Just wanted to say good luck with your share and enjoy all the new challenges that it will bring, oh and photos would be nice! x
Frustrated at riding lessons
- Thread starter Cimmaron
- Start date
Hi all
Thanks for your comments, and concerns - I do take all your points on board.
I really believe that by riding a horse that moves better for me, it will improve my riding, and please believe me when I say I want to learn to ride well no matter how long it takes. I am going to take lessons on my new share horse, so will continue my learning with him plus I also get the added bonus of being able to learn to look after him. :inlove: It seems silly to spend what amounts to two thirds of my weekly share cost on one private lesson to be unhappy and frustrated at the end of it.
I still do think that a lot of the problem with the school horse was me but I did not feel I was getting much direction from the RI, although I did enjoy riding bareback and with no stirrups. :happy: I am hoping that by learning on a horse that I can get to move, my new instructor will be able to see more clearly my faults instead of, at the moment, just seeing a completely knackered person with no energy left, trying in vain to get her horse to walk faster. :redface:
Thanks again.
Mandie
Thanks for your comments, and concerns - I do take all your points on board.
I really believe that by riding a horse that moves better for me, it will improve my riding, and please believe me when I say I want to learn to ride well no matter how long it takes. I am going to take lessons on my new share horse, so will continue my learning with him plus I also get the added bonus of being able to learn to look after him. :inlove: It seems silly to spend what amounts to two thirds of my weekly share cost on one private lesson to be unhappy and frustrated at the end of it.
I still do think that a lot of the problem with the school horse was me but I did not feel I was getting much direction from the RI, although I did enjoy riding bareback and with no stirrups. :happy: I am hoping that by learning on a horse that I can get to move, my new instructor will be able to see more clearly my faults instead of, at the moment, just seeing a completely knackered person with no energy left, trying in vain to get her horse to walk faster. :redface:
Thanks again.
Mandie
That to me would be a huge problem. The RI needs to have the ability to teach you how to ride and find a way which suits your learning style. I have had many different RI's over the years and only 3 have actually taught me how to ride - the rest I have felt like I was just paying to ride their horse for an hour. Decent RI's are hard to find but once you have found one you click with then they will be a fantastic help to you.
Good luck with the share - don't forget to post pictures!
An interesting thread and one which throws up issues about RS horses and use of the whip. When I started lessons 3 or so years ago, I was put on the "safe" riding school plod. He is an older, hugely experienced and very, very intelligent horse. For the first few lessons he took great care of me and I fell in love with him. Once I was no longer a total beginner he began to take the "pee". I would end up totally exhausted and frustrated just trying to get him into a faster walk, let alone trot. It didn't help that my then RI rode him once to demonstrate to me how responsive to the aids he could be. (I just felt more of a failure).
Anyway I moved on to riding other horses and felt I was "making progress" because I was no longer riding the old plod!
A couple of years on and I've had occasion to ride him a few times lately. A sharp tickle behind the leg early on in the lesson (as opposed to kicking seven "shades" out of him - which I hate) establishes who is in charge. I don't let him away with anything and he has been behaving perfectly for me - last week we were performing leg yields and turns on the forehand and he was totally listening to me.
He's a wily old horse indeed but we have a perfect understanding now!
Anyway I moved on to riding other horses and felt I was "making progress" because I was no longer riding the old plod!
A couple of years on and I've had occasion to ride him a few times lately. A sharp tickle behind the leg early on in the lesson (as opposed to kicking seven "shades" out of him - which I hate) establishes who is in charge. I don't let him away with anything and he has been behaving perfectly for me - last week we were performing leg yields and turns on the forehand and he was totally listening to me.
He's a wily old horse indeed but we have a perfect understanding now!
Hi
You need a horse that can help you, and teach you, if they don't have such a horse then the lesson is yous less, if the horse is good and you can't ride him, maybe you need lunging lessons to strengthen your position, balance, and give you more confidence.
www.faibishclassicaltrainer.com
You need a horse that can help you, and teach you, if they don't have such a horse then the lesson is yous less, if the horse is good and you can't ride him, maybe you need lunging lessons to strengthen your position, balance, and give you more confidence.
www.faibishclassicaltrainer.com
I can sympathise there. I find some of my RS horses are definitely kick along (plenty of kicking) I hate doing it. whereas if we get to rid some of the horses that are on working livery the lesson is definitely more about getting the horse to work in an outline they move well without much encouragement,(early days for me) and not about getting the horse moving. Depending who i'm riding some lessons are physical (RS horses) and some are mental (horses on livery).
I can in some respects sympathise with the RS ours is only a small RS (about 15ish horses) so they have to cater for everybody.
I can in some respects sympathise with the RS ours is only a small RS (about 15ish horses) so they have to cater for everybody.
Following on from the whip stuff... I dont see the use of a whip as bad, unless it is uneccessary - in application or force.
An aid is an aid - your aiming for a horse to be responsive to them. My policy is I ask once, if I am ignored I ask again a little louder (firmer) and then if I am still ignored I back it up with the stick. This works well for us, but I know she understands my aids so I can in quick succession use legs and whip to reinforce if she ignores me. As said above, taking a firm stanec like that at the start of a lesson can do wonders for the rest of the lesson. I also prefer to carry a schooling whip rather than a short stick - regardless of if its flat work or not - I find them much more effective - they are fab for moving qaurters, and speed increases and you have no need to remove hands from reins. Even on madam I carry a long whip as it helps her to understand a lateral aid when I poke her bum with it :giggle:
An aid is an aid - your aiming for a horse to be responsive to them. My policy is I ask once, if I am ignored I ask again a little louder (firmer) and then if I am still ignored I back it up with the stick. This works well for us, but I know she understands my aids so I can in quick succession use legs and whip to reinforce if she ignores me. As said above, taking a firm stanec like that at the start of a lesson can do wonders for the rest of the lesson. I also prefer to carry a schooling whip rather than a short stick - regardless of if its flat work or not - I find them much more effective - they are fab for moving qaurters, and speed increases and you have no need to remove hands from reins. Even on madam I carry a long whip as it helps her to understand a lateral aid when I poke her bum with it :giggle:
It is schooling whips for us too - but I have to say that using one without removing one's hands from the reins is quite a challenge for a newish rider. Or to be honest I havent even quite managed it yet.
It tends to tighten the reins and manage to stop the horse rather than getting more forward?
If you really cant bear to touch your horse with a whip, the Mark Rashid trick of smacking it down on your boot (or half chaps) works wonders. With some horses, even the sight of a whip like when you switch it from one hand to another works gets the message across.
Just be careful with riding school horses. I rode a mare so used to students letting her idle along that when I smacked the whip on my boot she was so surprsied she jumped sideways.
It tends to tighten the reins and manage to stop the horse rather than getting more forward?
If you really cant bear to touch your horse with a whip, the Mark Rashid trick of smacking it down on your boot (or half chaps) works wonders. With some horses, even the sight of a whip like when you switch it from one hand to another works gets the message across.
Just be careful with riding school horses. I rode a mare so used to students letting her idle along that when I smacked the whip on my boot she was so surprsied she jumped sideways.
newrider.com