Riding different horses (other than your own)

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pnap

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Had a shot on another horse at the yard the other night and I came to the sudden realisation that I cannot ride!
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Don't get me wrong - I seem to do fine on my own but on this thing I couldn't sit to it's trot, every time I asked for canter it went off on the wrong leg (it is incredibly well schooled so was obviously me asking wrong) and generally felt like I was bobbling about on it's back like a complete and utter novice.

So I just wondered how many of you with your own horses also frequently ride others just to "keep your eye in" if you know what I mean? I think I'm going to take some lessons on different horses for a bit cause it was actually quite disconcerting!
 
Your not alone!

This summer i offered to teach my friends dressage mare to jump... i was only asking her to do turn a circle and she would go off and do all these fancy moves!! She is tuned totally different to mine. I did get used to it after the second go, it just makes you work again!

It was funny though as said friend then got on my horse and was asking her to do fance movements, she obviously didnt understand and just kept going into canter.... really slow collected canter!!

I do think it is good to swap and change a little!! xx
 
I currently have weekly lessons at a riding school as I'm doing my stages and am sooo bad everytime I ride something different. Like you, I'm fine on my own lad and on my sisters pony but it takes me ages to work out how to get another horse going well!
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I think riding different horses at college for 2 years has helped me adapt to riding other horses although as that was several years ago now and I have gone back to riding my own horse and the occasional hack my pony i do find it trickier now if I ride something else!
 
I ride and compete regularly (sp) for a friend on her two totally different size and shaped horses but i also have lessons once a week. i usually ride the same horse but at least once a month i ride someone else. it has done my riding no end of good, esp as the horses vary from youngsters, to ex-advanced eventers to school horses. i am much more confident now and may postition and ridng has inproved loads!
 
For a long time I only rode my horse, so I was quite nervous about getting on other horses.

Now there are finally some nice sane horses on our yard I have had a chance to ride a few of them, with varying results! One seemed to not react to my way of riding at all whereas I have managed to click really well with a couple of them.

Recently I have also had the opportunity to have a few lessons on my trainer's GP dressage horse, which has been the most amazing experience ever. I was quite pleased that I managed to ride him but I still struggle to sit to what is a huge trot compared to my boy!
 
Yep I compete one other horse, and ride upto 4 others
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It is really good for me, and keeps me checking what i am doing and hopefully improving!!!
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I love riding a variety though, i is so educational
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Your post made me smile as I have had a similiar thing happen to me, and I once rode a horse I couldn't get to canter, no matter how I asked. Other people seem to make riding other horses look easy, but I suppose when you are used to riding your own every day anything else is completely different. I am not in the 'clic' so to speak at the yard so therefore do not get the opportunity to ride other peoples horses, and if of a rare occasion someone offers to let me ride their horse I can't bear riding it in their company. If I let anyone ride my horse (which is quite frequently) then I always make it known that I won't be watching them ride but i am more than happy to help them get on and give them any advice which I think is necessary. I think there's nothing worse than an owner watching you waiting for you to make a mistake on their horse - I'd rather be left alone to get 'on with it'. I have a lovely well schooled 17.1 warmblood gelding who I compete at elementary dressage and I don't care who rides him as long as they treat him with respect, I love letting people ride him as I would love the oppotunity to ride their horses and I think its nice to give people the opportunity to ride something a bit better schooled, or bigger than their own horse. I tend not too watch them, but every now and again will pop my head around the corner to just check things are going ok. I think everyone should swap every now and again as riding lots of different horses really builds up confidence and experience.
 
Its strange isnt it, specially if you ride 3 or 4 different ones but you soon get used to each one and remember to change your riding style, it certainly opens your eyes and I think it makes you a better rider too, you know what to look out for, what works with one doesn't always work with another, you find a weakness to work with in one, and a strength in another, until one day, you having them all humming the same tune, apart from that, they all have different movement, some feely wobbly when really there a sturdy as house, others feel like they have leg in each corner but are extremely unbalanced....specially when someone else jumps on your own horse and it goes like a complete numpty like its never had a days schooling in its life! lol and it makes them feel like there blooming usless
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I like riding other horses as most are better schooled than mine who can also be a total pain in the A*&e! Then again I like watching good riders ride my horse, at the weekend someone else (rather than me) competed him, she is a fab rider and he got placed 1st something I would never have been able to do! She can sit his spooks too! and it was a real pleasure watching him go round!

One other point though was I went to a local show in Sept where the judge had to ride, my horse did OK as he is used to different people riding him, but I heard the judge say to a couple of competitors that it would be good if they let other people ride their horses so the horse got used to other styles of riding and they wouldn't be so worried when a stranger gets on them!
 
I ride my own. Then ride loads of others as I work at the riding school/livery yard where pickle is kept. So I ride 2-3 horses a week complete variety.
 
I used to get asked to ride naughty little ponies alot because I'm so small and I work with horses in the holidays a 13.2hh and a 16.3hh its funny when you do a quick change over when exercising and you suddenly are like...wheres my brakes gone.
 
I'm very lucky I have two of my own who are both chalk and cheese but similar in type (Amer Tb and TbxWB) and my mums irish gelding who is not as well schooled and moves very differently. I am also in the position as a YO to ride my liveries horses when they ask, and so far I have riden most of them! All very different but all have gone pretty well for me. In fact I have enjoyed sitting on them and seeing the problems they need to overcome (one was 18.1hh though and I almost had vertigo!).

My problem is different I find my horses become very "evelyn-ised" and they only respond well to me sitting on them, it seems very strange to them when others get on, but this is because it doesn't happen very often (very protective!) One is better than the other, people find one so supple its hard to keep him where they want him, also he has huge paces so anyone that is not used to this finds it unbalencing. The other has point blank refused to move for one person (you need to round him through the neck first) and another rider found he stuck his head in the air like a giraffe, so much so that I persuaded her to try my mums - because it wasn't doing him any good!!

evenag114
 
It's more than likely not that you can't ride, it's generally more a case of your body has muscle-memory and if you only ride one horse for the most-part then this memory will only work well with this particular horse. When you ride more than one horse, the memory is more based on a much vaguer position as all horses ride differently. There will always be horses which we ride better or worse, usually this depends on how similar the other horse is to your own.

I have about 20 horses of my own and whenever I get on any of mine, my m-m kicks in, but that is because I know all of mine so well and ride them a lot. Whenever I have a new horse in for riding then it always takes a ride or two to mould to the horse properly and generally that is because you are unfamiliar with what the horse knows and what it doesn't.

I really wouldn't worry about it
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my lad's been out of work for a while so i've been having lessons on lots of different horses. i feel bad for a while then i either get the hang of it or find another way to cope - even if it is just charging around the school bucking.
 
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