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ponymad25

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I’ve been riding at a local riding school for 4 years now and I haven’t been progressing really at all. I have only ever ridden a narrow approx 13.2hh NF gelding the whole time I’ve been there. I’d really like to jump and improve my riding but it’s extremely difficult riding such a small pony and me being 5’7” it’s quite difficult to do this. My instructor thinks I look fine on this pony however I feel very unbalanced and uncomfortable and this pony can behave naughtily as I’m not a total beginner and likes to test me. My parents think I am too big for this pony too, but there aren’t any bigger ponies or horses that I can ride at this school (a very small school- around 10 or so ponies). I’m not sure what I should do? Ideally in the near future I’d like to have my own horse but I don’t think I want to stay at the school for that long. Any advice would be much appreciated :)
 
Is there another riding school? I left mine despite loving it, I just wasn’t progressing, plus they put me on a horse with navicular, which I thought was weird given I was a tall well built girl!
 
I'd be looking at an alternative riding school - it sounds like a change of scene would probably do you good and give you a proper idea of where you are at with your riding
 
Cinnamontoast said:
Is there another riding school? I left mine despite loving it, I just wasn’t progressing, plus they put me on a horse with navicular, which I thought was weird given I was a tall well built girl!
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Well not really any close enough to me. And my siblings are not exactly keen to move riding schools with me :(
 
mossycup said:
I'd be looking at an alternative riding school - it sounds like a change of scene would probably do you good and give you a proper idea of where you are at with your riding
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Thanks I agree tbh. They don’t even have long enough stirrup leathers for my lanky legs haha.
 
How old are you? It sounds like there could be safety issues if they don't even have equipment available to enable you to ride with your stirrups at the correct length. Maybe a trial lesson elsewhere might open your siblings eyes to the issues :)
 
mossycup said:
How old are you? It sounds like there could be safety issues if they don't even have equipment available to enable you to ride with your stirrups at the correct length. Maybe a trial lesson elsewhere might open your siblings eyes to the issues :)
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15 next month XD
 
IrishMilo said:
So there's 10 horses and they're all under 13.2? Sounds like a strange riding school!
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There’s around 10 horses I think and most are small ponies bc my instructor isn’t very tall and most of the people who ride there are small children. The smallest horse is a Shetland and the biggest is about 15.1/15.2 but not ready for actual lessons yet and the other 15 hand horse isn’t the kind of horse I’d be interested in riding as well as her already being full with lessons. So most of the pony’s are about 13-14hh. Hope this makes sense :)
 
What sort of horse aren't you interested in riding? While you are learning, you are best to ride as many horses as possible (as long as it's relatively safe to do so). Regardless, I'd be encouraging my parents to let you try elsewhere if they are agreeable - you might have to do some epic lockdown chores to win your case!
 
Sounds like a strange riding school. I would go elsewhere. If the stirrup leathers aren't even long enough for you, I don't think it's the right place. There's a safety issue there, if you can't adjust the leathers to the right length for your leg. I'm also surprised that you'd be on the same horse for every lesson - one of the big benefits of learning in a riding school is the opportunity to ride all types of horses.
 
mossycup said:
What sort of horse aren't you interested in riding? While you are learning, you are best to ride as many horses as possible (as long as it's relatively safe to do so). Regardless, I'd be encouraging my parents to let you try elsewhere if they are agreeable - you might have to do some epic lockdown chores to win your case!
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This horse is green and relatively untrained. And also Isn’t exactly the most willing of horses haha
 
DressageCob said:
Sounds like a strange riding school. I would go elsewhere. If the stirrup leathers aren't even long enough for you, I don't think it's the right place. There's a safety issue there, if you can't adjust the leathers to the right length for your leg. I'm also surprised that you'd be on the same horse for every lesson - one of the big benefits of learning in a riding school is the opportunity to ride all types of horses.
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Yeah I do think it’s strange that we don’t change horses each lesson. Also my instructor doesn’t really care about lessons and rarely makes an appearance out of the tack room during lessons.
 
DressageCob said:
Sounds like a strange riding school. I would go elsewhere. If the stirrup leathers aren't even long enough for you, I don't think it's the right place. There's a safety issue there, if you can't adjust the leathers to the right length for your leg. I'm also surprised that you'd be on the same horse for every lesson - one of the big benefits of learning in a riding school is the opportunity to ride all types of horses.
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Plus most of the saddles do not fit the ponies, my pony currently has 3 saddle pads on under his saddle which likely explains why he can be naughty and very spooky. My knees also go way past his belly.
 
ponymad25 said:
Yeah I do think it’s strange that we don’t change horses each lesson. Also my instructor doesn’t really care about lessons and rarely makes an appearance out of the tack room during lessons.
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So who is instructing you? it all seems rather unusual, most RS's will have enough ponies to allow clients to change to something bigger, a bit different to ride or more suitable for certain activities such as jumping, to only have one you can ride which is too small really seems to be missing the point of getting clients moving on with their riding ability, a move to somewhere better suited is probably the only way you can make meaningful progress.
 
If there aren't any other riding schools nearby, maybe you could see if there's anyone local looking for a sharer? Realistically you'd probably have to wait until lockdown is relaxed a bit further, but you could start asking around. You might someone who's happy for you to ride on a weekday in the school holidays in exchange for just doing some jobs, so you could carry on with your lessons at the same time (riding school riding is soooo different from more "on your own" riding, that I really wouldn't recommend dropping lessons altogether).
 
be positive said:
So who is instructing you? it all seems rather unusual, most RS's will have enough ponies to allow clients to change to something bigger, a bit different to ride or more suitable for certain activities such as jumping, to only have one you can ride which is too small really seems to be missing the point of getting clients moving on with their riding ability, a move to somewhere better suited is probably the only way you can make meaningful progress.
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Untrained helpers without qualifications and most are only a bit older than me
 
Not_so_brave_anymore said:
If there aren't any other riding schools nearby, maybe you could see if there's anyone local looking for a sharer? Realistically you'd probably have to wait until lockdown is relaxed a bit further, but you could start asking around. You might someone who's happy for you to ride on a weekday in the school holidays in exchange for just doing some jobs, so you could carry on with your lessons at the same time (riding school riding is soooo different from more "on your own" riding, that I really wouldn't recommend dropping lessons altogether).
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Yeah I’ve ridden other people’s horses quite frequently before lockdown started and before I had a riding accident, the horses were much larger than the pony I ride. In the future if I’m able to find a suitable place to keep a horse my parents would be willing to buy me one: a well trained one/ schoolmaster type.
 
ponymad25 said:
Untrained helpers without qualifications and most are only a bit older than me
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It sounds like a place that started up near me years ago, they did get their act together and are now run fairly well as far as I know but there are many RS's where the owners just lose interest, they enjoy the money it brings in but have little interest in the actual teaching, it is a shame but not uncommon.
 
ponymad25 said:
Untrained helpers without qualifications and most are only a bit older than me
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In that case they are unlikely to be covered by insurance. I wouldn't ride there. If something happened and you had life changing injuries, there would be no money to help you out. (That's obviously worst case scenario, but it's my field so I'm always looking at whether people can afford to compensate!)

Your parents shouldn't be happy for you or your siblings to ride in those circumstances.
 
DressageCob said:
In that case they are unlikely to be covered by insurance. I wouldn't ride there. If something happened and you had life changing injuries, there would be no money to help you out. (That's obviously worst case scenario, but it's my field so I'm always looking at whether people can afford to compensate!)

Your parents shouldn't be happy for you or your siblings to ride in those circumstances.
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They also didn’t fit me with a correctly fitting helmet :oops: so I thankfully was able to buy and much smaller one that was actually fitted. Hopefully lockdown will end soon so I can find horses/riding schools suitable. Thanks so much for the advice.
 
be positive said:
It sounds like a place that started up near me years ago, they did get their act together and are now run fairly well as far as I know but there are many RS's where the owners just lose interest, they enjoy the money it brings in but have little interest in the actual teaching, it is a shame but not uncommon.
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When did they start the riding school up? I think mine was around 2014?
 
DressageCob said:
In that case they are unlikely to be covered by insurance. I wouldn't ride there. If something happened and you had life changing injuries, there would be no money to help you out. (That's obviously worst case scenario, but it's my field so I'm always looking at whether people can afford to compensate!)

Your parents shouldn't be happy for you or your siblings to ride in those circumstances.
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Being a horsey mum and looking back at my riding school I cringe. I can’t believe my parents let me do what we did and didn’t see big red warning lights flashing.
Non-horsey parents don’t know/see the dangers, they are happily (and generously) just handing over the money in return for their child to ride in the assumption it’s all good ?
 
poiuytrewq said:
Being a horsey mum and looking back at my riding school I cringe. I can’t believe my parents let me do what we did and didn’t see big red warning lights flashing.
Non-horsey parents don’t know/see the dangers, they are happily (and generously) just handing over the money in return for their child to ride in the assumption it’s all good ?
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My mum used to ride when she was younger and my dad understands the basics and used to ride a bit too but the only reason we chose that riding school was because it was the closest one.
 
I totally understand your frustration, but please only take on a horse of your own (bought or loaned) if you have enough money and the facilities to have lessons on it.

I would strongly STRONGLY recommend that you find a school where you can experience a wider variety of horses and a wider variety of riding experiences before you seriously consider getting something of your own. The problem with your current school is that they haven't given you any experience of bigger ponies or horses- you really don't want to be taking on something that you have next to no experience of.
 
Sounds like the height of the pony is the least of your worries if you're not being adequately equipped with a helmet (well done for getting that sorted yourself though) and the qualified person (assuming they are) is leaving the teaching to unqualified helpers!

I'd get shopping around for somewhere else - at best you're not going to progress much further and wasting money on non-lessons (how much are they charging for this out of interest?), at worst you could end up hurt!
 
You sound like you have your head screwed on so I’m sure you’ll figure it out in the future :)

as many of the others have said my childhood riding school was abismal and mostly ran by the cliques not any actual teachers. But hey I learned how to stay on a horse well ?
 
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