Unsuitable riding school pony? *long and a bit ranty, sorry*

M

Minnies_Mum

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 November 2007
Messages
1,809
Location
Wiltshire
Visit site
Well, I've just come back from my riding lesson, and I'm feeling a bit fed up about it- in fact, I've pretty much decided not to go back. I've been riding there for the last term while at uni and at first it was great, first pony I rode was well schooled and at £11.50 an hour I couldn't really complain. It hasn't been going too well since though (not much choice of horse, mainly) but today I got one I hadn't ridden before, so I thought it was looking up.

It was the worst pony I've ever ridden in my life (and I have ridden a few horrors)! To say she was lazy is putting it mildly- she wouldn't move. She was nappy and there was no steering at all. Every time I tried to stop her from cutting corners or napping across the school she stopped dead (from any pace, I might add) as if to say "if I can't do it my way, I'm not doing anything at all". She then refused to move and I had to resort to kicking and whacking, which I'm not proud of but even this had no effect at all. Then when it came to cantering, the pony in front of us went up into canter and the mare just tanked off after him. I tried to pull her up and she put in a massive buck and off I came. She really meant it, this was no playful buck. I refused to get back on her (was quite glad of the excuse to stop riding her actually) and they found me another pony so I carried on with the lesson.

But the thing is, the instructor wanted the pony to carry on with the lesson, so that she hadn't won the day. And they couldn't find anyone in the yard who would get on her. The girl who brought out my second pony said she doesn't ride her any more because she doesn't think it's worth the risk. So, if nobody on the yard will ride this pony, should they really be taking my money and expecting me to?

I don't think I'll be going back, as my friend and I always only alternate between two horses anyway and one of them is very badly schooled and a bit frightening at times. Having lessons was supposed to help me gain confidence after my own horse frightened me a bit, but now I've found a pony to ride for someone, I think I'll be giving this a miss!
 
Sounds like the yard I rode at when I was younger - a large number of the horses were just plain dangerous, which is why it makes me laugh when people say that being able to ride at a riding school doesn't mean you're experienced as the horses tend to be push button rides. These buggers were anything but!

Sounds wise not to go back...I take it they're not BHS accredited? Mine certainly wasn't.
 
It is a bit of a dilemma. Half of me is saying stick with, if it was your own you would ride it out and it'll do you good to ride a difficult horse. However, the other half is saying why should you get their pony going for them when they're too scared to do it? Plus if it was your own you would be able to spend time scholling it and it would be just you working conistently on her.

Not really sure what I would do, I am a bit of a fighter when it comes to problems and I can't let myself feel 'beaten' by a horse. But if you feel it is dangerous for you to ride her then I would ask for a different horse because it's not worth the risk.
 
sound a bit like the RS i used to ride at too!

they had a 3/4 year old pony who hadnt been trained properly and they used to make me ride him, this was about 7 years ago and i could only walk and trot at the time. they would put me on him every lesson and about 10 minutes in i was off. sometimes i would come off more than once, and they would just shout GET BACK ON! so i would have to get back on and carry on riding him. one day he kicked me badly on my back after i fell off and apparantly that was my fault because i didnt stay on him?! now this pony didnt just throw in a buck, he would literally bolt, buck, rear, spin and stop dead until i came off. and i must have come off every lesson for a few months!
shocked.gif
my mum used to plead with them not to put me on the pony and sometimes they would put me on a quieter horse, but more often than not i was stuck on the naughty one. it resulted in my crying before my lesson because i didnt want to ride him, but i wanted to ride. in the end one day my mum phoned up the RS, asked who i was riding and when they told her it was the naught one my mum said "right. fine then. Lucy will not be coming back to your yard. you have made my daughter lose all her riding confidence and she really love horses, yet i dont know whether she will ride again because of you." they didnt say anything and put the phone down. i was there for 2 years almost, and i moved to my current yard 6 years ago last september.

some riding schools are going downhill, and some are improving alot. you just have to pick the right one.

but i dont think that pony was RS material.
 
Id be giving it a miss too! You pay good money to "learn" and you spend most of the hour fighting with what should be a school master! Im sorry for you but most of all, sorry for pony.
frown.gif
This pony should not be a school pony any more, he has probably been sickened by the whole scenario and needs to find a new career. I would refuse to have a paid lesson on a ponio like him-waste of time for both of you
smile.gif
Mairi.
 
She would be the kind of pony my old riding school in France would have had!! But IMO that did me the world of good!! In England i used to ride the 'naughty' ones, who would buck, try to get out of everything....etc! But in the end they were school masters, but over here it was completly different they were riding horses and not schoolmasters....I had some amazing rides on the ones that behaved and some even better ones from the ones that did everything to get you off!!

Half of me is saying that you did the wrong thing saying you weren't getting on again, as this is imo the worst thing to do! But then again you shouldn't be putting yourself in a situation that makes you lose more of your confidence!

Can you find another RS near you??
 
TBH, I'm probably not going to try finding another RS because I've found a wonderful pony to ride for someone, and we're going to start competing this year! I started at the RS to try and rebuild my confidence (slightly loopy TB at home, love him to bits but find him a bit scary- luckily share him with my dad), and then I found the wee pony, who has helped my confidence more than anything. So I don't really feel the need for the RS, as I can do everything I need on the ponio (lessons, competing, hacking). Not even really annoyed that I fell off, it happens to everyone sometimes, just a bit annoyed about paying for a lesson on a pony that nobody else there wants to ride. I've done quite a bit of dressage in my time, on various horses, and today I was forced into being a kicking, whacking person (because that's what the instructor told me to do- said nothing else works).

I feel sorry for the pony too- she obviously wasn't always like this.
 
Whilst it can be good to ride a difficult horse at times, if you're constantly being plonked on a nutter it can really impede your progress and you spend more time trying to get them to do something that actually doing it.

I was amazed when I went to a different school and the horse I was riding didn't tank off when the one in front cantered and actually went over the jump on the first attempt, honestly I was so miffed that I'd spent 4 years being so limited at what I could do because I spent so much time trying to prevent carnage in the school.
 
As a fairly experienced ex riding school instructor, I would say you were absolutely right not to get back on. Alot of sympathy for the pony, as obviously not happy in riding school, but they will always do the same thing again, so you would probably have come off twice!

There is often a more difficult pony which no-one will ride at riding schools, and there is always huge pressure on the instructor to use it, as otherwise the others will end up doing more work and the naughty one will get out of doing his/her share. I would always get an experienced member of staff to get on one that was being particularly bad, as I didn't feel you learn alot by being dumped! Also if you get dumped twice in a lesson, really the riding school is then liable if you are badly injured, as they could hardly say it was out of character! Not a fan of the sue for anything culture, but also feel riding school has a duty of care...

And as a paying customer, why should you pay to sort out their problem pony? Also it will finish off your confidence, and I do believe that you can only learn to ride well by riding good horses. Doubt Ellen Whitaker would have got where she is if she had been given problem ponies all the way...

So well done, good decision, and good luck with the new ride. Sounds like it came along at the right time.
 
I remember going to a riding school years ago, as a teenager I had been used to riding my sisters PBA who was pretty loony, so I had a fair grasp of how to ride. My sister moved away so I was horseless, as I missed riding I went to a local riding school and said i was a competent rider etc etc. Had a good lesson for them to assess me, all OK.

Next week they gave me a horse that was so lazy I just couldn't get it to go I just about managed to get a trot out of it and canter was impossible. Now I had gone to the stables, told them of my ability, been assessed and said I wanted to IMPROVE my riding.

Anyway the instructor kept telling me to kick and hit the horse to get it to go. I then got off and gave her the horse and said if she was so clever maybe she would like to get it to canter???

She got on and basically beat the poor thing and got a few strides of canter out of it. Obviously I complained, I said this is not riding it's a complete waste of my time and cruel to the horse. They refunded my money and said if I came back the following week they'd sort me out a better horse. I did go back out of interest and got a lovely ex point to pointer who was beautifully schooled. But they had put me off and although that other horse was lovely I just lost interest.

I understand that they need placid horses for beginners but surely it's blatent cruelty to have to beat and kick a horse to make it go. It sounds like the horse you had just didn't want to be there any more than you wanted to ride it.

Maybe look for another stables or see if you can do a share with someone?? Good luck!
 
Thanks- am sort of doing a share with someone (well riding her son's pony as he has grown out of it and she wants to keep it). So it's OK from that point of view.

It saddens me that riding school horses are this way. I used to ride at a yard back home where the horses/ponies were a real mix- some a little loony and some placid and lazy, but none so much as to describe them as braindead. I attribute this to the fact that they all also trekked on Salisbury Plain.

These horses never hack because the woman doesn't have the insurance to do it, so it's not surprising that her ponies seem to have lost interest in life, poor souls.

Was tempted to ask for a refund actually- not due to the fall, that happens to everyone, but my lesson consisted of half and hour trying to get the pony to move, 10 mins on the floor waiting for another pony, some trotting in a circle and a couple of canters on a 20m circle. OK, I am only paying £11.50 and hour, but surely is not the point. I haven't leart anything, in fact I felt totally useless on the pony (and even more useless OFF it!) because I couldn't get it to do a thing for me. And (without blowing my own trumpet too much) I know I am better than that.
 
Well allthough this is the case in a fair few there are some good ones out their honest! Our yard is a RS yard and has a few amazingly schooled horses like ex serious dressage prospects
 
Oh , I know there are! Initially I thought this was one of them, the first lesson I had there was on a very nicely schooled pony, I was really pleased. There's a livery yard very near to me where the owner gives lessons on her dressage horse, am going to look into that. It's what I really wanted to do when I moved here, just couldn't find anywhere, so went for this RS because my housemate wanted to get back into riding too.
 
Ditto Jess - wouldn't find one pony like that at my RS, ok some are quirkier than others but you wouldn't find one that reacted like that.

Sounds like a sour, tired, bored pony who needs some 1 on 1 love and attention

You made the right decision not getting back on and tbh, having a pony like that in a RS makes me wonder what would happen in the event of an accident which was taken towards the courts/ compensation culture that we live in?

New horse sounds like perfect timing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top