Something different...international riding experiences

[H_Venables]

Here's something new. Where have people been to ride and how did they find it? I'm fascinated in how people ride in various parts of the world and have seen only a limited section of this with my own eyes.

A few years ago i worked in Texas in a small town called Smiley at a cattle ranch known as Lazy F Guest Ranch. The owner kindly let me stay with him for a while, work on the ranch and see what the horses 'jobs' were like. I'll put some photo's up when i get the chance.

The horses in Texas are treated differently; they have a job to do. To be honest, the experience was very much like an old western film!! From an English perspective, it's all quite harsh but then I got back to England after and people seemed to faff and pussyfoot about the horses. It's really odd how perspective can be changed. Where in England, people have horses to compete or for pleasure (or both), over there they are still 'working animals'.

Where have other people seen and what have they found?
Does anyone know much about Icelandic horses and their way of riding over there?

 

[Tinkerbee]

Been trekking in Menorca.
Was basically the same, but just jeans, trainers and no hats for the trek leaders.
The stables were lovely. old whitewashed barns

been trekking in Sweden on Icelandic ponies, the Tolt was odd at first, but you get used to it. used western tack


Also, have lived in Sri Lanka and that was very hard.

Most of the people with ponies, were very poor and used them to give rides to tourists etc and more often than not where very skinny, DIY farriery, bits made out of old coat hangers

But also had a few lessons at a ridinig school there, indoor school as it was boiling hot, and absolutely no hacking as was in middle of a city. Couldnt stand it...

 

[dozzie]

I went trekking in wales once! Does that count as abroad?

 

[dozzie]

I know what you mean about Sri lanka. When I was there on holiday i was offered a ride on an unseen horse. Thought that would be good. Was horrified when horse turned up. It was all of about 10 hands high and rather slim! I said I wasnt going to ride but this guy, as Singalese (sp?) can be, was very insistent to the point of intimidating so I said Id just get on and ride once round the hotel car park and pay him his dollars. He started to drag the horse with me on board to the race course. He was quite shocked when I just jumped off whilst horse was moving! All those gymkhana games i did as a kid came in handy!

 

[Tierra]

I moved to Denmark at the end of April and took my horse with me. I have, infact, lived out here before but I left my horses behind then so had little contact with the "horsey scene".

Things are quite different over here in that the horses are mostly stabled. The people on the yard i was moving to found it terribly amusing how stressy I was in regards to turnout and his routine and so on.

Three months on and im loving it so much

My horse looks better than he ever has in his life (they very strictly feed straights here and 3 times a day). He's out no where near as much as in the UK (barely infact!) and yet he seems happier and in some ways, more settled.

I'd guess here... overall... they're treated more like athletes in a way. People do still love their horses and coo over them like the UK but theres a very stringent understanding that they're more than pets and that they have to be treated carefully.

The other thing Ive found very different in the standard of riding and teaching. People don't work on yards here unless they have either completed the training program or they are students undertaking it.. The course to become a "chief rider" takes 7 years. During that time, the students live on site and are working very very long hours with very gruelling training. Upon completion, they can be looking at a base salary of around £50k a year and its seen very very much as a career!

People coming for lessons are on the lunge for ages.. theres no risk made to the horses at the hands of accidental novice riders.

We moved to Denmark with the intention of buying somewhere with land and stables so i could have my horse at home and focus completly on my dressage - which is what i always wanted. Three months on and we're infact looking to build our own place, but not specifically with land or stables any more because Im so happy and settled with the place Jack is at and thats the first time i have ever felt like that. Ive had horses since I was young.. always been on livery yards and while of course, ive liked some, ive always had a list of gripes and "id do it sooo much better if he was at home".

Ive got amazing facilities, the staff are truely incredible and every single minor detail of my horse's care is tuned to be 100% right for him but it is completly different from the UK and i know via discussions that have arised on these forums that people think im bordering on cruel for how Jack is kept.

Anyway, i agree with you completly! Its really interesting to see how horses around the world are kept differently.. both ranging from the working horses and pets through to the top competition and sports horses. Oddly, i think the UK has a terrible habit of believing that their way is the *only* way and everyone else is either ignorant or misguided!

 

[H_Venables]

Tierra, It's funny you say:

Oddly, i think the UK has a terrible habit of believing that their way is the *only* way and everyone else is either ignorant or misguided!

I completely agree. I've heard that the horses' routines in Denmark are far more regimented and in a way, i think that's great. They are probably bloody good horses and if used for competition etc, it's got to be the best way of keeping them. Something i hate about England, and i do, is that people can be very slack and lazy with how they do things. (I can tell this is going to turn into a rant)... For example, the quality of teaching in the UK, you get some instructors who are amazing, don't get me wrong. I've just started being taught by someone and she's fantastic, but i have really thought this in the past. I think it is too easy to become a groom or an instructor and the English culture almost stops people from being motivated to really try and progress with things. I think the English can be so lazy!! There also seems to be a lack of pride with how things are carried out - things like yards being poorly maintained, horses being ridden out of a routine, simple day to day tasks being just about done.

I know this isn't true for everyone before i offend anyone. However, i am always so impressed with the way some people live, for example in Scandanavia, parts of central and Eastern Europe, like Germany, Austria and Slovenia and also Poland. There is such pride put to every task.

My Dad went to Iceland years ago and took photo's of lots of horses being ridden at a stud over there. Their tack is fascinating and the strong little horses are great too. I'd love to ride on a horse doing a 'tolt'. Looks different...

What kind of horse is Jack? And how did he find the move? I've often wondered about moving horses internationally too, give them a bit of variety!!

 

[SSM]

Hopefully next weekend I am going to get to ride Trek Peter's horses!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[SteveGG]

My first horse holiday was to a dude ranch in Arizona. This was the reason that I started riding, I booked a week on the ranch & then thought i'd better learn to ride. Twice a day rides were mainly trecking but a lot of people didn't go on the afternoon ride so a couple of times we ended up racing on some of the dry river beds.
The second horse holiday was on a working ranch on the Montanna/Wyoming border. As this is a working ranch what you do depends on the season. You were expected to work and breakfast was quite early. Having said that the scenary was fantastic & there was a great sense of camaraderie.
Both ranches were run by families and had a great atmosphere. This is a great way to meet people and have a good time. Also with both ranches the horses were turned out overnight. At the working ranch the area was so vast there was no guarantee that the horse you had one day would actually get rounded up the next !
I have also riden whilst on holiday in Spain. The horses were lovely Andalusian's but were a little underworked . My wife is an experienced but nervous rider (if that makes sense) and didn't feel comfortable when trying her horse out so didn't bother. I had quite a nice ride around the estate (the hotel was in several hundred acres) but it was a bit pointless & the only company was a guide who didn't speak much english.

 

[RachelMcTimoney]

went on BHS challenge ride to iceland...it was amazing!

 

[Tierra]

Hi

Jack is a 15 year old Danish Warmblood working at PSG dressage.

I was terrified about moving him as anyone on here who followed my stress can testify. It was actually a Danish girl i contacted to move him in the end. The livery i was on in the UK had the daughter of the chairman of the Danish Warmblood society there so i asked their recommendations on international transport for Jack. It was a very unknown tiny company (basically a young girl on her own!) but i figured he must have a good idea of these things so i went with them.

Jack did the journey from Derbyshire, in the UK, to Svendborg (southern Denmark) in one go. He had a 3 hour ish road journey in the UK, an 18 hour ferry trip and about 3 hours in Denmark.

He arrived rather dehydrated as he'd refused water the full time and he'd not eaten much since they'd loaded up hay and he hates the stuff. However, he was "ok" and perky enough.

It took him a couple of days to start drinking properly again, although he was eating the minute he walked off the box.

He literally went from being out from 8 in the morning to about 5 in the afternoon to an hour on a horse walker and perhaps an hour in a running paddock - literally overnight.

I was so panic'd about his routine which the staff at my new yard found quite amusing. They were brilliant however and completly indulged me and reassured me about everything.

Jack is kept at http://broholm.dk/uk/html/hestecenter.html and theres a huge variety of horses from top level dressage and jumping horses to happy hacking liveries and some riding school ponies and horses.

There IS the option of turnout and a group of the hacking liveries put all their horses out together but i never wanted that. My horse has had so many field related injuries in the UK over the past year that it was getting ridiculous and with his age, i spent 99% of my time awaiting phone calls to tell me he needed a vet.

Hes now in, nearly all the time. Hes on a walker in the morning for an hour. I ride in the afternoon and the groom who is in charge of him will either let him out in one of the indoor arenas, put him in an individual running field or take him for a walk to nibble grass. People have said that im just not picking up on his body language and that he's probably depressed - im convinced hes happier than he has been in all the time ive had him! Our flatwork has improved and he looks amazing.

The yard is always pristine, everything is done very correctly and a lot of the teaching is along the lines of quite strict, classical principles. In a lot of ways, i suppose some people would think its old fashioned.. the more "modern" feeds arent used; they're readily available but they just ARENT used. The young horses are started quite slowly but very correctly and everything on the yard is horse-centric (these people will have no qualms about telling you if you're doing something wrong).

I read a lot of posts on these forums about the "european" way of doing things and as i said, ive been criticised a number of times about how Jack is now kept - my personal opinion? You cant judge until you've tried it!

p.s. dont even get me started on the quality of teaching in the UK - particularly at the grass roots, run of the mill riding school level. Theres no wonder we seem to struggle to find truely exceptional riders for international level competing imo

 

[Biscuit]

I've ridden in the US, Italy and Scandinavia as well as in the UK and it is really fund to experience different things

Tierra, I thought the Danish animal welfare legislation coming in now required something like 5hrs ish of turnout daily?

I would absolutely love to relocate to Denmark for a while, I understand Danish pretty well so would consider working there in the future. And of courrse would love to go there some months just to improve my riding! :-D

 

[H_Venables]

Wow! Jack's yard doesn't look half bad! The school is beautiful and the boxes look imaculate. I've been told that everything Danish is incredible, but my OH's family are Danes so the info could well have been biased. You must really enjoy living out there though.

I think it's great and i think the misunderstanding with people in England is that you can have a horse, keep it the way that is most convenient for you, use it for what you want it and unfortunately, the two don't always add up. For example, if you keep a horse in working livery or even at a full livery yard with no consistency or routine, it is totally unfair to expect the horse to perform at it's best at a competition when you have had 4 different people riding it at all different levels, it's eating different things each day of the week and being turned out for various quantities of time. It might be fit, but sure as hell isn't going to be consistent.

Also, in the UK, there is lso ittle money in horses because the standards have slipped to the point that now it's all about quantity rather than quality. People want something for nothing. All a bit narrow minded i think; It's almost like there is a lack of patience...

I do feel sorry for those who want to become professional and can't, despite perhaps being 'gifted' and determined - they invest hugely in a sphere and mistaken by some false belief, they invest time and money into this and put their life into it and still get nowhere because the facilities/tuition they have on offer is unsuitable. It's harsh.

I agree, you can't judge things until you've tried them, and if it takes branching out, thinking a little bit beyond the 'English' way of doing things, then i think you've hit the nail on the head. On top of that, if you're successfully competing at PSG, your horse is still 'giving', you can't really be going wrong!! Good on you.

What kind of routine does Jack have with regards to ridden training? Does he just get ridden in the school or do you ride out much? I know many dressage riders refresh their horses sometimes by allowing them to jump/ride out.

 

[Tierra]

I try to keep Jacks routine (in terms of exercise) varied although he IS a complete schoolmaster and thats definitly his comfort zone. For jack, its not so much the amount of work he does, its the mental stimulation. He'd much prefer 30 minutes of doing SOMETHING that makes him think than 2 hours of hacking.. and the first would tire him much more. Jack needs to be challenged or he gets mischeivous!

We have access to about 300 acres of off road hacking usually (i say usually because Broholm hosted an international show last week and currently, the park area between the stables and the hacking is still littered with marquis and grandstand seating over the arenas!). He gets hacked out quite a lot and theres a couple of very short rides directly around the arenas which are great. Hes very very spooky so i dont venture as far afield as some of the girls

Jack also jumps.. he competed quite a lot in show jumping before i got him (around £800 winnings so im not quite sure what level that puts him at), so we still do quite a bit of that. One of the outdoor schools is completly dedicated to jumping so theres usually always something up in there for me to pop!

Primarily though, he is schooled.

Aside from the schooling work as i mentioned, he's on the horse walker daily (which jack finds endlessly entertaining as hes on with 4 youngsters.. and he soon realised that if he "spooks" at something, he scares the babies - if horses could laugh... mine would spend 90% of his time in manic hysterics while scaring youngsters). We turn out in one of the indoor schools where he gets to play, roll and loose school (do some jumping there too). He has one girl who looks after him primarily and we pay her extra to take him for walks in hand or turn him out.

No one else rides him because he is a real mummies boy and can be a bit of an arse to say the least but equally because i dont find it necessary. Hes 15 now, he works beautifully and we have lessons.

In regards to the danish animal welfare legislation - its much much tougher here than in the UK although i havent heard anything about changes to turnout for horses. It would seem odd to me since its not common at all here to turn horses out.. You ocassionally see people who have them at home with horses dotted in fields.. but the livery yards and equestrian centres tend to keep them in.

To the poster with the Danish family - they're very proud people and tend to think everything is better here! although so far.. ive tended to agree with them

The training has been fabulous and the livery is cheaper.. We pay around £200 for full livery for jack and then pay his dedicated groom slightly extra for taking him for walks and such. Shoes are more expensive (im paying about £110) and the overall level of farriery here is lower than the UK, although you do find some very good people. Veterinary care is, imo, leagues ahead of the UK and not as stupidly expensive.

Forgot to mention also. I was sooo stressed when i first moved him that the yard even offered to sort out a webcam system for his stable so i could keep an eye on him. I was calling them 3 times a day panicing about whether he was drinking, whether he was getting stressed or hyper about not being out. They found it terribly amusing but were also so kind at addressing my concerns.

Over the last few weeks ive not had a car so had to leave him in the care of the staff. Its the first time in about 10 years that ive ever done that with one of my horses and the first time since ive had jack that ive not been up everyday to see him (even though ive always had mine on full livery). Ive never trusted any staff as much as i do these - they're so professional and they know everything!!

 

[brackenhappy]

i've rode in the dominican,cuba,djerba and kos!!
dominican is western (well most of the time!!) the horses are paso finos so totally different breed to what we get here! lovely to ride though! i was in (most days!!) jeans or jods (yes i take them with me to dom rep!!) with half chaps and a bikini top!! more oftern that not no hat. in cuba was western again! wore tracksuit bottoms and trainers and a top over my bikini as was blinkin hot! Djerba i rode arabs in english tack,usually with jeans and trainers!no hat! best one was on a trip to an island and when we got there 2 arabs(horses!) where there!they must have come over in a boat as was out in the sea! for that ride! i wore a bikini and no shoes!!no hat either! didnt know that there would be horses otherwise would have taken pants! and in Kos rode the horse english style had a hat on that time as not for novice riders! blinkin horse was a nut job!!wore jeans and bikini top for that ride! have added some piccies to show the horses and what i wear!some arent great as scanner not working so had to take photo of them on my phone and bluetooth it!!

Cuba

Kos

Dom Rep with hat and without!!

sorry none of me on the horse in Djerba its on my sisters phone! but one on a camel!!

 

[PapaFrita]

I've been in Argentina with PF for about 2 and a half years.
It's very different from my experience in the UK where I looked after my horses myself.
Personally, I think standards here are pretty poor. Most owners know b*gger all about horse care and quite a few YOs get away with murder regarding beds, etc. Having said that, you get some excellent instructors; my own YO is an olympic SJer (he's also a kn*b but we'll overlook that for the moment!)
Turnout is not considered a necessity and very few yard offer it. PF is turned out daily in a 'pen' because she's less stressy, but doesn't seem to miss living out (like she did in the UK) I think in Buenos Aires clubs are cottoning on to the fact that horses need to be out for a while.
Also, hardly anyone wears a hat to ride, except in competition.

 

[IsabelleJ]

I'm half french, so spent every single holiday over there while I was at school. And of course, a good portion of that was spent riding! In the Alps, where we were, a lot of people head up into the mountains during the summer. Kids will be sent to 'colonie de vacances' which is an activity camp, many of them will be there for a couple of weeks. So there are usually people who take their horses up into the mountains and run riding places up there, usually in the ski resorts. It is truly amazing scenery to ride in, and to be honest, some of my best riding experiences have been up there in the mountains.

No hats, is the big difference. I spent years being laughed at because of mine, but it didn't bother me, hehe. Only rode once without a hat, and that was 100m down the road taking the horses to the field, and I was absolutely petrified the whole way. Have never done it again!

The French horses got given stale baguettes of bread as treats, and had never tasted Polos!!! I had to teach them how to crunch, can you imagine?! Over there they were also about 10 years ahead of here in using electric fencing and chaps, I was quite trendy when I came back with some half chaps. Also, they tend to wear trainers and jeans a lot more than we do, but I think everyone else in the world must do that.

I've been really lucky with my riding experiences in France, I have ridden some super horses. One of my friends who spent the summer giving rides in the mountains was a horse dealer, selling competition horses to famous riders (amongst others). I was lucky enough to ride some of them

Isabelle