But the ambulance alone will cost more than $25 an hour
Sep 12 2009
Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Check out this Craigslist ad for riding lessons:
http://syracuse.craigslist.org/grd/1364999366.html
“I have 3 spots available for horseback riding lessons. Fall special is sign up this week and it’s $25 and HOUR!!! Yes, only $25 an hour. For a half hour lesson it’s $20. 3 spots available, able to give lessons anytime day/evening or weekends. If there are 2 people taking lessons at the same time it’s only $20 an hour!!! If you have EVER wanted to learn how to ride, here is a wonderful chance. My 3 year old can ride by HIMSELF on these horses, so if they’re safe enough for him… they’re safe enough for EVERYONE!!!!!! See the pics attached, my son is by himself riding on one of our precious spoiled horses. All horses are excellent with kids, or anyone!!! For more info please feel free to email as this special is only good for a week. If you sign up later than this week, it’s regular price. ”
I can’t copy pics on the computer I’m on but her three year old is shown with a bare head, no stirrups, sitting on a horse that appears to be in the pasture. No longe line, no backup plan in place if the horse spooks.Â
No horse is bomb proof. And no three year old has ANY defenses if a horse spooks and leaves town. They are too tiny and too weak. That is a fact.Â
I can find lessons with a responsible and safety-conscious trainer for $40-$50 an hour in my area. What is your kid’s neck worth to you? I hope it’s worth an extra $15. My mom chose the cheapest option in the phone book too – and I wasted years getting sub-standing instruction and riding poorly behaved and unsafe horses.Â
So let’s discuss this. If you took lessons to learn to ride, what did you pay for them and how happy were you with the quality of the instruction received?  Not to out you guys on age, but you might have to mention an approximate year for the numbers to make any sense. 
  I’ll start – I started riding in the mid 1970s and the bargain basement lessons were $5 an hour.Â
What do you think is reasonable today to pay for lessons? Do you think that beginner lessons should be cheaper than lessons for more advanced riders? Please note your general geographic area and the riding discipline you’re referring to.
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Recently started with a new trainer whose rate is $600 per day for his private services. Plus airfare. And motel.
I took lessons back in the mid 60′s and I think I paid $10 for a group lesson. Private lessons were $20. Groups usually consisted of 4 or 5 riders, never any more than that. The lessons lasted at least 1 hour and sometimes they were 2 hours or more, depending on what we were doing (sometimes we went on a relaxing trail ride after a lesson. This included lessons on proper haltering and leading the horse, use of cross ties, grooming and tacking up. After our ride, we had to untack and rub down our horse and put them away. We learned proper hoof maintenance, braiding of manes and tails, and once a month we had to help clean all the tack. We all met on a Saturday afternoon and had a tack cleaning party. Oh, and wearing a safety helmet was unheard of then.
When I started giving lessons later in life, I basically followed the same principle. All my students retrieved their mounts from their stalls, groomed them from the feet up, tacked them up and afterward rubbed them down and put them away. We also had tack cleaning parties where students learned how to take a bridle apart and put it back together, correctly. I insisted on safety helmets for all of those under 18. If you were over 18, it was at your discretion, but you had to sign a release saying you refuse to wear a helmet.
I don’t know how many times I have seen backyard horses suffering from a snaffle bit and even a curb bit put in either upside down or backwards. I always politely explain to the people that their bit is wrong, and most of the time they appreciate the information, but I have had @$$…. get mad at me and tell me to mind my own business. How much agony these poor horses go through is amazing, all the while putting up with these idiotic riders/owners. That’s why I insisted that all my students learn how to put a bridle together along with all the different bits.
My youngest riders were 5 years old and I mounted them on smaller horses or ponies. They started out on a lunge line, in private lessons, then after I knew they were completely enjoying their riding lesson and could follow directions well, I let them out on the rail. After a dozen lessons or more, I would allow two youngsters to ride in the same lesson, but I always had an assistant or two with me just in case something came up. I never had any problems at all, but I had good, gentle broke to death horses to use.
Accidents can happen to anyone, anywhere. All you can do is take all the precautions you can to help prevent injury if a horse decided to spook or jump and dump their rider.
I was lucky, and never had anything go wrong !!!
1974 or so near Victoria, BC, Canada: I took about 10 private half-hour lunge lessons on a nice pony while we were there for the summer with my dad’s scientific work. I think they let me off the lunge around the 8th lesson or so. This was a very good way to start. Cost was $6 per lesson. Helmets were required.
1976: I started lessons with a local H/J instructor (San Diego, CA); as I recall the cost for a one hour group lesson with 3 to 5 other riders was $8 when I started and $12 when I quit in 1981. She also had trail rides on weekends that were usually several hours long and included some practice X/C fences for those who were up to it, for $20 to $25. These were on school horses and she had quite a mix, from real beginners ponies to some fairly nice retired show horses. (In 1980, I took a fall off a 27 year old mare who had been a jumper champion at Del Mar in the early 1960s! She stopped at a jump and I went flying over her head and landed on my feet still holding the reins.) I think Helen was a good instructor but her horses didn’t get great care, and she was a prickly personality who got kicked out of 3 barns while I was riding with her. Each time she moved, the facilities got a little worse. She required helmets for jumping and for trail rides.
Then there was a 25 year break, and I got to face New England prices in 2006 when I started riding again. After bouncing around a few barns, I ended up at a therapeutic riding center owned by one of the founders of NARHA (and I got a few lessons from her — Marge Kittredge if anyone knows that name.) The cost was $55 for a one hour group lesson, and $5 of that went to the therapeutic program. The horses and the instruction were really first rate and most of the recreational riders like myself were adult re-riders. I also got informal instruction from a friend who let me ride her two horses. I quit the formal lessons when I bought my own horse in 2008, and did lessons with that friend for a while with the ambition of doing horse trials with my new horse. Helmets *required* both at the lesson barn and at my friend’s place. It’s pretty much impossible to get insurance for a riding program in this area if helmets are not required.
(And then there was drama as I ended up with a horse who was quite too much for me, and a very bad fall off one of my friend’s horses.)
Just before the accident I put my mare in dressage training with a BNT for $700/month (not including board, which is $725/month.) I told you things were expensive around here. For this, the horse got training rides 6 days a week at first, and over time as I recovered from my injuries, I took over more of her riding, starting with the trainer’s assistant riding first. Where we are now is I ride her in 3 30 to 45 minute lessons per week, ride her once a week on my own, and the trainer’s assistant rides her 2 days per week. Trainer supervises her rides… The trainer has a bad back and is limited in how much actual riding she can do, but her assistants are very good. Her regular rate is $85/hour for a one-hour private, $70 for a half-hour private or hour semi-private. Officially, helmets are required but the trainer and her assistants, and some of the upper level riders, don’t wear them. Just stupid IMO.
She has turned out to be a very good trainer of horses, but not as good a trainer of riders, especially those like myself who do not have a lot of dressage experience. Also, both maresy and I are getting a bit bored of the arena. I am moving my horse on Tuesday to a place that is more local to me; board is $690 per month and a weekly lesson is required for another $150/month. They also have great trails access. The trainer is a former eventer who is now doing more jumping than anything else. She has a dressage trainer who comes in and I believe her rate is about $65/hour for an hour private lesson. Helmets are required and so far I have not seen a rider there without one.
I will still trailer my mare to the current trainer a couple of times a month, for a “tune up” ride by her assistant and a lesson for myself.
Dressage lessons tend to be more expensive around here because they are more “work” for the trainer, and more likely to be private or semi-private.
“Uenduphere” – pull the stick out of your butt, she is a blogger not an English Professor!
Anyways, I started lessons 14 years ago, but I do not recall the price (most 4 year olds don’t retain that type of information ;-] ) I was happy as a four year old could be with my lessons, however my parents were not. They came to pick me up from a lesson early once, and found me sitting on the ground under my lesson horse, brushing his belly. Needless to say, my parents pulled me out of there and never looked back.
There was a discussion very similar to this post about helmetless and generally unsafe children on horses on Yahoo Answers the other day, but it got a little out of hand so I will spare you the link ;-]
I am in NE Florida. I started taking English lessons about 4 years ago – at the age of 50. I was already involved with the barn as Showmom (still am) – so had many opportunities to watch my trainer deal with students and horses. I was, and still am, impressed every step of the way. When I first started, it was a requirement that I purchase a package of 4 private lessons – to assess what I may or may not know and to get the basics down. After that, I moved into a group, which is $30 an hour. Practice rides are $25 an hour, but my trainer allows her students to work off practice rides by doing barn chores – like showing up to feed and clean stalls on Sundays when the barn help is off; or showing up to groom/work a show, even if you aren’t riding. Not only have I learned to ride, but have learned more horsemanship than I thought possible. I don’t own my own horse but I have helped care for every horse in the barn. My trainer is more than willing to impart any knowledge she has and that’s stuff she doesn’t charge for. And she doesn’t care if you show – she has never pushed any of us to do that – she figures when we are ready, we will do it.
When I was 8 years old in 1965-66 I worked at the Johnson’s pony farm, which was down a trail behind our house in Alderwood Manor. Myself and a bunch of other girls all had our ponies, and did chores and led people on pony rides through the trails on that property. Tenino and Little Blue were a couple of ‘my’ ponies.
I ‘worked’ there until I was exactly 11 years old, on that birthday, I walked out to the backyard, wondering why in hell there was a fence up that hadn’t been there before. My birthday present was Becky, probably a quarter/TB mix, Palomino, rescued from an auction somewhere awful by my parents (they told me later that they were glad that I wasn’t with them). I did 4-H with Perry Sundine (spelling) whose daughter Kelly was my good friend for a long time, a great girl. I think by then we were in Stanwood.
So pretty much no lessons but do-it-yourself grunt work and some 4-H (got a blue ribbon somewhere along the line).
When I was 8 years old in 1965-66 I worked at the Johnson’s pony farm, which was down a trail behind our house in Alderwood Manor. Myself and a bunch of other girls all had ‘our’ ponies, our favorites that we took care of on the farm and did chores and led people on pony rides through the trails on that property. Tenino and Little Blue were a couple of ‘my’ ponies.
I ‘worked’ there until I was exactly 11 years old, on that birthday, I walked out to the backyard, wondering why in hell there was a fence up that hadn’t been there before. My birthday present was Becky, probably a quarter/TB mix, Palomino, rescued from an auction somewhere awful by my parents (they told me later that they were glad that I wasn’t with them). I did 4-H with Perry Sundine (spelling) whose daughter Kelly was my good friend for a long time, a great girl. I think by then we were in Stanwood.
So pretty much no lessons but do-it-yourself grunt work and some 4-H (got a blue ribbon somewhere along the line).
I guess I am one of those people that you are talking about today. The dreaded $25 an hour Craigslist instructor. I’ve given riding lessons for many, many years and have shown horses myself for 44 years. I’ve raised, trained, and shown 27 world and reserve world champions – in all seats. All of my lessons are private, one-on-one instruction in all seats and driving and are aimed at preparing you for the show ring. Your lesson time does not start until you have groomed, tacked, and warmed up your horse, and cool downs also are not included. Most lessons are 1 hour, but if you have a problem, your lesson goes until you can end on a good note. If that is 1 1/2 hours, you still pay the 1 hour price. Safety, how to be kind to your horse, and how to take care of your tack and equipment is well stressed. Nobody rides without all the standard safety equipment. I enjoy teaching. I am in Ohio and I charge $25 an hour, and yes – I even advertise on Craigslist.
I learned to ride at Shadowfax Stables in Kent in the late 80′s. I think the rate was $10-12 an hour and I did jumping and 3-day. It was super safe, the horses were good and the instructor was great. Stacy Homan– does anyone know or remember her?
Ponykins – not at all. This isn’t necessarily about price, although it’s true that many bad instructors are found by budget-conscious parents. My own instructor only charges $5 more than you do, and also has numerous World Championships.
However, where you see a low price, it is important to ask WHY. Sometimes the answer is “because it’s a great instructor who is willing to share their knowledge at an affordable rate.” If that is the answer, GREAT. Unfortunately, very often that is NOT the answer.
Uenduphere will have to end up somewhere else. Their blog is just too psycho and they have made it to the list of “people most of my readers don’t want to hear from again.” Bye-bye now.
I first started taking lessons when I joined Bucknell University’s Equestrian Team in 2006 (I’d already been around horses volunteering for several years, and went on regular trail rides). When I was up at school, I started with $40/hr H/J small group lessons with the team’s trainer. They were really good and let me progress at my own pace. I had to look for places to ride over the summer, but the most “prestigious” one guaranteed everyone to be jumping within two lessons- I still couldn’t even trot without stirrups at the time, so I felt I wasn’t ready to jump. That summer, I went to the big local barn, where I had relatively good lessons and was able to get a little more confident over fences, but they were more expensive than up at school for larger lessons and not so great horses- I got bit and dumped at least three times. I also didn’t like how they just shuffled through lots of horses and were big time dealers at local auctions. The next summer, I ended up just flatting at a Therapeutic/ Recreational riding place, where lessons were (and still are) $35/hour for a relatively large group lesson (maybe 6-8 people in a large ring). Lessons then went up to $50 at school, and they still are that price. I tried a few dressage lessons over winter break once, but I didn’t really “get” dressage, and didn’t have enough time to work on it, and couldn’t afford more than one lesson a week.
(This is all on the East Coast, in Central PA and Central MD).
I’m currently on a break from riding after having a cyst removed from my tailbone (apparently Pilonidal Cysts are common among riders???). I am going to ask my boss if I can ease myself back into riding by just walking and stretching on one of her “oldies” (they’re not really that old, but they’re Parellized pasture puffs- well-broke, but she doesn’t have time to do anything with them).
As for what I think lessons should cost, I think they should cost the same for beginners for the same sized class. When I took those couple of dressage lessons, I had to get private lessons because of being on the longe line. If you throw a total beginner on a horse in a ring with a ton of people, you’re going to have accidents. So I guess it would be good to require private lessons for total beginners, and depending on what discipline you’re doing.
I think it should also cost more if you’re going to be on nicer horses- we all know how valuable a dead-broke lesson horse is. Also, if you’re going to be doing rated shows and stuff, you’re going to have to pay more for a better barn, so that’s not unreasonable to ask for.
fhotd says:
September 12, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Uenduphere will have to end up somewhere else. Their blog is just too psycho and they have made it to the list of “people most of my readers don’t want to hear from again.†Bye-bye now.
====
Thanks Fugs…
We won’t miss THAT.
I took summer camp lessons from about age 10 to 12, and then in 8th grade (1981) I got a paper route and took weekly lessons for about a year an a half. I just went to check, and I’m pleased to find out that the barn I rode at is still in business and appears to be doing quite well. They were a well-organized outfit even back then, but very straight-up hunt-seat equitation/jumper barn. You know what’s TOO COOL? They have a page for old school horses, and the first horse I rode when I started out there is listed! http://www.huntermarkfarm.com/Huck.htm.
1-hour group lessons were $15 back then, and they’re only $20 now. I think that’s the only think I miss about living in the midwest.
27 years later, and I’m out in suburban Maryland now, paying a shade over $40 for a 1-hour group lesson at a place that does H/J and dressage. And even being out on the East Coast, the barn is not quite as classy, and their indoor ring is tiny. But I do feel like I learn a lot (I’d never heard the words “bending” or “outside aids” at the H/J barn I rode at as a teen). And it’s a friendly and relaxed place, which is nice if you’re not a stick-thin 15-yo with a rich daddy to buy you a $20,000 show horsie. They have a half-lease deal where you pay $200/mo and get 4 hours a week to hack around on school horses, which is a great deal. Unfortunately, they’re a little short on horses that you could call “schoolmasters.” They’ve picked up most of their lesson horses at auction over the years–sometimes they find hidden gems, but more often they’re horses with an assortment of issues.
The site is working right for me. Links are showing up, but when I do a mouse-over it comes up with weird things like “University of Phoenix Online” on the last post about riding lessons. Odd.
Price for my riding lessons as a young teen: I worked cleaning barns. Dark, unsafe, broken-down stalls with unruly horses still in them. Working alone, as still a bit of a novice. It’s a wonder I didn’t get hurt. But I was happy to work about 4 hours for my <1 hour lesson. At that age I would've done ANYTHING to be with horses.
Ohh, that’s another thing…if you broke 100lbs with my psycho Vegas instructor, you were too heavy to ride and had to go on a diet. It didn’t matter how old, how tall, etc…100lbs and you were on a diet plan.
Never had a lesson other then my dad. This was late 60′s early 70′s. We were given a bomb proof pony (as in too fat to do more then walk maybe break into a jog now and again) to learn on. We were line led the first 6 mos or so we had her. No helmets, no proper foot gear, allowed to wear shorts and bathing suits to ride in. Learned a lot of helpful tips at the local fairs from old cowboys and show people. I was quiet and loved to learn so was talked to a lot. I learned a lot more from horses I rode over the years. Developed a better seat after my saddle was taken apart by my sister and I had to ride bare back.
I give lessons on occasion. Mostly to friends and their kids. I’ve never charged anyone for riding lessons or to tune up a horse. I insist that everyone rides with a helmet. I had a concussion once after being thrown into a fence. Thought for a moment I was going through the bars, but grazed the top one with my head. A helmet would have saved me, I still don’t ride with one though.
My daughter is currently taking lessons on her own pony for $30/hour. Sometimes we trailer to the trainer and an indoor arena. Sometimes it’s here in our drylot or pasture or even a trail walk or ride. I like that she mixes it up and it’s about riding the horse, not only riding one way. Should add, when we trailer to the indoor, it’s an additional $10 per time to the arena owner.
I have taken a few lessons in the past and it has tended to be a weekend or longer trail clinic or some such thing. Don’t know what it equates to per hour, but these things, to ride in, are usually a few hundred bucks per weekend. I like it because I can get there, get some good instruction by people who are currently out winning in a discipline I want to get better in, but I’m not adding another thing into my schedule long-term.
The lessons my daughter takes are never JUST an hour. Our trainer is really conscientious about safety and it always goes over, so I certainly don’t feel pushed through a mill or that it’s about the money for the trainer. I know she’s in it for the long haul and wants to continually bring in new and excellent clients and can only do that by keeping her current ones happy and talking good things about her and her program.
My mom had learned english from a cavalry-trained H/J trainer, so she taught me horsemanship and equitation, etc. She did hire someone to teach me how to ride western, a friend that she didn’t pay much to, and she didn’t teach me much. I joined the 4-H club in our area, which was run by Kathy Sir, a trainer who was an amazing rider and did really well in the show ring. She taught us much, and she arranged clinics with top trainers and competitors in different disciplines. Looking back, I got a tremendous amount of great training for next to nothing through her 4-H horse group.
This is just a small sample of the many wonderful opportunities I have had to learn elements of horsemanship. I have been involved with all sorts of equestrian organizations and types of competitions and activities, and they all offered wonderful opportunities to learn and grow in horsemanship. Then there are the many friends over the years that I have trained, shown, and otherwise horsed around with. You never stop learning, there is such a wide variety of disciplines and activities.
My husband started taking lessons through a boy scout project, and stuck with it. The trainer he went to was a calvary-trained H/J trainer, and he got a tremendous education in that program. He continued and went on to become an assistant trainer to his teacher, which was itself an education. He is truly fortunate he ended up with a real trainer. He is an amazing horseman and gives a brutal lesson, when I feel I’m getting a little lazy he’ll give me a lesson and work my butt off!
Wow, I would love to know where any of you from Massachusetts found a halfway decent instructor.. no really, please tell me haha! theazmyth2004@yahoo.com – I could really use a new stable!
I live in Western Massachusetts. I started taking riding lessons much later than I wanted to (my mom thought that playing the piano was more important than horses ughhh). I was probably 11 or 12 when I had my first lesson. My mom price-shopped through the instructors in the phone book, until coming across one where they charged only $20 an hour for private english lessons (a real bargain in this area.. I wonder why..) So we show up at this stable where we made an appointment for my first lesson. No one in the barn, so my mom and I knock on the door of the stable owner’s house. The lady is SENILE. I seriously wonder if she even knew she had horses. It scares me to think that this woman was living alone. So after being dragged into her house for a cup of tea for what seemed like an eternity, the instructor finally shows up late. Why we didn’t run for the hills, I will never understand. Well, long story short.. I took lessons there for at least a year, all the while learning how to groom a horse (sort of), along with tacking up and listening to my instructor’s 1000 complaints about her car, daughter, job, etc – all for just $20 an hour, wow! I even got to learn how my legs should be positioned – “pigeon toed” as she called it. At least she told me that my heels should be down, but boy my ankles have never been in such pain! With my heels down, she demanded that my toes be pointing inward as far as they could possibly go. I don’t even think my leg was on the horse in this position. And I learned to walk, trot (though had no clue what posting or a diagonal was), and canter like this. I was never on a lunge line, wore a bicycle helmet provided by the stable, and all the while trying to figure out when the ankle pain from that terrible awkward position would go away. Thank god the horses were ancient and dead broke. Looking back, I have to wonder if I was on candid camera that entire time…
On a summer vacation in Cape Cod around the same time I was taking lessons at the Barn From Hell, I got to take a “lesson” from a “top notch” instructor. Yeah. Right. No helmet, but they did give me a crop – which I had never seen before in my life. Then I watched the stable owner beat a young horse into submission with a plank- and then give that horse to a dead beginner for his “lesson”. Oh and the “lesson” was an unsupervised trail ride (well, ok, there was one 12 year old leading the group who never looked back) through narrow woody trails at walk, trot, canter.. mostly canter. The best part? The 12 year old told me to tack up my own horse and nobody looked to see if I had done it correctly. I was nervous, and never tightened the gigantic girth they gave me. Helloo legs, hellooooo hooves… need I say more? I left in quite a hurry after that – even walked the 2 miles back to the house before my parents could come get me – of course, after paying the stable the $60 for the half hour “lesson”……. One lesson was PLENTY there!
Fast forward about three years, age 15. I had quit lessons after the dreadful year at the Barn From Hell, and finally got back into riding around this age once I had saved up some money from working. Oh, this instructor was a real gem too. I was dropped off and picked up for each lesson, paying for each one myself now. My “private” lessons were $35 a pop. Apparently she knew she could take advantage of me, and did. Though she only charged $25 a lesson for group lessons, somehow I ended up with 2-3 other riders in my class and I still paid the same price. The only good thing I can say about this barn is that I finally learned what posting was. However, she never corrected my legs that were still in that god-awful (and painful) position. My lessons were walk, trot, canter – even doing some cavaletti and crossrails. Um, at least she made me wear a helmet?
Next instructor, a complete psycho. It was a ritzy super fancy show barn, where everything was perfect. The private lessons were so expensive I had to do barn chores to reduce the cost of one per week. Everyone there was snobby and just about every girl my age taking lessons there was showing and owned at least one pony, that cost more than both my parents cars.. combined. I figured that if I could end up riding like these snobs, it would be worth it. On my first day of barn chores, I mucked stalls, fed and watered the horses, and did basic stuff I had done a thousand times already. Then the stable owner wanted the concrete aisles scrubbed and rinsed. Ok, I did that too.. and rolled up the hose afterward. I thought I had done a great job, the place sparkled! However, the owner tracked me down during other chores and ripped me a new one for the way I rolled up the hose. Duh, don’t I know anything.. she wanted the hose rolled up counterclockwise, not clockwise!! The hose was on a hose caddy. It did not affect the water in any way. Not really sure why I was nearly in tears over a hose.. so I ran out the back door and never looked back! I never even went back for the lesson I was owed.
I could go on and on and on… like the h/j instructor that made me do the same thing every single lesson.. the dressage instructor that had only one horse with hoof & lameness issues that I could only walk/trot with (a Craigslist find of course), the h/j instructor who only let me canter all lesson every lesson in the tightest circle around her until I thought I was going to vomit, EVEN the “fancy horse college” I went to and took the outrageously expensive lessons there only to be taught by a student teacher who didn’t teach me a darn thing.
It is amazing that I still enjoy riding. I have spent a fortune on lessons with morons for at least 6 years and I am still a beginner. So, really.. if you know of a great barn within 30 minutes of the Springfield area of Western Mass, help a fellow horse lover out and tell me where the instructor with half a brain is hiding!!!
I’m 17 and the last time I rode was when I was about 12. (And I’m in the UK)
For most of my ‘riding career’ I went to the same local stable which is still running today.(Blue Barn Equestrian Centre) I can’t remember exactly when I started riding but I did end up taking a break for a year or two at one point. The yard wasn’t that large but we had two indoor sand schools and one outdoor and I’ve ridden in all three of them. I always went for solo lessons. I have no idea of the rate they used to charge because I was only young. I ended up leaving this stable ultimatley because of cruddy mangement, they used to switch my horse and instructor quite a lot so I often got shunted around. The horses I rode for the most part though were pretty good apart from one incident when I was given a horse with an extremley bouncy gait and basically had to leave my lesson because I felt really uncomfortable on him.
I remember that the furthest I got was stuff like sitting trot, and trotting poles and I do believe that at one point I did do some really low jumps but this I believe was in my first bunch of lessons. The horses I rode would already be tacked up so all I had to do was either mount in the yard or help them walk the horse to the sand school, I’d normally be allowed to walk the horse back to the stall and help untack. They used to run ‘own a pony’ days where a bunch of kids could come and do various riding games, muck out, tack up, groom ect.
This stable is running today and I hope they are running better than I remember. They had good horses though it was just the mangement that was a bit cruddy.
The last stable I went too was a little bit further away, it was a small one that I’d say was one of the ‘run out of a back yard’ ones but it was pretty nice. They only had an outdoor school so I had to do all lessons outside even in the winter. I didn’t mind, (but at the same time I don’t relish sitting on very cold saddles XD) I stopped going there because the owner’s mother became ill so she had to stop running lessons to care for her. I didn’t do much there whilst I was there because I’d stopped riding I was ‘relearning’ as it was (as in riding on the lunge and trying to get my seat back ect.)
Both stables though insisted you wore helmets, if you didn’t have one you could borrow one from Blue Barn but I’m not so sure about the other stable though (whose name eludes me)
Oh yeah, both places insited on helments but boots weren’t necessary really long trousers were (or in my case leggings), I remember doing most of my early riding in trainers/sneakers (not the best thing really…) until I got a pair of boots.
I
OMG…Rames! I drove my daughter out to Shadowfax Stables for her lessons. Also, towards the end of the 80′s. I remember Stacy very well! We actually bought two horses from Lynn (the other trainer that was out there). We bought Fanny, a short little red roan QH mare from her, and then later, a two year old sister to her.
It really was a great place, safe, great with the kids and adults. My friend Kim also took lessons there. She had Star, a big white appy mare. I can’t remember how much the lessons were…but certainly not bad.
I tried taking riding lessons when I was in my 20′s. It was in Ohio. I don’t remember what it cost. I was a dead beginner. This was not a Craigslist facility. This was a fancy-shmancy hunter-jumper barn (owned by some doctor’s wifey). I was given tack and ushered into a stall with a lesson horse that would whirl and kick. Think she bit also. I was told by the 14 year old groom “Don’t worry about her, she doesn’t really mean it.” and left alone to figure out tacking up for the first time EVER while the mare continued to kick at me. The lesson was conducted in a riding ring with an open gate so the barn sour horsie could bolt back to the barn. When I asked that the gate be closed the instructor got annoyed and said I should just learn to control the horse. Well, duh, but beginner riders need all the help they can get. Riding ring also contained a threshing machine full of sharp pointy things to fall on. No helmet. No real instruction either. Riding instructor was a “Screamer”. I left thinking horses are crap and horse people are a bunch of jerks. This is what happens when you don’t care enough to supervise horses or students. Later in my 40′s I tried again at a small family-oriented barn. It had quiet well mannered lesson horses, an experienced, safety conscious instructor who liked teaching beginners. This was in the 80′s and cost $20.00 an hour for a small group lesson (3 people). I learned enough basic horse care to handle my own horse. I can snarl “QUIT!” with the best of them. Still a bunch of jerks out there.
Just because a lessone is given at a price that everyone can afford does not mean that the quality of instruction is not adequate. When I started riding lessons were $20 almost everywhere you went that didn’t specialize. This was at an Arab show barn. I got lessons, showed in 4-H, and learned how to care for a horse. Helmets were not mandatory. This was in the 90′s.
Currently I am paying $30 for lessons from a reputable dressage trainer. (just basic lessons, not dressage).
I started taking lessons in 1984 for $10 an hour at Fox Meadow Farm” in Temperance, Michigan. Rode there for 15years and have never regretted it. I received the basics and had the opportunity to go on and show regionally and nationally, at the same time I was in a barn with kids who got to McClay. To this day I tell anyone who’s serious about learning how to ride, whether or not they’ll ever show, to look up FMF. A truly fantastic barn.
As for prices for lessons, I pay $35 for a half hour private lesson and I do think that is reasonable. It would also be reasonable as a full hour lesson. I also think beginners should start out with a mixed group so that they can see how the older more advanced riders ride, pick up good habits this way.
My trainer charges $35 for a group lesson but allows you to pre-pay for 11 for the price of 10. She’s got a nice indoor arena (20×60) and a bigger outdoor arena. Her classes are based on the principles of dressage. I could find less expensive and certainly closer (we trailer 45 minutes) lessons. But the most importn lesson she teaches is by living the attitude that the horse is a valued employee, who deserves respect and a pension plan.
She has made arrangements for the retirement of every horse that can no longer provide lessons, which include retirement board for the first horse two horses I leased from her. I know where every horse I ever had a lesson on is (sadly lost the barn favorite, at age 28, two autumns ago). Her commitment to her “oldies” is exemplary in that they get the same or better farrier, vet and feed as the working horses.
But it’s not just the horses who have “earned it.” She had one mare that suffered bone spavin, which she nursed along for over 18 months. After a year long rest she started to build the mare up, but the mare was still uncomfortable going into the arena for lessons, so she went back out to convelesce for another 5-6 months and being hand walked. She had only had this mare in the lesson program (i.e., earning her keep) for maybe 7 months. I think she would have kept her longer, but one student had fallen in love during that short period of lessons. Knowing that my trainer hadn’t sold a horse in the 5 years that the student had been at the barn, the student still said – I’ll buy her if you ever decide to sell. Well almost 2 years later, with full disclosure including an open vet interview, the trainer sold her to the student at a significant loss for a small operation. After another 9 months off, just hand-walking up hills and out through the fields, the mare was sound and went to be boarded with my trainer, who taught the student how to bring her back into condition, starting 10 minute walk/trot rides and building up. Today, I have a beautiful mare, because my trainer taught me that putting the horse’s best interest first is the right thing to do, and my Boo is happy and comfortable in the ring for lessons every weekend.
Every trainer/instructor should model this commitment to their lesson horses’ retirement and recovery from an ailment. If a student gets that important lesson and then every penny paid for a lesson is worth it, because the rest will fall into place.
My trainer is great, and perfectly reasonable at $45/lesson (i’m currently helping her teach in exchange for my lessons, because i am broke).
This month, two of our students, sisters, announced that they’d found a cheaper trainer – one for about $20. When she told me about it, we simultaneously said, “yeah, good luck with that.”
I had a lengthy and point-by-point rebuttal to uenduphere’s barely literate critique of your post today — because most of what she said was incorrect — but I decided rather than add fuel to her flame (haha), I’d just forego it. The point of being here is to have no more of the blogspot.com crap, right? ;o)
When I was a beginning adult rider, I did take lessons with Larry Mayfield who died a few years ago (he was such a youngster when I rode with him — since I was only 30-ahem years old, he seemed like barely out of puberty. I’m sure he wasn’t, but anyway, he was wonderful). I wanted more than anything to be able to jump or hunt, and he gave me some very good, basic lessons over fences. I will never forget that. Seems to me I paid $25 a lesson then, but can’t remember (I have problems with what I did yesterday).
HR– Love that! I was at Shadowfax in the mid-80′s so I probably just missed you and your daughter. Loved Stacy though! I rode a lazy buckskin called “Buck”(of course)– he had a cute registered name though. She also had a cute standardbred with a bouncy trot named Sonny, and a dk. bay TB that everyone loved to ride– cannot think of his name. She had a few ponies too. At the time I was there it was just her– Lynn had not started yet.
I didn’t really answer the first part of the question – I learned to ride the BYB way – no lessons, just crashed around on borrowed ponies and rental horses, but I did haunt the local library, which did not have a comprehensive collection on “how to ride”. Lots of horse books but no real how-to’s. Of course I learned Western, in NorCal. Didn’t know leads, just stop, go, and go real fast.
I had taken one English lesson through a GF and had a horrible time – I had no clue how to put on an English saddle, or better yet what and where the girth was, being used to a latigo (which confounds many English riders) and a cinch. I still had a mad desire to jump and did so bareback with ponies, then when I got my own horse I figured I should switch to “Eastern” (what one of my precious books called it, oh my) and set about finding someone to teach me and I would teach the horse (also figured out how to tack up English).
For $2 an hour in Spring 1971 I got a ballsy teenager who was a good rider and rode with a local H/J trainer by the name of Bitsy Shields. The teen advertised through the local horseman’s assciation and we met at their arena, a three mile ride from home. Not such a good teacher at age 15 though. Or maybe just the wrong circumstance. No helmets, wore sneakers and blue jeans. Got the off the shelf real leather boots later that summer.
A year or two later for $5 for a group lesson I heard of a young instructor with a BHS certificate, just starting out in the North Bay area and again, three miles ride from home. Someone who nowadays is an S level judge doing USDF events. For $7 I could ride her horse in a group and I think it was like $10 for a private. Alternate jumping and dressage lessons, once a week. No helmet required even in jumping lessons, and the other kids wore polo wraps to keep their legs from being chewed up. She blessed me with a private lunge line lesson on her horse Topolino when all the other kids cancelled out once, for my normal cost. He was a real trained horse, the first I had ever ridden. I tell you, that if I had known then what I know now I could have derived so much more benefit from those lessons.
Looking back I am shocked and amazed that I had so much self confidence – like many of the BYB I was naive about the many problems, safety issues. I just hadn’t seen them or been exposed to them in my closed little world and It just didn’t occur to me (or my parents) that it was not the smartest idea to try a lot of stuff on my own. I did have a little sense about breeding my horse though, there was a nice TB stud down the road but after I added up the stud fee, four years till the foal could be ridden (at least I knew that much, thank you Black Beauty!) and my mare’s conformational issues I scratched that idea.
Whoops – I’ve posted two times, now three, and didn’t address the first part of Fug’s question in my first post. Sorry I got so long in that last one.
Lessons in the Syracuse area range from $25-$50 per hour with experienced professional instructors. I pay about that amount for my daughter to ride with a instructor who is amazing and she rides an incredible horse. And yes, she requires helmets and proper riding gear too
I’m in south Wales, UK. I started riding last year, and I pay £25 for a half-hour private lesson; it’s £18 for an hour-long group lesson with up to eight riders. Helmets are mandatory for any rider at the stables, you must ride in shoes with an appropriate heel, and you’re encouraged to get proper boots as soon as you’ve had your first couple of lessons. The horses there are excellent – they have a wide range of sizes, from 10hh ponies to 16 and 17hh horses, and they are all very well-mannered. The rudest I have seen a horse get is wanting to walk past a stall into the barn to be with his friends, and a hand on his chest from me, inexperienced and weak rider, and he stopped and backed up and behaved.
It’s a good stables; the owner and her daughter compete nationally and some of the horses now used for lessons with experienced riders were worth £30,000+ in their prime. Nevertheless, it’s far cheaper than really rubbish stables in Bath, where I go to university – there a half-hour group lesson on a tiny pony (I am tall with very long legs!) that bites and doesn’t listen to your leg at all can set you back £25!
Rames….I can tell you a cute Buck story! My daughter was only 6 when she started with Stacy, although she had already been riding for several years. She usually rode and old pony..OMG..can’t remember his name…but they soon switched her to another horse..it was to be Buck. She had this sheepish look on her face as she walked out into the arena with Buck in hand…and she was a bit tentative about getting on. Strange since her horse at home was a 15H ancient, most wonderful horse in the world, QH gelding. She finally turned to me and asked “Why do they call him Buck?”..of course not knowing that it was because he was Buckskin LOL. She finally mounted up after and explanation, and she even rode him in one of their little schooling shows…I have a video of them somewhere.
We moved to Salem in 1989 and that was the end of our visits with Shadowfax…but we sure loved it there.
Sorry Fugs, it’s Monday and I can’t find your email, but I thought you might find this of interest.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549722,00.html
At least somebody wasn’t asleep at the switch here. I can’t imagine the agony of living with a broken cannon bone and still packing kids around. He must be a saint.
Yeah… too bad for her three year old son… he may not make it to is 4th or 5th birthday. I feel extremely sorry for people that have to brag about their offspring riding horses at 2-3 y.o. That is unsafe, irresponsible behaviour, unless the horse is on a leadline, lunge line or a parent is holding the child and walking beside the horse. I started riding at the age of 7 and it was STILL too young to be riding unsupervised. We were three riding one very well broke 22 year old mare taking turns. We were riding in an enclosed area that was not even as big as an arena. Needless to say, we had bad spills that could’ve resulted in a trip to the emergency. Luckily, we ALWAYS wore a helmet (RIDING Helmet), had a saddle that fit us with stirrups adjusted to our length, we only cantered in a specific part of the field and didn’t even canter until after we had rode for 2 years. That’s where I learned all I know about balancing and aids.
I think lessons should not even be given to kids under the age of 6. I am in favour of adjusting the price to the level of the rider and the difficulty. I took western riding lessons for 25$ / hour, on our own horses… I personnaly think this is a bit much and would think it would be reasonnable at 15 – 20$ an hour (on our own horses). Given the demand for riding instructors and lessons, I would totally give them the right to refuse or dismiss anyone that is not respectful or responsible on horseback, children or not. Horses used in lessons go through a whole lot, from getting their mouths pulled to getting kicked HARD in the ribs, to unbalanced and floppy riders… they deserve the best care and at least the best of the worst riders.
I think it may be a bit unfair to judge trainers only on the price of their lessons. I am not a full time trainer, but I do teach lessons on the side of my normal job and I charge $25 an hour, $15 for half an hour. The people I give lessons to range from rank beginners to intermediate. I charge that little because its something I enjoy doing and the money is just pocket cash, not something to live on. I do have the credentials to charge more, and the one summer I gave lessons as an employee of a farm they charged $40 for leadline lessons and up to $70 for the more advanced lessons (I was not given a choice in how much they charged).
My previous trainer charged the same prices, and it was the same situation for her. I have since out-grown her, but she was the one who helped me reach first level dressage in high school. I first started taking lessons with her 7 years ago or so, when I was 16.
The trainer I started riding with (15 years ago) charged pretty low prices at the time, $20 for an hour and $12 for half an hour. She was not a great trainer in that I didn’t progress very far in intuitive riding (being able to read the horse and respond appropriately). She was, however, an equitation trainer that gave me excellent equitation (that I have subsequently lost when I started working with more advanced trainers).
The vast majority of my teaching is in the Seattle area.
All that said, yeah, you usually get what you pay for. The various trainers (almost exclusively dressage trainers) I work with now rarely charge less than $60 for 45 minutes. And they are worth it. These trainers are in the Seattle area and in central California (where I went to school).
I think beginner lessons should be a little cheaper than those for advanced rider…usually beginner lessons are taught by a lower level rider, riding under a bigger name rider that teaches advanced students.
it is my opinion that children should have a body weight of minimum 40 pounds, and be 7 yrs before they are safe to ride a horse. ( I am not talking being lead around on a pony ride, but actually riding on their own)
I ride in Ontario Canada. I see lessons advertised for 4 yrs and up., my 5 yr old get lead.
I took lessons eons ago…beginning when I was about 8 or 9 years old I think. Probably 1963 or 64. Wow, I’m old! Anyway, the instruction bordered on militant….I was started on a very fat old mare who knew all the tricks of the trade, but I was not allowed to have a saddle, or reins, and the mare had a roached mane. The instructor longed the horse and I was to keep my hands on my hips. When I could do this at the walk, post the trot, and the canter in both directions I graduated to holding reins and controlling the horse myself. I fell off COUNTLESS times and I had never seen any kind of a helmet, of course at that time the helmets that the pro football players wore were made out of leather…..so it took a few more years before we started to value our heads very much. One of the bylines of the instructor was that it’s foolish to learn to ride without knowing how to fall. I do realize that there is some folly in that, but let me tell you, I knew how to fall. I was absolutely horse crazy and quitting because it was hard and scary was simply out of the question in my mind. Honestly, I am not sure that I accurately recall the cost of the lessons. I believe it was $5.00 for a half hour. Usually there were at least two or three of us of varying abilities in a given half hour slot. The horses were well kept and while not without their flaws, their “issues” were used to help teach us. I remember one mare that had a maddening ability to decide as we were moving down the rail at a nice brisk trot or canter, to make a sudden veer into the center of the ring and pull her head down and she would pull me off over her head EVERY TIME. That mare taught me how to keep contact with a horse’s mouth without holding onto her head. As soon as I got it she stopped her “trick”. It took me a long time it seemed, but hands mattered to that mare, and she was the BEST teacher. We were taught everything from complete and careful grooming to tack cleaning and dis-assembly and re-assembly. As I look back on that time, I am grateful that my Mom was willing to pay for the lessons for me and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Safety was stressed, understanding was demanded, and you didn’t move on to anything new until you mastered the first skills. The strongest emphasis, as I recall it, was safety, both for the horse and for the rider, and they never, EVER allowed a student to treat a horse roughly, intentionally or unintentionally. If the horse wasn’t doing what the instructor had asked you to do, it was never the horses’ fault. We were not allowed to use the “But she just won’t do it” excuse didn’t fly.
It made a good rider out of me, and except for the helmets which I see as essential now that they are available, I think that it was a good way to teach. But it takes a student who is determined because it is definitely not the easy way. I’m sure that one can become a good rider in a less militant environment, and certainly a more student friendly environment would work for more people, but it worked well for me and gave me a great seat and hands, and for that I am most grateful.
I took lessons about 10 years ago (as a teenager) in Utah and had a pretty good experience. I think it was about $20/hr for an individual lesson, but I could be remembering wrong. The barn I was riding at also had a therapeutic program that I’d heard good things about (I like that because it shows their horses really are well-trained and calm). The trainer I had started riding with left about halfway through my time there, but the second one wasn’t much different, and I liked them both well enough. Eventually I left to move to the LA area and once there I couldn’t afford to ride anymore.
I wished that barn in Utah had given me more instruction on stuff like cleaning/care/fitting of tack, and spotting physical problems with the horses, as it’s stuff I had to figure out for myself later, but I still remember the experience as being good. The only bad incidents I remember were once when I was riding a lazy (and incredibly old) mare who didn’t want to move out, and rather than working on improving my aids or strength thereof, the instructor of the moment told me to rein the mare in tight so she couldn’t go forward, and then swat the hell out of her on the rump for a few minutes with the crop. Needless to say I refused — I thought it was pointless and would accomplish nothing except making the horse hate her life — but the instructor didn’t try further to force me into it, and I worked on really making my aids work until the mare picked up. I recall the horses being fairly well cared for and when my lesson horse started bucking when I put him into a canter, instead of getting after him they had him evaluated by a chiropractor and gave him time off when the chiropractor decided he was sore. I was pretty impressed by that.
Anyway, I wish I could get that kind of experience again, frankly. I rode for very short periods with a couple of equestrian teams in college but never really had time (or money, in the case of the one that charged for lessons with the coach) between all the jobs I had to work just to keep myself *in* college. I’ve just started riding lessons again recently after a lengthy period of time in which my confidence has been destroyed by spills from “Oh, he’s safe, anybody can ride him!” horses belonging to friends, so I’m very particular about what kind of instruction I want and how safe I need to feel to get on the horse for every lesson. I’ve found an instructor in my area who I like very much and have had a few lessons with (Her rate is $50/hr, which kind of hurts too, but she’s giving us a good rate because several people in the barn are riding with her and she can come over and do all of us in a row.), but she has only one lesson horse, and that poor mare is currently too burned out on her other students to take on another one. Instead I’m riding on a friend’s horse, who is a nice old mare but not terribly well trained and to my way of thinking doesn’t make for a very good lesson horse… I figure in a lesson partnership between horse and human, ONE of us has to know what we’re doing!
I have a friend in the area who gives a lot of lessons, mostly to kids (she has a whole string of really terrific riding ponies), but she has a big warmblood dressage mare and I’m going to go watch a lesson tomorrow to see whether I’d be comfortable taking lessons with her. (I don’t know what she charges, but I’d be doing it in exchange for my website design services.)
In this area it’s REALLY rough… I rode once or twice with a lady who runs a local “lesson stable,” and bailed when I discovered that neither her “highly trained show horse” — with her aboard — nor any of her other horses knew how to sidepass or in any way yield laterally. MY horse does that, and she’s an 18-year-old mustang that isn’t even broke to ride yet. I taught her to do it from the ground, so how hard is it to get your “lesson horses” to do it? This area’s full of “riding instructors” whose qualifications amount to having run a lot of barrels and teaching local 4-H kids bad horsemanship practices or something. I don’t know what they think makes them qualified to teach anyone. And even people who do know what they’re doing are hard to find and don’t have many horses for students to ride, if they even have any. The only barn I’ve found around here that’s a proper lesson barn, with a string of lesson horses and a dedicated instructor and the whole deal, is about an hour away from me. I’m tempted to find out what they cost and do the drive once a week regardless of cost, just because I really want the structure and confidence that comes from knowing that for both the horses and the instructor, this is their JOB and they’re good enough at it to make a living at it.
I cruise Dreamhorse.com as kind of a hobby and it’s killing me how many really nice little riding ponies are up there for sale at criminal prices. I don’t even particularly like kids (yes, I can admit it), but it’s kind of a dream of mine to be able to start a barn where kids could come and learn to ride from qualified instructors on ponies and horses that are truly appropriate for their ages and skill levels. But possibly that just comes from watching too much Saddle Club on TV. ;D
saweetmama, your instructor was right on one point… it’s really important to know how to fall! I wish I could require all equestrians to also take martial arts instruction (or go to circus school!)… I’ve never hurt myself too badly coming off a horse, and I’m pretty sure I avoided actually dying one time (ejected off the horse and head-first into the steel pipe panel corral) because I had a helmet on and I knew how to break my fall and it was so ingrained that I did it without thinking about it.
Thanks HR– so cute! I too rode Buck at a couple of schooling shows! : ) I think I remember Stacy said that when she bought Buck the previous owners were keeping him in a pasture full of cows. Me thinks he would have preferred to stay there for the rest of his life rather than having to work for a living! ; ) He was such a lazy little skunk– so cute though!
I own 2 horses that I ride and keep at home. I consider them innappropriate for my 6 year old and I take him (and his helmet) to a nearby barn with small lesson ponies, one of whom came from the county animal control auction after he was found wondering the streets earlier this year. These ponies will still have a mission in life when my son outgrows them.
Riding lessons for a child in Central Florida- $40/hour.
A kind hearted 27 year old Welsh pony that doesn’t dump my little kid regularly- worth at least a million $.
The knowledge that my son and the ponies are in competent, humane hands- Priceless!
Located in the Hamptons… I pay $190 for a private hour (+$30 horse fee if it’s not on my horse). Private half hour is $160.
WOW!! I remember when that add was posted!! I am so glad to see it gone!
I found this place a while ago. I want ‘em all!
http://www.coolmedics.com/categories.php?category=Riding-Wear&page=1&sort=featured
As for Linda P, she wasn’t in the hospital for broken ribs and bruises. She was knocked out for several minutes – and had trouble walking. Can you say “brain injury?”
WTDH. Wear the damn helmet.
Ruthie
I started riding when I was about 11 (1994)at a farm down the road from where I live. Man, looking back at the situation now, I should have screamed “NOT THERE! NOT THERE!! I”LL RIDE ANYWHERE BUT THERE!! I’LL RIDE THE HORSES AT THE LIVESTOCK AUCTION INSTEAD!!!”
But we weren’t wealthy enough to afford proper lessons and I was horse-crazy!
At first the lessons started out like I guess most lessons do. I learned to groom, saddle, ride a horse-bareback while being led….and then the normalcy stopped there.
You think the $10 a lesson fee would have tipped us off that this was not a good place, but no, I needed several more “clues”!
Clue #1 My helmet that I used was one of those ancient shell ones that are approved for “apparel only”, not actually a safety device. I could take my old helmet and litterally squash the two sides together and break it today if I wanted (but it sits nicely as a decorative piece on my bookshelf so I won’t!)
Clue#2 I had stall cleaning, and field cleaning lessons. Yes for several lessons I helped the “instructor” clean stalls and clean up her riding area and fields. It was to teach proper horsecare..blah blah blah…
Clue#3 The instructor could barely ride 2 of her 3 horses. Her teaching horse, a semi retired QH was amazing! But the other two, one I don’t think I ever saw her ride, and if myself or anyone else rode it, it would bolt, buck and scare the bejebus out of you! The other one, was basically only good as a trail horse, if you could actually get her out of the paddock. She would just stand at the hitching post, and no matter how much leg you used, crop, whip (oat bucket worked nicely, but better hope the other person can run fast enough!) you used, she would not move from the hitching post!
Clue#4 I think the “Lessons” stopped at about lesson 6. As soon as you were “good enough to ride on your own” (hahaha, like not fall on your head!) you had to learn to figure it out for yourself. Yeah “I’m to lazy to stand there and yell at you, so go do whatever, just don’t beat my horse in the head and I’ll see you back here in an hour!” So you got to wander around in the two acre field and as long as you didn’t fall off or do anything super stupid, that was your lesson!
Clue#5 The fences were held together with baler twine. Yes. Not joking. They were cedar rail fences (sooo pretty!) which were totally ineffective towards keeping equines confined to a certain area.
Clue#6 The mini herd! She started with a male and female mini (both registered), then baby#1 came, (female), then baby #2 came (male), then baby #3(female), then baby #1 was pregnant with either dady’s or baby#2′s baby, and then there was baby #4(female) which was first mommy and either original daddy or baby#2′s baby…you know how it goes! She still has most of them, but good heavens, it was nuts! AND SHE REGISTERED THEM AS OFFSPRING FROM THE ORIGINAL TWO!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Clue#7 I finally got bored of plodding around on the old QH, refused to get thrown from the scary mare, and was sick of sitting on the 3rd selection, so I bought a trail horse from another riding place nearby and BOARDED IT THERE!! YES I WAS INSANE! I WAS ALSO 14!! And she would use my horse for lessons, and trail rides, and whatever else she could think of when I wasn’t there.
Most of my learning from there on was from Horse Illustrated magazines, and from falling off. “Hmmm…I fell off when he did that, so I won’t do what I did before he did that.”
I finally (after 3 moves) got myself and my old trail horse to a nice barn (about 45 min away) where the lady who ran it was APPALED at the habits I had developed, and my riding ability. She sort of took me under her wing, and while she didn’t give lessons per se, would guide me in my riding ability enough so that I was able to enter and acutally place at some local schooling shows!
I could no longer afford the board there (so sad, I loved it there!) so I brought my horse and another couple of “rescues” to my backyard and stopped all lessons. When my old trail horse died (at a ripe age of 28), I’ve pretty much given up all riding except for the occasional trail ride, which my boys don’t mind to much, a life of eating and pooping, what more could they want!
I would love to get back into real lessons and learn all the things that I SHOULD have learned 15 years ago! But $$$ holds me back. Maybe one day….
Oh, I forgot to add that this stable is still in operation. I don’t know if she still gives “lessons” but she has about 25 horses (some hers, some boarders) on about 9 acres of property. <<>>
ok before I go into my history… Here is a thought too, What if there is an instuctor out there that charges $25 an hour.. and tells her students if you need to grab the horn and the back of the saddle if your horse goes out of control, at least you will be still in the saddle…
My history: Got my first horse in 93, did not know a thing about them, went to the library, i still pitty that librarian.. I asked her for all the horse books she had… In 94 met a real nice woman that took me under her wing, worked alot of hours mucking out stalls, cleaning tack, brushing horses and etc.. Just to learn how to ride.. man that was alot of work that surely paid off….In 96 hooked up with a dressage facility,,That is where I really learned how to ride, alot of work there too as a working student.. from there I have worked at various places to learn more…
The going rate in my area is $10 to $40 depending on your choice of riding….
My lessons were paid for through work. My trainer happened to be a friend’s girlfriend. She was not and still is not a certified trainer, but is probably one of the most fair trainer’s I’ve encountered.
She told me if I helped her clean stalls, feed and water horses, and sweep up the barn I could get riding lessons, but I had to follow her every direction until she felt I was capable in the saddle. I did so.
I learned my seat on her old standardbred mare. When I progressed past the mare she found me an older appaloosa mare who would only lightly challenge a rider for me to learn how to post a trot and sit a canter on. The standardbred did not like heavy contact on her mouth so I learned light but firm hands from the start. The Appy was an all around 4H horse, needed a kimberwicke for english riding and was sensitive to seat cues. I learned a great deal from her. My trainer/friend used to have me sit on the mare bareback, put my arms out to my sides as she was led at a walk and work on my balance. I miss those exercises the most.
I learned how to care for a horse from this trainer, too, because she made me groom, tack up, rub down and do everything with the horses I rode to make sure I was learning proper horsemanship and not being lazy. The lessons may not have been consistent, but they were good lessons.
I’m late on this one, but I’m reading through all the old blogs so I’m gonna post anyway!
Never would have managed that with the old school.
Definitely echo the advice regarding you get what you pay for. I started out riding at a local school which charged £14 for an hour long group lesson, pretty cheap. Yeah, it was cheap because there were 14 riders registered to our timeslot, all being taught together in an outdoor 40x20m school. The horses were bought cheaply due to being young or poorly trained, and then used in lessons for 6months or so, so that we could fall (get thrown) off them and do all the “training” allowing the horse to be sold on as a “safe riding school master/mistress”. And the lessons were little more than riding around in a circle following everyone else, by the time they were sold on they had no personality left
Unfortunately my family isn’t horsie so I never realised that this school wasn’t teaching me squat till I started volunteering at a riding stables for disabled riders. One of the girls was training for her instructing qualification and used me as her student. She realised I’d been taught really badly and reccomended I change schools.
Now I ride (whenever I’m back home from uni) at a lovely school, on dressage trained horses, who actually compete, and WIN! It’s £20 for an hour group lesson, but it’s absolutely worth the extra £6 to be in a larger indoor school and know that I’ll never share my lesson with more than 4 others. And of course I get to ride the lovliest horses.
Sadly it took over a year to train me out of my bad habits, so at 21 despite having first got on a horse when I was 6 I’m still a complete novice really. Though the new school did give me a chance to compete on one of their ponies, we entered a small dressage competition and placed 2nd