samfan121
25th Jun 2007, 12:57 PM
Here's the thing.....
I've done one and two-hour pony treks while on summer holidays as a child and I really enjoyed it. You know the sort of thing a brief instruction on how to start and stopand then everyone walking along nose to tail and occasionally you get to trot, with the guide riding past and telling you it's a 1-2 rhythm and leaving you to get on with it. I do bump occassionally (when I stop thinking at turn to look at the view instead!) but most of the time it's pretty smooth.
I've always really enjoyed it so almost 3 years, ago at the age of 24, I booked a riding weekend in Wales. It was billed as 2 full-day treks for mixed ability and I thought it would be fun and a good opportunity to learn a bit more. I explained to the lady over the phone that I'd never done more than trot but and she said that was fine as long as I wasn't a nervous rider. However....
On the first morning we were told to go and 'catch' the horse from the field and tack it up. Obviously I had no clue but thankfully got some help from a nice young stable hand ;) and was soon ready to go. Then I found out that all 7 others in the gorup had their own horses and had been riding for years - help!
So we set off out the gate at a pretty quick trot and after a few minutes one of my feet slipped from the stirrup. I stopped the horse to sort myself out and by the time I looked up the whole group had disappeared from sight! Used to slow fat ponies I kicked the horse on quite hard.....and she took off! It felt like flying! I took a 2 point position (I think that's what it's called) automatically and finally managed to reign her in when we caught up to the group. Needless to say I was pretty pleased with myself and laughing like a mad thing!
Since no one had realised what I'd done or even that I had been missing (which worried me slightly!), a little later on the guide pointed out a gate up ahead and told me he wanted to see if I could canter to it and was I up for trying? I said yes, he slapped my horse on the behind and I was off again! His response? 'Well you didn't fall off so you should be fine'!
After that we spent the 2 days barely doing any walking at all. It was all fast trots and long canters. I feel like there was a gallop in there but surely they wouldn't have let me do that????
Anyway,by the time I left I could barely move but I was hooked!
Unfortunately I was living in London so only managed the odd trek when I visited my parents. These usually included an opportunity for a short canter away from the slower members of the group. Again, I automatically took the 2 point - up out of the saddle, trying to keep my heels down and a lowish centre of gravity and gripping a handful of mane.
I haven't been able to make a ride since for just over a year and finally last weekend booked in for a half day ride near my parents. The group was very mixed ability but three of us were offered the opportunity to canter away from the rest and it was excellent. Open countryside, well behaved horse and some pretty good speed. I got covered in mud and didn't fall off :p
The thing is, I feel confident and tend to do what comes naturally. However because I've never had a formal lesson I have no idea if I'm doing something totally wrong. I kind of assumed that the guides would say something if I was??? Also, when I went on the wales weekend I did feel like I was controling the horse to a certain extent - turning, stopping, speeding up, slowing down etc- as we rode in a spread out group and not nose to tail so it wasn't a case of the horse just following the one in front. B ut this last weekend the horse paid me very little attention at all and simply did whatever the one in front did. i.e. on the canter it took off when the lead horse did and stopped when the lead horse did etc.
I would really love to have lessons but it's a question of getting out to the stables at the moment as they are pretty far and I don't have my own transport.
Is what I'm doing normal? I've seen lots of posts here about how many lessons people have had before they trot or canter etc and how difficult things are and I've never learned any strict technique, rather just picked things up from watching the guides etc.
Any opinions would be wlecome.
I've done one and two-hour pony treks while on summer holidays as a child and I really enjoyed it. You know the sort of thing a brief instruction on how to start and stopand then everyone walking along nose to tail and occasionally you get to trot, with the guide riding past and telling you it's a 1-2 rhythm and leaving you to get on with it. I do bump occassionally (when I stop thinking at turn to look at the view instead!) but most of the time it's pretty smooth.
I've always really enjoyed it so almost 3 years, ago at the age of 24, I booked a riding weekend in Wales. It was billed as 2 full-day treks for mixed ability and I thought it would be fun and a good opportunity to learn a bit more. I explained to the lady over the phone that I'd never done more than trot but and she said that was fine as long as I wasn't a nervous rider. However....
On the first morning we were told to go and 'catch' the horse from the field and tack it up. Obviously I had no clue but thankfully got some help from a nice young stable hand ;) and was soon ready to go. Then I found out that all 7 others in the gorup had their own horses and had been riding for years - help!
So we set off out the gate at a pretty quick trot and after a few minutes one of my feet slipped from the stirrup. I stopped the horse to sort myself out and by the time I looked up the whole group had disappeared from sight! Used to slow fat ponies I kicked the horse on quite hard.....and she took off! It felt like flying! I took a 2 point position (I think that's what it's called) automatically and finally managed to reign her in when we caught up to the group. Needless to say I was pretty pleased with myself and laughing like a mad thing!
Since no one had realised what I'd done or even that I had been missing (which worried me slightly!), a little later on the guide pointed out a gate up ahead and told me he wanted to see if I could canter to it and was I up for trying? I said yes, he slapped my horse on the behind and I was off again! His response? 'Well you didn't fall off so you should be fine'!
After that we spent the 2 days barely doing any walking at all. It was all fast trots and long canters. I feel like there was a gallop in there but surely they wouldn't have let me do that????
Anyway,by the time I left I could barely move but I was hooked!
Unfortunately I was living in London so only managed the odd trek when I visited my parents. These usually included an opportunity for a short canter away from the slower members of the group. Again, I automatically took the 2 point - up out of the saddle, trying to keep my heels down and a lowish centre of gravity and gripping a handful of mane.
I haven't been able to make a ride since for just over a year and finally last weekend booked in for a half day ride near my parents. The group was very mixed ability but three of us were offered the opportunity to canter away from the rest and it was excellent. Open countryside, well behaved horse and some pretty good speed. I got covered in mud and didn't fall off :p
The thing is, I feel confident and tend to do what comes naturally. However because I've never had a formal lesson I have no idea if I'm doing something totally wrong. I kind of assumed that the guides would say something if I was??? Also, when I went on the wales weekend I did feel like I was controling the horse to a certain extent - turning, stopping, speeding up, slowing down etc- as we rode in a spread out group and not nose to tail so it wasn't a case of the horse just following the one in front. B ut this last weekend the horse paid me very little attention at all and simply did whatever the one in front did. i.e. on the canter it took off when the lead horse did and stopped when the lead horse did etc.
I would really love to have lessons but it's a question of getting out to the stables at the moment as they are pretty far and I don't have my own transport.
Is what I'm doing normal? I've seen lots of posts here about how many lessons people have had before they trot or canter etc and how difficult things are and I've never learned any strict technique, rather just picked things up from watching the guides etc.
Any opinions would be wlecome.