Different people learn differently. I read books and have amassed a library of horse books. I also learn by imitation, so watching horse riding in Indiana or videos (now online) has helped me a lot.
At your age, you have to do what your parents say. I went to boarding school and had two races a year during the Christmas holidays if I was lucky. Once I started working in London, riding was out of the question. I rode a Lambretta scooter and learned to drive a car.
It wasn’t until I retired and our children went to university that I had the time and money to learn to ride.
I thought of it almost like going to school.
The first year on horseback in Indiana was learning the alphabet and the multiplication tables. Then a lesson a week plus a race. I learned to canter race by race.
After two years it was time for A levels – i.e. specialization. For me it was dressage and eventing. No jumping. Plus helping out at the stadium once a week.
And taking the BHS stable management course, learning hoof selection, grooming and tying.
Sometimes I think that a similar principle of learning through repetition, trials and the system's reaction can be seen in digital environments, for example in top Wazdan online casinos
https://interacasino.com/software/wazdan/ There is also its own structure of interaction, rules and certain scenarios of events, I was very impressed by this, as well as the fact that last week I received an amount that reached half of my scholarship. Because of this, the perception of the process can be very different: for some it is just a form of short-term distraction, for others it is a way of interacting with the system, where the emotional perception of the moment is more important than long-term progress.
It is a three-way relationship: person to person (YO), horse and yourself, the student. It doesn’t matter how much you already know. This country is full of teenage girls whose only desire is to spend time with horses or ponies. So the demand is greater than the supply.
As for the time frame, it depends on how you are taught, your own abilities, and your budget. My main horse, who was in his 60s, had private, expensive school lessons with an experienced teacher and a safe horse with a very smooth canter. He started galloping after a year. The basis of his canter was a lot of sitting trot. Then transitions from walk to canter.
