I may regret having done this!

[eml]

I know I am now very lazy in my riding and having daughter shout at me just doesn't work (I just shout back or say well you do it!). A couple of days ago I phoned my old trainer and said 'please come and sort me out'.

Help..... it is about 10 years since I have had a serious lesson and this is not the sort of guy you say, 'I am not/can't do that'. He used to be a bit :eek: about my old chaps 'airs above the ground' so I had an easy get out but current horse is a saint so I am going to work sooooo hard.

Runs of into corner and panics :o

[laceyfreckle]

I feel the same....it's been a LONG time since i've had 'proper' lessons with a hardened instructor like i used to have (i'm not counting my last lesson, which was 15minutes as was COMPLETELY different as she was a 'think with your mind type' of instructor who eventually admitted i could think as much as i want as said pony was 'thinking' of not doing it!:o) Anyway i keep putting off having 'proper' lessons myself, you know the ones where you're told and you do and crying doesn't work;) Well go for it and then let me know it wasn't as horrible as you thought and then i can go and book mine!!!:D

[chev]

I did the same about a year or two back. No lessons for 15 years and then the first serious lesson with an old instructor of mine... Staggered off home wondering where I had got the idea I could ride from! :o

Have to say a year's lessons with her did me the world of good. Enjoy (if that's the right word!!)

[CurlyWurlyRach]

I havnt had a lesson in 2.5 years and never on Curly - got one on Wednesday :D

[Sammii]

I really miss one-to-one lessons. For the past 18 months I have been teaching myself....it's kills me working at a RS for 11 hours on a Saturday and not getting to have a lesson.

One day :D

[NicP]

Oh good luck eml - let us know how it goes!

[NoviceNic]

Sounds like you are a gluten for punishment EML. All I can say is book your relaxing bubble bath for when you get home after the lesson. :eek::D

[fjordlady]

Good on you taking the plunge into 'lessons'. Its always difficult after being away from 'school'.
You have lots to gain from a good instructor who shoots from the belt - just remember no pain without gain when you are relaxing in your bubble bath lol :).

Let us know how its goes.

[colettybetty]

Ouch ! are you mad ? I went back to proper riding lessons 8 months ago and never realised just what a lazy rider I had become, but its made me loads fitter, I can now poo pick the field and run with the wheelbarrow to the muck heap, yay !

Good luck with your instructor (pop a hearing aid in your ear so you can play deaf if things get too tough....:D)

[coverblown]

How did it go E? Hope he left you in one piece

[Lucyad]

I started private lessons over a year ago, first since I was about 10! My RI makes me work SO hard I am usually sweatier than my horse :o. But the feeling of progression is so fulfiling, than I actually enjoy a good productive lesson as much, if not more so, than a day out competing!

[LokiSofi]

I'm currently looking for an instructor where I am and feel very :eek: about it. I haven't had a lesson since I was 17 which was 4 years ago. I'm dreading it but know it's what me and the horses need if we are ever going to get anywhere. Good luck:D

[goeslikestink]

I know I am now very lazy in my riding and having daughter shout at me just doesn't work (I just shout back or say well you do it!). A couple of days ago I phoned my old trainer and said 'please come and sort me out'.

Help..... it is about 10 years since I have had a serious lesson and this is not the sort of guy you say, 'I am not/can't do that'. He used to be a bit :eek: about my old chaps 'airs above the ground' so I had an easy get out but current horse is a saint so I am going to work sooooo hard.

Runs of into corner and panics :o

dont panic, its normal to have tat to tat whith daughters i know i been there
its a bit like when we teach kids to drive it dont work to well sometimes
asof the intructor

yeap you gonna work now as yu cant answer back- as its not tha easy to
haha

matey when you got it going abit better get your horse and compete against your daughter and win--even if its in low keyed stuff its great to have a bit of family rivalry and does wonders for confidence- but in gerneral with my daughter shes a bit more senior that i at competions now, but then who taught her-- i did

[eml]

Big anticlimax. Worked hard at building up fitness ready for the big moment only for him to cancel the night before.:mad: as someone more important came along.

Oh and I would never compete against daughter..she is much too good!!

[NoviceNic]

Aww shucks that sucks. Have you rebooked???

[Cobgirl]

Lol, I had my first lesson 6 months ago after a break of 40 years!! Do it, because you will not regret it. When I take off my hat, my head looks like it has been caught in a short sharp shower! I am wringing wet even on the coolest of days because Adam, my RI makes me work the whole 50 minutes.

It is great having an experienced trainer/instructor be critical from the ground. I have ringing in my ears the whole lesson, 'legs too forward,' 'hands still, please,' 'STOP keep looking at her shoulder and FEEL your diagonals!'

Music to my ears! Best of luck with your lesson, bet you love it!

[Kady A]

Had a lesson yesterday - I have barely ridden in 18 months due to illness plus Stella is retired. Cue me doing the John Wayne walk this morning ... oooh bits of me hurt but my goodness it was worth it!

A proper "old school" teacher, fully aware of all my foibles and excuses and she didn't let me get away with it! You know ... it was great, and I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be.

I made OH come with me, after all I am now the wrong side of 40 and thought if anything went horribly wrong he could take me to hospital! :p

[chev]

Oh no! :mad: Any chance of booking him again?

[fimonkey]

How funny and reassuring. I too have just started lessons, 1/2 hour private, and boy am I a rubbish rider!!

I have an excellent instructor though, I ride one of the RS horses (too far for me to take my own who won't load) and 10 minutes into the first lesson she immediately knew what kind of horse I had (I ride in a defensive position apparently).

Two lessons later and already I can see an improvement, but boy I ACHE!!! and I have the impression I'm really a soggy sack of spuds sat on a horse, but heartening to know everyone else seems to have same issue (Legs back, hands too low, shoulders too stiff, sit UP! etc etc). :)

[Skib]

I did sigh at your original post eml.
But didn't like to reprove a real, live, qualified, experienced riding teacher for falling into the "mature" pupil trap. I don't know your brilliant instructor. Maybe he will be round next week or you will box the horse to him and all will be sweetness and light.

But a lazy rider? You?
How far down the pecking order did you want to place yourself? Even before you actually had this lesson, I felt like ticking you off.
I'd avoid thinking or telling the RI or even posting that your riding has got lazy. Naughty, even if said in jest.
I bet your "lazy" might be described by someone else as relaxed, easy, putting your horses at ease?

As eml herself knows, no one is more capable than me of ruining a perfectly good lesson. And (my view) one of the best ways for a mature student to wreck a lesson, is to stop being lazy.
One makes an all out effort to do precisely as the teacher says (or as one assumes the teacher says), one is much more active, one stiffens, one makes an effort, and one upsets the balance of one's riding by applying any instruction to an disproportionate degree.

I know it is a schoolgirl virtue and a defence against criticism but I think one should avoid being modest when presenting oneself to a teacher? Instructors tend to take us at our own evaluation.
Now you say someone more important turned up? Shame on you.

You are important.
I just lost my place on a livery waiting list because somebody more important turned up.

Did you rebook, eml?
Or did you wash your hands of him?

If not, my suggestion is (if you weren't before) to be precise. Riding instructors like having a definite question at a first session and can usually sort a given problem within the given time.
So in your place, I'd present him with a problem, even if you haven't got one.
Like shoulder in? Or the walk trot transition. Whatever.
Say you were terribly disappointed that he didn't have time because you felt he personally (uniquely) would be able to look at your new horse and give you guidance on this particular point?
Not because you yourself need "sorting out"?
But because you have already tried one of two things and feel both you and the horse would benefit from his opinion.

If you replace the word "lazy" with "inexact" or "too instinctive"? That you'd like to use your fine brain a bit more? He cant give you your daughter's body. But neither can he deprive you of your wisdom and years of experience.

Don't let him. And if you pick up the vibes that he really doesn't want to teach you, there may be other good teachers around? Go for it and have a dream lesson from someone really famous?

[eml]

Unfortunately Skib the better ones riding is when young the more you regret its passing with age!!:D

I am lazy in that I know perfectly well why horse is not doing things to the best of its very talented ability (at fault my muscle tone, quickness of reactions etc,) but unless I am pushed will only ask for 70%. This instructor has always been able to get 110% out of me and I am sure will again.

He is going to phone next week so hopefully we can sort something out.

I am not 'into' famous names. This chap is a purist and thinks like me that the aim in riding is to produce a happy comfortable/responsive horse and in so doing to achieve success as a by product.

Wow

Sorry just reread that and it sounds very pompous. It is not meant that way, on my young horse I would be happy to start and stop when I wanted to, but having a horse that has lots of talent I need to up my game to his level.

[Skib]

Glad to hear it is not the end of your productive relationship with this special teacher - nor as regrettable as the posts suggested.