# After a fall......



## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

I have a part loan horse to go and look at (in my thread 'Sally')

But meanwhile I have booked myself in for my usual hour lesson (well, we get 40 min lesson and 20 min mini hack) at the riding school I have been going to for a few months.

The first time I went I had Lightning, a coloured cob. So when I booked back in each time I asked for her again as I don't like change. I now realise that was a bit of a daft thing to do as now I feel a bit nervous trying a new horse.


I fell off my friends 16.1 ID the other week. Hurt my back and nearly landed in poo (lol).
He was just back into work after being in the field as his owner hasn't had the time to rid him recently but my friend is part loaning.

Anyway I was riding him after he had been lunged and when trotting half way round the arena for the 3rd time he decided he was having a canter. And he would not stop. As we got towards the bottom end I suddenly remembered she has been told not to point him at a fence so I pulled right and he stopped and I flew off. 
I didn't get straight back on as my lower back was really sore.


Now my horse that I usually have at the riding school is having a month off after suddenly going lame when she threw a shoe and it was put back on. 
So they have put me down for another coloured mare who is not long back into work after having a foal. I am told she is lovely and sweet, but I am still a bit nervous!


Though I suppose, better for me to get on a new horse in an arena at a riding school with my friend there, than on a non riding school horse in a field at a farm with just the owner there. 


Someone re-assure me that I will be fine! :lol:


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## Snippet (Apr 14, 2011)

You'll be fine! All the cobs I've met have been lovely.


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

I would expect you to be fine at the riding school, but unfortunately the only way to guarantee you will never fall off, is to never get on. 

One little bit of advice I would give you, is if you go to ride a new privately owned horse, always make the owner/sharer get on and ride first. 

If the owner says something like 'don't point him at a fence' or 'don't hang on he doesn't like it' or anything that means he has to ridden differently to any other horse and you start to get misgivings, I would politely decline the ride. 

On the whole, many riding school horses know their job, are pretty quiet and are used to having lots of different riders. The not so quiet horses are kept for confident riders who have been riding a while. Riding schools don't want increases in insurance and want to keep accidents to a minimum.

Privately owned horses are usually used to one, maybe two people riding them. They don't get ridden so often and can be more quirky and forward going and less forgiving of novice riders in comparison. Riding a privately owned horse on his own in an open field can be very different from riding a riding school cob in a class lesson. Owners can think their horse is quiet and well behaved and suitable for a novice rider, until they let a novice ride their horse.

My own old horse is lovely. Very quiet and well-behaved, I'd say anyone could ride him, he never puts a foot wrong. Then I let a friend who'd been riding at a riding school take him for a few hacks. By the sixth hack he'd had enough and very politely turned around with her and trotted back home, completely ignoring anything she said or did. They came trotting back into the yard, where he very gently came to a halt and waited for her to dismount. We gave up on her riding him and I realised he's not as tolerant as I thought he was and her passenger style riding was impacting on his confidence. 

She had more lessons and bought her own horse instead. 

I think if you are becoming nervous, it might be better for you to build up your confidence at the riding school, riding a number of different suitable horses there and think about sharing later. I believe you haven't been riding very long yet?

It's probably still worth your going to see the new mare, but be cautious and don't let yourself be pushed into anything. Good luck.


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

I started riding when I was 2, but never had any lessons it was walking hacks I went on then.
In high school I had 2 friends with horses I used to ride a lot, never had any bother with confidence even when I fell off Toffee, a cob, a good few times I just got right back on - she had a really odd quirk.. and that was when cantering she would zig zag occasionally, and would throw me off balance, a few times I just toppled off the side :lol: and then there was the time she decided I should jump and not her, so she stopped while cantering, right before the jump. How I managed to land on my feet reins still in hand I will never know! Lol. 

I used to help in a local stables through two summer holidays, but it was so busy I rarely got to ride.

Then I had about a 7 year break when I moved away as there just wasn't anywhere to ride near me, then I had my daughter and did not have the time.
I have been at the local riding school for a few months with lessons to refresh myself and hacks inbetween for fun 


It has been a dream I have had all my life, to have my own horse but well unless I win the lottery its not looking likely, so I'm hoping this part loan is going to work out, I love going to the riding school but its just the 'go there, get on, do this now and that now, get off, go home' stuff, I want to be able to spend more time around a horse and not have to do what and when someone says Lol.


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## hope (May 25, 2011)

you must always let the horse know who is boss and that is you my friend any horse you get on will try it on with you untill they now you are having none of it .
i teach people to ride horses untill 2 years ago and i would never put them on the same horse every week as you will never get better as you get to used to the horse you are riding and its not as if you are going to be buying that horse and it build your confidence up .

good luck to you and hope your confidence builds up and you find a horse


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Thank you 

I am not feeling so nervous about sunday now I know that the horses at the riding school will be fine (even if Pumpkin who my friend rides likes to try and take your feet out if passing a fence post!!). But it will be in an arena with an instructor and I will have Laura there to boost me confidence even further lol. I Imagine just getting on a completely different horse will help me a lot and I will soon wonder what I was feeling nervous about!

Then I just have to wait to go and meet Sally


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

> you must always let the horse know who is boss


If every new horse you ride "try it on with you" I'd say you're doing something wrong. 

How are you letting them know who is boss?

Horses are generally co-operative creatures, they want to feel comfortable, not get into a fight with everyone who rides them.


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Missed that bit! I wouldn't fancy getting in a fight with something that weighs that much!
My friends loan horse does try it on a bit... but he is an irish draught and has been out in the field and not ridden for a good while so obviously a bit fresh, and I guess me getting nervous when he didn't stop didn't help. 
He is bad for doing things in his own time though like when she is lunging her he will break into trot/canter without her asking him to. Looking back at this I wish I had waited until she had him a bit longer and he was more 'obedient' before getting on.


When I got on Lightning for the fist time at the riding centre I did not feel nervous I just got on with it. I just got a bit of a feel for her by gently asking her to walk on and stop a few times. She requires a bit of extra pulling power to ask her to stop sometimes :lol: and might stop a few feet past where I wanted her to stop, but she does stop. 
I don't want to guarantee I am not going to fall off a horse, I just don't want a horse that doesn't stop at all when I ask it to stop, I thing quite a lot of people would find that un-nerving, especially about a horse that could clear a stock fence easily if he wanted to! :scared:

The woman that runs the riding school was sympathetic to my events of the other week and says she make sure she give me a lovey horse, I will just start off by doing a few start/stops.
I am sure I will be back on here on sunday saying it was fab :lol:


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

Elles said:


> *If every new horse you ride "try it on with you" I'd say you're doing something wrong. *
> 
> How are you letting them know who is boss?
> 
> Horses are generally co-operative creatures, they want to feel comfortable, not get into a fight with everyone who rides them.


That's what I don't like about riding school horses  They're all so used up I've never met one that actually enjoyed working.
I took too long a break out of riding and don't have enough balance/confidence to ride out of a riding school situation now though, so I've screwed myself!

I'm sure you'll be fine Emma 

Edit: Just to say, I've been to lots of different schools, all the same.


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## hope (May 25, 2011)

ive been riding all my life ive worked in racing yards ive broken horses in ive show jumped cross country hunted ect i know what im talking about i know my stuff .

also yeah i do feel sorry for riding school pony/horse as they do the same day in day out but yet again if it was not for places like them people would not be able to learn to ride ,and the school i worked at did not just work in schools they had loads of land where they could do lessons on ,and they were very well looked after and not all the horses were worked all the time .

and by letting a horse know who boss i mean not letting the horse do what it wants but what you want it to do !!!


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

hope said:


> ive been riding all my life ive worked in racing yards ive broken horses in ive show jumped cross country hunted ect i know what im talking about i know my stuff .
> 
> also yeah i do feel sorry for riding school pony/horse as they do the same day in day out but yet again if it was not for places like them people would not be able to learn to ride ,and the school i worked at did not just work in schools they had loads of land where they could do lessons on ,and they were very well looked after and not all the horses were worked all the time .
> 
> and by letting a horse know who boss i mean not letting the horse do what it wants but what you want it to do !!!


Do you mean like, when they try to cut a corner making them do a circle and doing the corner again? :lol:


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

> Do you mean like, when they try to cut a corner making them do a circle and doing the corner again?


99 times out of a hundred, the rider has asked them to cut the corner without realising it. 



> and by letting a horse know who boss i mean not letting the horse do what it wants but what you want it to do !!!


And how do you do that? If Poisongirl wanted to show a horse who's boss and not let them do what they want, how would she do that?

Me, I prefer that the horses do what I want, because it's what they want and they've been trained to understand. A co-operative not a dictatorship. 

Imagine life as a riding school horse if every rider got on and showed you who's boss? It happens, poor things. A miserable life for a working animal don't you think. No wonder they get sour. 

Most riding school horses don't do the same thing day in day out tbh. A racehorse or eventer being fittened will probably have more of a routine than a riding school horse. At the school the horse will probably hack out with some riders, plod around an arena with others, teach others to jump. A horse being fittened will probably be doing interval training and pretty much the same thing day in day out.


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## Shady (Mar 7, 2011)

Elles said:


> Imagine life as a riding school horse if every rider got on and showed you who's boss? It happens, poor things. A miserable life for a working animal don't you think. No wonder they get sour.


This is totally off subject, but I'd like to comment that riding school ponies/horses DO get sour. I own a ex-riding school horse and when I first had him he went in the school until I gained my confidence on him but.... he was bored, he was mundane and just went through the motions. Then we discovered the joys of hacking and being in tune with one another as we galloped over the fields, and he's changed so much!! He's so much happier, and fitter, and I have gained so much more confidence doing things like that than I ever could in a school. School horses tend to develop quite a few bad habits also, and most the time it is because they are sick and tired of 'being shown who's boss' and aim to put the record straight for those silly riders that think they always know best.  lol


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

Elles said:


> 99 times out of a hundred, the rider has asked them to cut the corner without realising it.


Very true. I've been told 3 different ways to make the horse stop, 2 different ways to hold the reins... Snack the horse he's just being lazy. Harder!
Bleah. 
Personally I like the horses that can't wait to get into a canter 

Anyone know of a riding school that doesn't have hard mouthed, flattened horses?


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## hope (May 25, 2011)

Elles said:


> 99 times out of a hundred, the rider has asked them to cut the corner without realising it.
> 
> And how do you do that? If Poisongirl wanted to show a horse who's boss and not let them do what they want, how would she do that?
> 
> ...


jeasus christ woman or man what ever you are do i mean by beating the horse to a pulp noooooo i mena if the horse goes one way and you want ot to go the other or if the horse runs off with you to hold a steady seat you have no idear get a life you looser !!!!!!


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

hope said:


> jeasus christ woman or man what ever you are do i mean by beating the horse to a pulp noooooo i mena if the horse goes one way and you want ot to go the other or if the horse runs off with you to hold a steady seat you have no idear get a life you looser !!!!!!


No need to be rude


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## hope (May 25, 2011)

i am who i am if you dont like it then block me simple


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

hope said:


> i am who i am if you dont like it then block me simple


If you continue to be confrontational over nothing then I suspect a lot of people will be putting you on their ignore list. I have never put anyone on my ignore list though, as I might need their knowledge at some point 

I'm sure she was just asking you to be more specific so that anyone reading the forum wouldn't think you were condoning heavy handed training methods that break a horse's spirit.
All you needed to clarify was what you meant as clearly Elles wasn't quite sure.


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## hope (May 25, 2011)

Shrap said:


> If you continue to be confrontational over nothing then I suspect a lot of people will be putting you on their ignore list. I have never put anyone on my ignore list though, as I might need their knowledge at some point
> 
> I'm sure she was just asking you to be more specific so that anyone reading the forum wouldn't think you were condoning heavy handed training methods that break a horse's spirit.
> All you needed to clarify was what you meant as clearly Elles wasn't quite sure.


and i have said if the horse does what it wants to do when you are asking it what to do then be more firmer and dont give up type of think and she keeps going on then you start ive alread pm poison girl about this thread and we are cool so no need to explain my self to you 2 !


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## Shrap (Nov 22, 2010)

Of course you don't NEED to explain anything, but it would have been nice for the sake of anyone reading this thread. As I said. Just wanted to clarify for everyone. Just as on the dog section if I said you have to show a dog who's boss I'd get jumped on until I explained what I meant. So people don't think I was condoning alpha rolls etc!


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

> Just as on the dog section if I said you have to show a dog who's boss I'd get jumped on until I explained what I meant. So people don't think I was condoning alpha rolls etc!


:thumbup: Exactly. Someone on the horse section advises someone else to show a horse who's boss as soon as they get on, I'd like to know exactly what they mean and how they would go about it. It's a perfectly reasonable question I think.

It's a forum, I can ask another poster to clarify without getting my head bitten off, at least I thought I could.


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Well.... I didn't have a very good ride today.

Started off badly and we were late due to lift problems so I didn't really get a chance to meet Pearl before I was getting on her! 
Was OK in the arena but again because we were late we basically just did some walking and trotting round and changing reins, and she kept giving me into trouble because Pearl just kept slowing down. 
The Laura was told to pass us and her horse Pumpkin decided to turn and back up so she could kick Pearl! I moved her on in time and she didn't get kicked. 

Then she got one of the young instructors to take us out for a little hack in the end, but didn't pass on that we were walking and trotting as I said I didn't feel ready to have a canter yet. 

Pearl kept doing little sideways movements and trying to grab reins from me when we were trotting as she wanted to canter! Then she nearly took my leg out on a stone wall as instead of moving over to the left a little when I pulled on the left rein, she just looked left and swung her bum to the right! 

Then when we were in the field and were going to have a trot up the hill Laura's Pumpkin decided she was having a gallop instead :lol: when she got her to stop she then wouldn't walk on and was backing up to turn and go the way we came! 

Oh and on the hill, horrible muddy stone path type thing, kinda like a make shift road you would find in a forest, Pearl was not so easy going down it so we kept getting left behind  
She is a real 'plodder' and if you give her a gentle nudge to get a faster paced walk she just goes straight into trot! 

To end it all she decided I wasn't walking fast enough to get her back into the stable so I had to keep elbowing her to stop her going off infront.


I've booked my son in for next week but I don't imagine I will get back on until Lightning is back off field rest as I didn't really enjoy today at all and I'm absolutely knackered now. I think I will go back to Lightning as I know her, before I try someone else again.


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

Awww, sorry to hear you had a bad time. 



> instead of moving over to the left a little when I pulled on the left rein, she just looked left and swung her bum to the right!


You shouldn't really be being taught to pull on the reins, though it is pretty common.

What happened to you here, is you used what would be known as one of the five rein effects. 'The direct rein of opposition.'

When you pulled back on the left rein, it bent your horse's head to the left, blocked the left hind from coming forwards and put the horse's weight to the left. This caused the horse to push her quarters over to the right. The harder you pull back, the more of an effect it would have and the more she would swing her quarters.

If she's a plodder, going slowly downhill and breaking into trot instead of taking longer walk strides, there's a good chance her saddle is a tad too tight and blocking her shoulders. Though there could be other reasons of course, this could be a likely one.

The leading problem you had is something the riding school should sort out, either by teaching you how to deal with a horse that hasn't been taught how to lead properly and/or teaching the horse how to lead properly.

So all in all, it's unlikely any of your problems were your fault, or the horse's fault and hopefully you won't get put off.


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## shula (Oct 18, 2009)

Anyone know of a riding school that doesn't have hard mouthed, flattened horses?[/QUOTE]

Yes I go to a really good school the horses do 1 or 2 hours work a day, sometimes nothing. they don't spend their time going a round the school in circles all the time. we have varied lessons, schooling, jumping, hacking and cross country. they have a lot of horses so they can mount you on a suitable horse for your ability. they are not all plods, like all horses they have their likes and dislikes. for instance the one i rode last week loves to canter so you have to be careful not to say the c word until you are ready or he is off like a rocket and they seem to be a happy lot. the instuctors are excellent and have managed to put right all my bad habits that i have(15 years of hacking and no lessons) but the main thing is that they want you to have fun and surely that is what it is all about?.

PS all for £16 an hour


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## sarelis (Aug 29, 2011)

shula;1061609409
PS all for £16 an hour[/QUOTE said:


> Wow! I have been looking for a riding school for my OH's youngest, my horse is far too big for her to learn on, I have been getting quotes of £25 for half hour group lesson!!


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Elles said:


> Awww, sorry to hear you had a bad time.
> 
> You shouldn't really be being taught to pull on the reins, though it is pretty common.
> 
> ...


Thanks 
I was using opposite leg as I do when going round the corner in the arena.. I only pulled slightly on the left rein to guide her away from the wall
But she spent much of the mini hack looking left, even when I loosened the reins a bit as I thought maybe I was being a bit tense. Though giving me a horse ''just back into work after having a foal last year'' didn't give me too much confidence!

I am defo having a wee break until Lighning is back in work and then I will just go back to a half hour arena lesson. She plods sometimes (except when its raining) but shifting my bum forward gets her into a walk rather than a plod, and she has taught me how to not let her cut corners as she tries it all the time so I know I am using my legs right as she doesnt do it with me now. She is an easy girl on a hack and doesnt need a cue from me as soon as the instructor asks us if we ready for a trot/canter she is ready to go.


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## Elles (Aug 15, 2011)

> Yes I go to a really good school


Where shula?


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## shula (Oct 18, 2009)

Elles said:


> Where shula?


North east of scotland near elgin


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