Can you really remember how you learned how to ride?

[Skib]

I learned to ride as a mature adult and felt that the teaching of riding was haphazard, ineffective and dictatorial. There was no structure, syllabus or continuity.
When I came to New Rider it was a blessed relief to have the RIs on the Board give constructive answers that worked. My respect for those teachers has grown as I find I have already forgotten how I learned to ride.

I don't have a simple answer to anything any more. Not if I am honest. Take steering. One lesson horse I ride you can steer from the nose, where its nose goes the rest of the horse will follow. But the mare I hack, I habitually steer clear of trees by pressing a leg on her ribs. And another lesson horse, one needs to steer by directing her hind quarters. And it is the back of the horse being in the right place that guides her front.

My experience was supposed to help other people to learn to ride in retirement. Instead it has become too complex for anyone else to duplicate. It is such a jumble of influences from the RIs who have taught me, the books I have read and the clinics I have watched.

So do any of you really honestly know how you learned?
Or do good teachers of riding learn to teach only through teaching?

[elaine@dow-evan]

What an interesting question.
I am in the early stages of learning to ride so I suppose I can remember how it feels/how I am being taught.
It seemss to me that leariing to ride is unlike learning almost any other skill, as you have to take into account 2 variables which can act upon each other and effect each other, and these variables are the rider and the horse.
If the rider is nervous, tired, emotional, frightened, happy etc that will affect they way they approach the task. Horses seem to me to be infinitaly variable in how they respond to aids etc and how they also respond to their riders and how they are feeling.
When these two variables come into contact with each other, you seem to get a different situation each lesson, and so maybe it is not possible to have a graduated series of progressive steps in lessons, as you might in (say) learning to drive a car, or learning to windsurf, or something.
I would be surprised if there was a lesson plan for each of my lessons, as I suspect the RI assesses how the horse is that day, how I am that day, and teaches us accordingly.

I hope tis all makes some kind of sense...I am interested to know what other people think and apologise for the lack of grammatical structure on the page!!

Maybe a really good teacher is born, and training brings out of them what was already there, but that is not to say that you cannot learn how to teach adequately and competently without being born to it.

[Lot1983]

Can I remember how I learnt to ride?

In all honesty no, I learnt when I was 5, I have no recollection of learning rising trot etc, I quit for about 5 years and started again last June, since then I have learnt to ride 'properly' and I have no idea how that happened either, I have a great horse and a great RI which has helped me no end.

I still have major issues with rising diagonals as I never learnt them when I was younger but more often than no I some how end up on the correct one, until I change direction.

[Frog Flob]

I learn't to ride at about 9 years old. My Dad owned a field with a stable but my sister and I were never allowed to have a pony. Our Dad let someone else use the field, rent free, for their daughter's pony! So under the cover of darkness, my sister and I climbed out of our bedroom window, crept down to the field jumped on the pony, no saddle, bridle or halter and cantered around having a jolly good time. We carried on doing this for years, no one ever guessed!!!
Both my sister and I bought our first horses in our 40s. I share mine with my daughter (who didn't have to wait for so long to have a Horse!). Not your usual first horse being a 15.1h pure arab with all the characteristics. My philosophy on riding is:- I Ride to stay on and enjoy it, I'm not particularly bothered about style! Safety is far more important. I try not to pull his mouth. I never beat him with the crop, in fact I only carry a crop to beat cars off with! I just love him & think he is an absolutely beautiful numpty :)

PS my sister bought a ID x Throughbred (far more sensible!!!!)

[bluetiggerhelen]

I learned at around age 5 first time round. I remember walking circles being bored and lady shouting 'If you don't stop looking at those donkies you will be riding one next week'. LOL. We lived very far north Scotland and I was saved from the riding school by a farmer lady. They had 2 ponies from the farmer's childhood and they offered us free riding on them. They weren't schooled amazingly but this meant I learnt to ride 'like a cowboy' and deal with most things. I had 4 or so good years with these horses mainly riding everday Sunday out and about checking on the sheep.

We moved and my parents got me lessons on a girl's own grown Shetland. I remember her teaching me to jump over bread crates.:eek:

Then we moved house again to Wolverhampton. I was part of a local school's pony club and it was back to going around in cricles with 5 or 6 other people queing up. I didn't learn much then. Apart from wee ponies take the mick and the big ones can be more placid!!!!

My parents then secured me a ride on an outgrown Welsh Mountain. It was the best thing that ever happened in my riding life. The girl who was teaching was excellent and not only broke my wild cowboy ways but taught me repect for my horse. I learned to jump within weeks, got the chance to hack out with her (on her new bigger horse), learn stable management and the best bit was when she bought a foal and I got to see the process of this. I had just started being allowed to do some XC jumps while out hacking. Trigger, the pony I rode, was pretty much bomb proof until he realised you could ride and then he took the mick. I had about 4 amazing years with her before we moved again...........

It was back to a new local stable where my folks paid for me to do a week's summer hoilday riding school. The man who owned the stable really wanted me to buy the horse I was riding but it wasn't going to happen. In fact he told me she would jump but when I tried she stopped right in front of the fence before cat leaping over it tossing me halfway up her neck.

Oops rambling......

I haven't ridden for ages now but am so excited about coming back to his old hobby of mine. Just waiting for a dodgy collar bone to heal and then I will be riding of into the wind - I hope:D

[Yann]

I think I was about 5 years old when I started riding lessons, which took place on hacks around the lanes near the yard we used to go to:eek: You just couldn't imagine that happening these days. We did end up at another school which was a bit better but I never really got to grips with cantering, the instructors were a bit 'get on with it' and I had a few scary moments which put me off. I carried my worries about canter forward 30 years to when I started again but they didn't last long :)

Returning as an adult a few things seemed to have changed, like not gripping with knees, but most of it was similar. I have to say I was lucky to have some good sympathetic instruction, nothing fancy and although each instructor had their own particular things they emphasised the approach across the board seemed pretty consistent to me. I haven't personally found the differences between horses to be such a stark issue personally, I don't get to ride that many different ones these days but when I do it's just a case of adjusting according to what works better with each one. Rio normally needs her nose pointing to avoid tree trunks, whereas Tess will neck rein or leg yield to avoid them :)

[vince42]

A fascinating question - the answer in my case is haphazardly at first.

At the yard where I started riding I had instruction from 9 different instructors both in group and private lessons though mostly group. I found the group lessons good for building stamina and developing the previously unused muscles needed for riding. However we were rarely pushed in group lessons and the horses frequently became bored and sometimes disobedient. Private lessons were better but at that stage of my learning my ability to translate what was being asked into action was limited.

I moved to another yard after a year or so, and with different horses to ride and a regular instructor moved forward more rapidly - even attempting some small jumps.

However it's really only since the start of this year when I started taking lessons with a RI who promotes classical riding that my understanding of the aids has been expanded and she has improved my feel for the horse. The difference being she is prepared to explain, in minute detail, both the application and the reasons for everything without recourse to technical jargon.

I am quite sure I would have progressed faster had I had this kind of instructor earlier - however the experience of all the different people, styles and horses has also proved useful. Also without the initial period getting my body accustomed to riding I probably would simply have been unable to keep up.

Vince

[cwb]

I am just relearning after 15 years away and find that some things are just natural to me - I suppose I must remember them from before - others have to be consciencely worked on like finding the stirrups without looking down!

I have now had three different RIs on 3 lessons and each one has a different approach - the first had me trotting over poles with lots of variety of exercise, the second had me plodding round the track, the third, today, had me pay more attention to posture but we ended up trotting very fast - perhaps because I had stopped gripping with my knees and the horse (same one each lesson) no longer had the brakes on!

[eml]

Origionally learned the basics on hacks in the 1950's, arenas were only found at big schools in those days and even early jumping instruction took place over fallen logs etc.

Skib I think you have reached the point at which you realise that riding is not something you just learn and then do but a constantly evolving set of skills. In a way teaching riding is the same and I teach certain things very differently now from 20 years ago.

[coverblown]

Skib and Elaine, I do think you have both encapsulated my experience - Skib, in that the learning is a really individual achievement and Elaine, in describing the variables (although of course there is more than two - for each horse and each rider we need to take in mood, confidence, experience etc etc).

I would also like to suggest that the learning goes on and on - its only in the last year that I have dared suggested that I can ride (rather than learning to ride) and thats after 8 years. Each new horse brings a new learning experience. For RS riders like us this is a quite frequent occurence; little more unusual for those with their own horses.

But I do remember learning - I remember getting rising trot quite well, and steering, and then changing horses and steering was all over the place. I remember riding nose to tail in a class lesson (eight in a 40x20 outdoor school in ALL WEATHERS) for years, I remember using BOTH hands on the saddle in early canter out on a hack (oh how I was told off for that...), holding on to the saddle for balance during sitting trot without stirrups (that apparently was "cheating"). And I remember being able to ride better than my eight year old daughter - how times change.....

And I remember changing schools, and starting private lessons, moving to class lessons, instructors changing until now I have lessons twice weekly; one very dry humoured, experienced and highly qualified instructor who seems to know everything about horses and is an excellent teacher - in a class lesson; and my other instructor (who is being trained by instructor 1) who is a delightful young woman of only 21 or 22, really positive and friendly who helps sort out my individual position problems.

But I do pity the poor teachers - they have to make lesson plans on the day according to the mood and wishes of rider and horse (never mind the weather conditions) and ensure progress or consolidation. Hats off to them, when you get a good 'un.

[icegirl]

Yes, it is an interesting question.
I started at seven in the way that most people did in the fifties, got chucked on a pony, taught the rising trot (took 17 lessons to get it I remember!), told to hang on and spent a lot of time being run off with on a small brown pony with no neck called Dinkie.
Fast forward to three years ago, loaning a horse one day a week and having some lessons.
BUT, the things that helped me learn were to do with trying to understand more about how a horse thinks (thank you friend who discussed this stuff with me) and finally (biggest learning curve) - being out there on your own and having to work it out yourself. The teachers can give you the tools and the best ones add to your confidence, but how you interpret and use their expertise is only up to you.

[EquusRider91]

I agree with you Icegirl about using what the teacher gives you and making it your own.

As for when I first learned to ride, I think it started by reading for me. I read horse books for years before I actually started (11-12 ish). But at the same time, I kind of chucked all that when I started actually riding. And I just let my RI tell me what to do. My first lesson was the basics, walk, and rising trot. She taught me visually. I was on the horse, and she'd be on the ground, as if she were on the horse, and showing me how I'm supposed to look. That helped a ton. Sometimes she'd even get on the horse to show me. And when I was on a different horse, she'd tell me a little about each one, like if they had a hard mouth or if they were bossy or whatnot. But for the most part, she let me figure out the horse for myself, which I loved.

And then I started incorporating books again, like Centered Riding, and mixed that in with my own style of riding that I learned from my RI. Then I rode at a diff. barn for a little bit, and picked up some dressage and showjumping techniques, but stayed pretty close to what I had originally learned, Hunter/Jumper/Eq. Then I started leasing a horse and just riding on my own without an RI and I developed my own way of riding. I talk a lot more to the horse than I used to. Kinda picked up some western habits from my friend, too. Hahaa. I digress.

[Gill]

I started riding in 1965 with one of those summer courses held at the old riding school/dealers/hunting yard in my grans village. The same place is now a trendy suburb of Newcastle and all the places we rode have been built on. You certainly wouldn't dream of hacking along Whickham Highway these days.

My first day I had two lessons on a roan pony called Freckles, the next day we had a four hour picnic ride on skewbald Spice including my first canter which was terrifying but fun! The picnic sandwiches were tied to the saddle dees and you can imagine what they looked like by the time we got to eat them.
The last day of the week we had a mini gymkhana. By that time I was riding Blaze, a little black cob who I truly loved!
We learned to stick on mostly and have fun. It was years later when I found out about diagonals and proper canter aids.

[coverblown]

You certainly wouldn't dream of hacking along Whickham Highway these days.


I can hardly believe that you once hacked along Whickham Highway - its so built up these days..... makes you think. I didn't know Tyneside in those days.

But there are still two RS around there - one at the Dunston end and the other one - my first school - is at the far end of Whickham highway - where Fellside road meets Burnopfield.

[icegirl]

Its wierd when you go back to somewhere you knew as a child isnt it? I took my kids back to see where I learned to ride - its now a derelict set of stables surrounded by urban housing and its TINY. I couldnt believe how it had seemed such a big and busy place then. Kind of sad to see the remains of the old stables with the cobwebs hanging thick in them.

[jenmac_85]

I remember I was 5, wearing red wellies and a massive blue jacket. The first pony I ever rode was called Ruby. I went with her for 5 weeks before someone during thee week pulled really hard on the bit and ripped open her mouth. Still don't know how the managed it, but thats what we were told. Scary I remember that far back!!! I got up to rising trot and then stopped.

Then I rode a horse called Pharoh in Glasgow, it was a riding school near Bellahouston park I think. That was when I was 12 after my parents divorce and my dad knew it was a safe option to keep me amused when I was with him lol. Managed two group lessons and wasn't very happy there. Preferred private lessons

Then after that a couple of hacks, moved to Lanark Equestrian hotel this January and rode a horse called McGregor, then onto Carluke RS and was on Charlie and then ended up with Mr Tyler.

So thats my learning to ride story lol. Don't know if you wanted as much detail, but trying to avoid studying Head Trauma. The pics are a bit gruesome for after lunch lol

Jenny and Tyler
x

[pedilia]

I don't remember all of it as it was 25 years ago:eek: but I do know that I am still learning, I still have lessons.

I do remember some of my early lessons as a small child, it really was just learning the basics, my adult lessons have been more about refining the technique.

[laura jeanne]

I can remember when I was about 11 years old, my father took me to a stable and we rented horses ( had had lessons there the summer before). We went out alone and as we were trotting along, my horse stopped, put his head down and I did a fly summersalt over his head and landed on my back.

I was not hurt at all but couldn't get back on. My father got off his horse to help me onto mine, but his horse somehow got loose and ran for home. So my father had to walk all the way back!

Never a dull moment anyway -

[Gurnosstud]

I first rode when I was about 3 but didn't start properly until I was 7. I never had any lessons. The way I learnt was through friends, family books and I think most importantly lots of different ponies. None of them were ideal children's ponies, but its the naughty ones that teach you important lessons!

[Back2Black]

I learned to ride out hacking round a farm! Learned to walk, trot, canter, gallop, jump and most importantly fall off :d Before I even knew what a school or arena was!