate how much guidance they still need. Anyway not sure where I'm going with this as am preaching to the converted so will shut up now!

 

[mizzhonesty]

[ QUOTE ]
I understand where everyone is coming from, but if I'm honest alot of these stories sound quite arrogant - I'm an RS rider with a pony on loan [who would just DIE in an RS environment] and alot of my friends at the riding school are very considerate riders.

We have a few horses that seem more like your horses outside and RS environment [i.e. only suitable for experienced riders] but most of them are able to go nicely under a good rider.

Not blowing my own trumpet but me and a friend have worked through the horses, getting onto better horses, and now have gone back to riding the ponies, having a laugh and trying to make them go better - i.e. having a pony that has only ever had beginners on and trying to get him working through from behind, on the bit etc. etc.

So not all Rs riders have been taught to "just kick". Please don't group all RS riders into one, useless group - how else do you learn? It would be stupid if I tried to get a pony when I first started to ride - I wouldn't have known poll from dock! So I learnt at the RS, and still have lessons there.

Every rider is different, taught different with different attitudes. You can't group them all together - it is rude, judgemental and arrogant.

Em
x

[/ QUOTE ]

im similar to you, except doing it with my instructor and not my friend, and i have to say the challenge is enjoyable!! its not just the getting on and riding, but when you get them to there back end and take an outline if only for a few shirt strides at first it feels wonderful!!

 

[alleycat]

Sorry Chestnut Filly- the last thing I meant to do was diss riding school riders- I was one myself and didn't have the chance to own a pony until I was in my mid-twenties- before that I went to three different riding schools on the outskirts of London, the best of which was The Wolf in Southall, which was run by an amazing young woman called Carole and a farrier called Jim, who got his ponies from the gipsies, I think; the atmosphere there was great; the ponies were well looked after, and although it was the most rough and ready of the 3 riding schools it was the most humane, best run and altogether great. We weren't actually taught much, but we weren't allowed to do anything wrong, either; I turned up with a riding crop on my first day because I'd previously been to a neighbouring (and outwardly much posher) riding school where your first aim was to make your poor underfed, dispirited, unschooled pony move at all- and I, horse-mad 8 yr old and my unhorsey parents, all thought this was NORMAL.
At the Wolf the crop was gently prised from my fingers and my parents tactfully told that I shouldn't be needing to carry it. It was a great place and I've often wondered if anyone else on here went there, and what happened to the horses and the people.

This, of course, is going back a bit- and it has to be said that I was one of the "grip with your knees " generation and though I could crack cocnuts with my knees it never helped me stay on a horse; I learnt, if not how to do it properly, at least where I was going wrong many years later, and I thought that when I started to look for somewhere for my daughter to learn to ride, she would be properly taught and not have to cope with my engrained faults.

However, I really WAS shocked at some of the stuff I saw, STILL going on at some outwardly respectable schools; the place where my neighbours' daughter was learning to jump was potentially lethal, to be quite honest- yet it was in a high profile location & endorsed by the local council and non-horsey parents took their kids there - just as mine had done forty+ years earlier- thinking that those children were being safely and professionally taught.

As for riding scchool horses being unresponsive; I do feel this happens, and I know some riding schools try to vary a horses work or only keep them in the school for a short time so they don't become stale. It must be difficult to get the right balance between a safe horse and a dull one, or a horse that challenges and stretches the rider and one that is too testing.

My own Welsh mare, by the bye, was an ex trekking pony. She was very genuine (in an arena, anyway- a bit spooky outside) but had learned every evasion in the book, in self defence and had been sold out of trekking for bolting with people on the beach; but she was sort of unspoiled in that if you rode properly she would respond properly but if you hauled on her mouth she would so engineer it that you lost all control of her head, and if you became unbalanced she would sort of vanish from underneath you. She wouldn't chuck you off; nothing so crass; she just wouldn't be there any more. I learnt this the hard way.

So, didn't mean to be insulting and am not in a position to be snobbish- and I know that there are good riding schools and good tutors out there- but I do still think we seem to be behind the continentals in this: I've never seen a bad German rider, for example, even amongst people supposedly at the same basic level as myself. They see to have such a natural, stable and correct position; how do they acquire this?

 

[ajn1610]

Alleycat I don't know about the Germans but I know a Dutch Dressage rider and she told me that for the beginning of her riding career she was taught on the lunge and for several years the focus of her lessons was her position not how the horse was going for her.
I know my riding made a big leap when I did my stages because they were trying to improve me as a rider, I think we all tend to get a bit caught up with what the horse is doing and forget that if we aren't sitting well giving aids correctly the horse can't perform to it's maximum ability.
After a certain point in RS they seem to shift the focus onto the horse this happens too soon in my opinion. We would probably do better for more time spent on a lunge without reins or stirrups.
I know this is a bit of a generalisation and some places are better than others but I do feel it is a fault with the UK way of teaching.

 

[Chestnut_filly14]

Our RS is very good at positional work - we have lunge lessons available, and the better instructors generally pick a fault with each rider at the beginning of the lesson, maybe leg too far forward/back, or tipping forward, or unsteady hands and this is focussed on for the rest of the lesson.

Unfortunately lots of people do overestimate their riding ability - even worse, lots UNDERestimate it.

Em
x

 

[Laafet]

I am not going to slag of riding schools, I think the problem is in this day of H & S you get little chance to experience what horse ownership is like. When I learnt to ride (I am only 25 btw) once you were competant on the lunge, not leading rein, then you had a lesson in an open field with 3 different areas for people of different abilities, no arenas, just an area marked out with cones. This meant you actually got the chance to learn how control your horse in an outdoor situation. Since moving on and having taught a few people myself, most seem terrified of hacking out, why, because they learnt to ride in an arena and never actually had to learn to steer! At 13 we were riding horses bareback around the fields and falling off and getting back on again. I think it is a sad reflection on society that because of the suing culture that H & S has tried to control RS. I recently went to one just for a nosey with my Mum while I was visiting her and to see 8 kids on nice RS type ponies being asked to trot 15 yards to the back of the ride in a tiny school, that was not learning to ride, that was being a passenger. So no wonder when horses are relatively easy to acquire these days do these 'joy riders' appear.

 

[YorksG]

Back in the black and white years we learnt at riding schools and could not afford our own ponies and there was nowhere to keep them. We were taught to ride on progressively difficult horses and were taught to ride without irons, or without reins, or even without either. We went on rides and learnt to look after each other, we rode on grass as well as in a school. We were taught manners towards other road users, and other riders (something which is sadly lacking in show rings IMO) I worry that too many people buy horses as fashion objects with too little knowledge and comitment.

 

[horseygirl28]

Very true that people overestimate their riding ability. The worrying thing is that many unscruplious people would probably be prepared to sell someone the wrong horse and then the horse is ruined and the rider is probably put off and stuck with a horse they cant use.