cancelled my lesson today

[Murphley Moo]

I am very naughty - i have cancelled todays riding lesson. I didn't enjoy last weeks at all - it is soooo monotonous now. Trotting 20m circles and serpentines for the whole hour with little canters here and there. The last 4 lessons have been exactly the same. I hack regularly and school on my share pony and recently did a small jump on my owners cob. I know i need lessons, but just can't bring myself to pay over £30 (and travel 20 miles) to leave feeling bored and despondent that i am not progressing at all! I feel the owner of my share pony teaches me more to be honest! Has anyone else felt like this?

[greymare]

Yep, I think once you get access to your own pony, things change.

You do what you want. Sometimes a break is all that is needed :D

[Gill]

That's a shame. When you find an inspiring teacher you can't wait for your lesson and then to go and practise afterwards. I think you need someone else?

[Murphley Moo]

My share owner occasionally has lessons at the yards school (which is a good size but not full size) She pays £11 for half an hour and says the ri is excellent. I am going to try her i think - my only concern is that i would be having lessons on my share pony who is smaller than i would like for my own horse, although you do have to ride him 'properly' for him to do anything! Also becasue he is an older pony (who is laminitic) you are limited to what you can do with him

[annareeves0]

My share owner occasionally has lessons at the yards school (which is a good size but not full size) She pays £11 for half an hour and says the ri is excellent. I am going to try her i think - my only concern is that i would be having lessons on my share pony who is smaller than i would like for my own horse, although you do have to ride him 'properly' for him to do anything! Also becasue he is an older pony (who is laminitic) you are limited to what you can do with him

Its not ideal as you say but its much more convenient, much cheaper, probably more fun and if you have to do everything 'properly' will be constructive as making you a better rider. Why not give it a go?

[lynnemh]

i think its good to have lessons and ride different horses, but when you reach the stage where you are bored, and dont feel satisfied and a bit challenged, its time for a change, so i would either tell the instructor that i am bored and want to do something different, or i would look to find another place for a lesson. sometimes it is good to go further afield less often

[eml]

Have you been having group of private lessons??

Unfortunately in a group lesson things can only progress as fast as the general level of the group and if everyone else is just riding once a week and you are having more practice then this could get frustrating.

However tell your instructor what you are feeling`perhaps they could stretch you a bit more. It is very easy in an RS situation where a lot of people are riding as a social activity not to push as much as the more ambitious want.

[Murphley Moo]

EML i have private lessons. I do wonder if some people keep you at a lower level for as long as they can as obviously the riding school makes more money that way. Or maybe i am just a c**p rider so need to be held back !!!!! ;)

[Zingy]

You're certainly not alone, and private lessons sadly don't guarantee that you'll progress. I spent about 2 years or so doing the same thing in private lessons at a very well respected riding school - it was only when I sat back and thought about it that I realised how little progress I was making.

I wanted to be learning counter canter, flying changes and half pass etc. I spent every lesson doing walk/ trot/ canter work with leg yielding and shoulder in. Their reasoning was that it took me the whole lesson to get the horse to a point where I could have started working on other things because I wasn't "assertive" enough. I argued that I wanted to work with the horse, not get on and demand submission - that was fine, but it meant I couldn't get anywhere further than I did.

I stopped having lessons for a long time, realising that I'd only progress on my own horse. I'm now having a lesson every few weeks with my youngster which are more about him than me at the moment, but I'm aiming eventually that I can get him to a point where we can both progress and learn new stuff.

So I guess, in a very long winded way, I'm saying there could be a reason why you're doing the same things every week at the moment. Have you asked to do something different? If they're getting you to do what they are because they haven't thought about it, then that's not a good thing, but if there's a genuine reason then you need to understand that so you can make an informed choice to either stay or go.