Women Who Started Riding at 50 or 60

[Frances Ann]

I returned to riding horses for fun last year. I made a living working on a small horse farm in my twenties. Now, 56 years old, last year started taking riding lessons again. I keep meeting women who are doing the same thing.

I am curious to hear from women who started riding for the first time at 50 or 60 years old. I wonder what motivated you to take up this sport? It’s clear to me why I did, I needed the right circumstances for motivation, plus $$ and time.

I decided to write a feature article on this topic for a course I am taking in journalism. I would love to hear about your experience. Especially new riders. What’s your goal? What fitness benefits have you noticed since you started riding? How often do you ride? Why not golf or tennis, why riding horses?

I’d also love to hear from riding instructors as to what an older adult beginner is like to teach.

I appreciate your time and hope to have a few responses.

 

[maggie62]

Hi
My twin sis and I started riding last year at the age of 62yrs. We did some horse riding in our early teens but never had lessons, kind of held on and hoped for the best !! We paid for our rides with money we earned from milk/paper rounds as our parents didn't have money to spare for 'luxuries'.
Been on a horse a couple of times when on holiday but was just a walk really.
We decided last year after looking for a holiday that maybe a horse riding break would be fun. We booked a weekend in the Brecon Beacons last October. The first trek was like a marathon to us, negotiating some steep terrain etc and my horse attempting to bolt a few times, I particularly didn't feel safe, bitter wind and after about 4hrs in the saddle we were shattered. The following day we decided an hour trek was enough and we left feeling quite disappointed.
When back home we decided that lessons was the way forward but finding the right School took a little time. My sis lives in Leeds and I am in the Scottish borders. We love the lessons and get a lot of pleasure doing them not to mention gaining some physical fitness and mental stimulation. Our goals are pretty small in the scheme of things but would like to progress to the canter and have the confidence to go out on treks/hacks without feeling out of control. We have one lesson a week at present. My instructor is quite young....in comparison to me, but we get on very well.
Its so different embarking on a hobby at a mature age as you don't have the 'devil may care' attitude of your youth, but we are far from the 'put out to pasture' mentality. We are still very much young at heart, pity our bodies don't match but you have to work with what you have.


Margaret

 

[shirl62]

I agree to what Margaret said ( I am the other twin )..Oh to be young and supple with no aches and pains. Funnily enough the riding seems to agree with me and does not aggravate aged joints (until I get off the horse ! ) I really enjoy my lessons but am not in a hurry ..and will take things at a bit of a slower pace. My dream would be for Margaret and I to have our own horses and go out for hacks, but I realise there is a lot of hard work and knowledge in owning your own horse, but we all need to have dreams...

Shirl

 

[Joanne_Stockport]

Not quite 50, I started riding at 44 years, 4 years ago. It only started with a voucher to a beginners hack (someone on the ground leading the horse!). I wanted to be able to do it without someone on the ground next to me so I took some riding lessons and got the bug. It was at a time in my life where I was very stressed and unhappy with my work and riding took my mind of it. I'm not a sporty person but riding ticked all the boxes for me (exercising) with an animal. I've never rode before that (when I was younger). Was taking regular weekly lesson and after a year I bought my horse!
It's been a big learning curve as little step by little step but very proud of what I have done so far. I am starting a bit of Le Trec and enjoy hacking with him (low level endurance rides). My back aches sometimes but apart from that I'm not too bad for my age...I also go on riding holidays (Brecon Beacons) and done up to 4 days in the saddle (6 hours/day) with loads of canters in the hills. I also book riding on the beach and galloping (with riding school horses or I have done with my own horse). It's a new way of life since I've got my own horse and really enjoy it. It's what starting my new career as an equine & pet photographer...so I don't hate my job anymore

 

[oldie48]

Hi I've just noticed this. I had a few riding lessons as a 12 yr old but my parents couldn't afford for me to continue. I started riding again in my late 40's and bought my first horse around 50. I'm 70 next year and rode my first medium test today on a horse I bought for my 65th birthday. I can't imagine a life without horses now but really I got into it because my daughter born when I was 41 wanted to ride and it was the perfect excuse for me to start too. Just live for it now!

 

[maggie62]

Hi Oldie48

What an inspiration .........there's hope for me yet !! I hope I can achieve half of what you have...........well done

 

[shirl62]

Would love to have my own horse too....which is a dream I still have....( and maggie62 )

Shirl

 

[JanetGeorge]

lol, I'm not sure I count. I'm 67 - and after riding ALL my life, I stopped riding about 5 years ago due to ill health. THAT problem finally fixed, I got back on a horse last week for the first time. After 10 minutes in walk, the pain in my hips was excruciating so I got off. Next day - still feeling the pain - I got back on the same horse (a real fatty - like me). After 5 minutes it was too much - so I got off her and struggled onto my 17hh WB - MUCH easier on the hips and after 20 minutes in walk, I was starting to feel a BIT better. But I made the mistake of jumping off onto concrete - did my right knee in and I'm still hobbling. I HOPE it will be sufficiently better by next week to try again!

 

[shirl62]

lol, I'm not sure I count. I'm 67 - and after riding ALL my life, I stopped riding about 5 years ago due to ill health. THAT problem finally fixed, I got back on a horse last week for the first time. After 10 minutes in walk, the pain in my hips was excruciating so I got off. Next day - still feeling the pain - I got back on the same horse (a real fatty - like me). After 5 minutes it was too much - so I got off her and struggled onto my 17hh WB - MUCH easier on the hips and after 20 minutes in walk, I was starting to feel a BIT better. But I made the mistake of jumping off onto concrete - did my right knee in and I'm still hobbling. I HOPE it will be sufficiently better by next week to try again!

Really can sympathise with you. The fist riding lesson I had was on a rather wide cob, my hips felt like they were being dislocated but I managed to persevere and it was fine. After a few weeks it was not so bad but dismounting was a bit of a struggle as he was quite tall ( for me anyway at 4'10'' ish ). It was hard to keep the knees bent on landing as I could not see the ground...I now ride a welsh section c and it is much better in both respects. Hope your knee gets better soon.

Shirl

 

[oldie48]

lol, I'm not sure I count. I'm 67 - and after riding ALL my life, I stopped riding about 5 years ago due to ill health. THAT problem finally fixed, I got back on a horse last week for the first time. After 10 minutes in walk, the pain in my hips was excruciating so I got off. Next day - still feeling the pain - I got back on the same horse (a real fatty - like me). After 5 minutes it was too much - so I got off her and struggled onto my 17hh WB - MUCH easier on the hips and after 20 minutes in walk, I was starting to feel a BIT better. But I made the mistake of jumping off onto concrete - did my right knee in and I'm still hobbling. I HOPE it will be sufficiently better by next week to try again!

It's horrible starting again after a break, I've not had a five yr one but a couple of 3 month breaks following an accident and an illness were hard enough. I have moved onto a narrower horse in the last few years and he's much more comfortable as I am not as flexible in my hips as I was! My daughter, who got me into all of this, is now a doctor and just tells me to take painkillers and keep going unless something is broken!

 

[HunkyDory]

I started about 12 months ago at 51. I rode ponies as a child and early teen but mostly through hanging around the local stables (before health & safety, menages, and 'own your own pony' days) and I had friends who had ponies.

Going back to riding and horses is something I had been wanting to do for years. I've ridden motorcylces, ran, used the gym, had different hobbies and even went to University as a mature student and did an undergraduate and masters degree. I spent time volunteering at an animal sanctuary which hosts horses, ponies and a crazy donkey which drove me to take up riding again. Just the caring for them and the groundwork I found so peaceful and intimate (bonkers description but this is my favourite part of a relationship with horses).

I had never had a proper lesson so when I started back...oh boy...it was knackering actually learning to ride properly. A year later after an average of a lesson a week and some hacking out thrown in, I'm preparing for jumping. I'm told I'm at Level 3 Advance Beginner. After private lessons to get me to this point, I've now switched to a group. My aim is to be competent as I don't have big ambitions to compete in anything. I'm walking, trotting, cantering, doing 20 metre and 10 metre circles, figure of eights and serpantines, poles, no stirrups, no reigns, have been lunged, and done different transitions to perk up their attention.

My barometer is a 16 2 warmblood gelding cross named Guinness. Guinness is about 18 and has seen it all and done it all. He's lazy but so gorgeous. After the first two lessons of thinking, I'm so **** at this, I can't even get this horse into a pacy walk, let alone a trot, he now transitions for me (most of the time) at first time of asking.

My ambition is to loan a rehabilitated ex-chaser. I've no plans to do anything intense so will be happy with one who is happy being a happy hacker with the option for some good exercise while we enjoy each other's company. If my ex-chaser should one day put their head on my shoulder and want a love-in, then I will be in 50+ lady horsey heaven.

 

[Dawny]

A reply from my mother who's 46 (Hope this will still apply)

“I came back after over ten years off because of my daughters pestering, and even then I had never really gotten past trotting. My only experience in-between was two riding holidays down in Cornwall where I’d gotten to canter a few times but I was still pretty bad.

I went into lessons with the modest ambitions of being good enough to plod around local villages on a nice, steady cob type, I soon realised that I was worse than I thought.
The biggest difference between riding then and now (apart from the strange hip pains that followed which definitely hadn’t been there before) was the importance of being on a horse that I trusted.

Falling was now a much scarier thought when you get to the age where you don’t bounce anymore, which I found out a few months in.
Came off a horse I didn’t like going over a bounce jump and decided to take a break over the winter.

Planning to return to it in the next few months and after a pause I can really see how much I love it, which is why I’m choosing it over something a tad bit more safe.
Hope some of this helps.”

 

[maggie62]

Well update on Shirl and me..........we have both fallen off or should I say I was bucked off and Shirl's horse spooked and she was decanted.I suffered no lasting damage, Shirl however sustained concussion and some fractured ribs. Its true we don't bounce any more and it hits home that your age is a concern when these things happen. We are still carrying on although Shirl has had to take time out to recover, hopefully in time for our riding holiday in Tuscany next month. Cantering is a major milestone for us but we will get there and we only started lessons in February, just takes us 'auld yins' time. I agree with the trust aspect and it has not happened yet for Shirl and I....there must be some nice little horse waiting somewhere.

 

[shirl62]

Dope on a rope seems a nice prospect to me at the moment...