Why am I so indecisive?

[Majuska]

Hi, So I started riding again roughly two years ago and I just haven't been able to find a riding school I'm completely happy with.
I rode at my first for three months and I did the same thing every week.
The second one, the instructor wanted me to whip the horse on both sides very hard as he wasn't moving and it made me uncomfortable and I also had a lesson where they put me on a dangerous horse who didn't want to listen at all.
Third one: instructor made me just trot and canter for 3/4 months, no introduction to any dressage or jumping and sometimes she wouldn't show up to lessons and would make me do group instead of private without telling me before hand.
4th one, Private dressage lessons on a woman's yard, she was rather standoffish and it didn't seem like she liked me and would tell me she was all booked up when I could see on her website that she wasn't.
5th one I rode there for a year? but they have raised the prices by quite alot and they are quite casual with me and I did work experience there for a bit.


Is this just me being very fussy and hard to please ? Should I try another riding school ?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

If you were just having one lesson a week at your first RS, I'm not sure what you expected to be doing after three months. Until you have gained an independent seat in w/t/c, on different horses, there isn't much else that you can do. And I would be surprised if you had an independent seat in 3 paces after 12 lessons.

It always amazes me that people expect to be able to run before they can walk on a horse, when they wouldn't expect the same on a bike.

 

[be positive]

I suppose it depends on what you are wanting from the lessons and if you have ever discussed your aims with the instructors, doing trot and canter work correctly, using different school movements is dressage even if it was not labelled as such.
If you want to move on in a certain direction with your riding you need to have a conversation with the RS and not just assume they will have a plan in place for every client, most of them will just be using it as a step towards buying their own, the cost of good lessons will be going up regularly because the overheads are always increasing so it may be worth asking for more structured lessons, they may have no idea you want to do more.

 

[RachaelJC]

Have you spoken to your instructor(s) about how your feeling? Perhaps they see things differently from the ground compared to how you feel riding - they may be able to see that there are still things to improve. But without communication you'll remain at a loss.

Perhaps ask them to work with you to do a progression plan covering the next few months, and stick with one instructor throughout so that it can be completed.

The first yard sounded the best, so maybe go back there. Group lessons when you've paid for private isn't fair.