Longing lesson #4 ( yuck)

[denise42]

Ok, Lesson #4 was not my shinning moment.
I have not cluded you in ,,but there is a young girl at our barn that is a very bad rider..( will not take lessons ) and very inconsiderate..she has run through my longe line ,while I have been excercising my horse and ran into me with her horse at the canter..while I was mounted on my horse.. :eek: Her mom rides too..and is even worse..
So last night my instructor is giving me my lesson and these two " yahoos" are in the arena riding..we are just about to the end of my lesson and my instructor tells me to pick up the canter..now I canter on my own when I ride..but I really hate it on the longe line my horse has a crappy canter on the longe when I am on her..( I know relax ) and then add to the mix the fact that I do not trust this girl or her mom to stay out of my way..so I pick up the canter about a half of circle and here comes dumb and dumber...so I drop to the trot ,,instructors says pick up the canter again..I told her flat out NO..I will not with them in here. :mad: ..I know I was acting like a 3 yr old ..but I don't care at this point..I then told my instructor why..& I know they heard me talking about how inconsiderate they are ,,but I didn't care . My instructor said I needed to learn to ride around people like that and that she has me on the line and will not let me get hurt..still I said no..When they dismounted and left I did another half of a circle..at the canter..that took my instructor a while to talk me into...but now I feel like a total A--hole.
I know this has more to do with me and my trust issues..but ya know I have had that problem ( and with good reason ) since I was a kid..I do not think I am going to learn to trust that easy..my horse ..my instructor..yahoos in the indoor..or my self I guess..
anyone into psycho therapy ..with tips to get past this ? :confused:

[Ross]

I don't think you are being unreasonable here - there's no need to invite trouble with horses - they find enough of their own :)

Best tip I can think of is to arrange to ride with someone you do trust, in the arena (can you book it for just the two of you?) so that you and your horse can experience having someone else around without having to worry too much about them. Try riding together, and also try riding separately - to start with, just agree to ride 20m circles at each end of the school, and once you're feeling more confident, start just riding anywhere - you'll soon get used to keeping an eye on what other people are doing...

Later on you could ask another person to join you..

Something that might be worth trying would be to see if you can join a group lesson at a local riding school (with your horse, preferably) - as the group is working together, there's less chance of people haring all over the place, and again you'd pick up more confidence. Also you could try joining the local Riding Club and attending mounted training sessions - again there'd be other people, but you'd be working together.

Hope you manage to resolve this,

Ross

[Willingbe]

Been there, done that, and your only option is to REAM THEM OUT (but as kindly as possible).

First thing is to know the rules of the school, make sure that you have the ground to stand on. Explain to them the problems and suggest (nicely) that if they don't have sufficient control to obey the school rules then it would be safer if they waited for everybody else to finish riding before they enter the arena.

If you are under instruction you should have priority in the school. NOBODY should ride into a longe circle, it's dangerous.

Make sure the barn manager knows about it, given the health and safety laws, if they've been informed of the problems and they've done nothing about it if there is an accident they will be held liable through negligence.

As your riding improves you will get more confidence in riding with those less adept then you, but if you need to point out the rules of the school, do so or how else will they learn?

[galadriel]

Eek. If they've gone through your line when you're lunging your horse, you have every reason to be cautious when you're ON the lunge yourself!

[Skib]

You weren't acting like a 3 year old. As an adult it is absolutely right that you get to take all decisions involving your own safety.
Instructors sometime try to turn this into a mega issue that one is displaying a lack of condfidence in their judgement. I dont care. I don't go back to any instructor with that attitude. I have had far fewer falls and accidents since I took complete responsibility for my own safety.
I know from experience that an instructor can persuade one to do something one thinks risky, and that it is human nature to want to fall in with suggestions. My own instructor got injured doing that and I even obeyed orders (at another yard) and rode over a live electric cable on a shod horse. RIDICLOUS. You were brave, mature and totally justified.

[Peace]

Your instructor has a point in that you do need to learn to ride with idiots about - I know because my instructor is always telling me the same thing. :o

But maybe the best place to learn this is not in an enclosed space while you're on a lunge line. :eek:

I don't think you were out of line at all. You told your instructor why you didn't think it was safe to follow her instructions. You didn't make up anything that wasn't true. If anyone should be embarassed, it should be these people who can't control their horses and feel free to endanger other people.

I think the key to riding around idiots is knowing how to control your own horse so you can keep the idiots out of your space or failing that limit the damage they will do while in your space. You can't really do that on a lunge, because you're not in complete control of your horse.

[Cherokee]

I hate riding in the arena /school when there are other people riding in there aswell.I am used to riding with other people in group lessons but it is different than when people are doing their own thing as everyone is going in the same direction and doing the same thing.I am always worried that i am going to get in someone else's way by accident :o :rolleyes: :o .BUt I am going to have to get used to it because it getting darker earlier and people can't really hack out in the afternoons/evenings any more so more and more people are using the school.

You shouldn't have felt stupid or like a three year old - you were worried that these other people could cause an accident.