What is the one thing…
Jul 20 2011
You WISH you had been told when you FIRST started riding that you had to learn the hard way?
Mine: If you get your shoulders behind your hip bones, the horse CAN NOT root and drag you down his neck, no matter HOW snack-sized a kid you are! I was tiny and it was years before an instructor really explained this to me. Until then, I spent a lot of time being dragged into the middle of the arena by old, understandably-sour lesson horses, and feeling frustrated that I could not seem to prevent it.
I want to hear everybody else’s. 
You know how I love the old Thoroughbred broodmares. This is Nike at Shiloh Horse Rescue, near Las Vegas, Nevada. Nike needs a job and a carrot provider – if you’re interested, contact Shiloh to come and test ride!
175 comments to “What is the one thing…”
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BWAHAAHAAHAHA!! INSTRUCTOR???? WHAT IS THAT???
My parents allowed me to buy a cute, grade half-wild two year old for $300, bought me a bridle with reins and turned me loose. I was thirteen years old. Somehow, I got her “broke” and rode bareback for over a year before I got a real saddle!
Deworming?? What’s that? Hoof trimming?? Nah, I’ll ride the excess length off (and I did)
I wish that I’d had a mentor to teach me and my folks how to properly care for my horse! I wish I’d been forced to ride with an instructor so I might have developed a decent seat. Geez… so many more wishes… not enough space.
It is not too late for lessons, you know. Go ride that baby moose yourself after the first 30 days…he won’t kill you, he’s a chip off the old block!
That’s my story almost exactly!
Except my two-year-old was a welsh pony they bought for $40, I was 9, and she was the first of three unbroken horses I trained before I was 14. I showed and did ok because I watched and learned, and spent so much time with them that I could read their every thought and move.
Now, getting back into it after being away from horses for years of school and then paying it off, I wish I still had the confidence, seat, and tenacity I had back then. It seems the more I listen to professionals who seem to contradict each other, the more confused and less confident I get.
I don’t want to show; I just want to get on and go on a trail ride.
It sounds like you need to seek out a really excellent instructor who will patiently help you build your skills — it can be very frustrating to begin riding again after break, but with patience and the right instructor, you CAN get those skills back. BUT, there is no point in rushing it, no short cuts. Good luck!
OMG-you are sooo not alone. Same career path and bills (almost paid off). Slipping with the confidence, seat, tenacity, and so burnt out on trainers.
I’m trying one last time to get my latest horse straightened out and riding for me and that will be enough to keep me happy.
That effective discipline will make you a better rider and your horse won’t hate you.
I had to get bucked off & scraped off for a whole year and break my arm & get sent to a real trainer to learn that… but I learned it GOOD.
Also: DO NOT get lazy & forget to check over your tack before mounting up. I *almost* have had accidents due to crossed reins, loose girth, etc.
I wish everyone could get the thoughtful lessons in body mechanics that used to be common among the better instructors. I see too many kids these days getting told to “jam their heels down” instead of “sink your weight into your heels” and the “why/how” talk that trainers used to always give. They still do in H/J and dressage barns, I think, but I see the Western kids get the “jam them heels down” lecture before Horsemanship classes…
Knowing WHY as well as HOW is so very important and can save a lot of time, injury & frustration in the long run…
Yep…and JAM YOUR HEELS DOWN without reminding you that (a) you can’t lock your knee and ankle or you are going to bounce/be insecure and (b) the stirrup is a foot rest, not a security blanket is going to lead to problems every time.
HA! WHERE do you live? ‘Cause around here (IL), we have quite a few large hunter/jumper barns, and I’ve been to all of them (before I actually took the first step to shareboard and then buy a horse, and then I was happily converted over to the world of ‘Eventing’), and in each one you hear instructors barking,”Heels down!”, “Sit up!”, “Those reins are too loose!”. There’s no,”Stretch those heels down so you have a better contact/safety/whatever (I personally don’t follow the heels-down movement)” or any explaination at all. I spent 6 years trying to learn a sitting trot at lessons and failed because no one ever bothered to say,”Go with the movement”.
Anyway, this is why I love this blog! I get all the horse magazines and they are full of articles that almost always seem to cater to beginners. (Ex. ‘Does your horse buck? Well here are the steps to fix it: check your tack, put it on properly, warm up properly, when you feel him start to buck, spin him in a circle!’. Well duh!). I want information that is actually useful to me, not stuff that I could figure out myself by using common sense.
I think that’s why George Morris has come back away from the very elementary crest release in favor of an automatic release in EVERY SINGLE thing I’ve read of his in the past year or so. Also I’ve seen some good articles about “The American Style of Jumping,” and its evolution after WWI & WWII. Captain Vladmir Littauer, anyone??
People are learning to “pose,” but they’re not learning mechanics. Like I’ve said, I was lucky enough to get a copy of School for Young Riders, and though everything is very quaint and dated, it really emphasizes “following hands” and drove home the fact that an “independent seat” means that your seat is independent from the rest of your body. Lots of trotting in 2-point over hilly terrain will help with that concept as well as build strength and balance.
It was drilled into me by more than one instructor (even Western) that you SINK your weight into your heels, because your ankles are elastic springy shock absorbers. I was encouraged to stand on a stair, and sink my weight down, and eventually bounce & balance without holding on. I mean, this was standard teaching in the early 1980s!! I’m totally clumsy and unathletic, and I achieved it.
I went on a ruff-n-ready trail ride once with a BF the morning after a … hot date … and when it was time to canter, he was nervous about falling off. I told him to “stay with your horse, and… move your body WITH the horse, kind of like…. uh…. DOING IT.” I thought the trail guide was going to pee his pants. But it kind of worked….
I actually saw that advice about cantering on COTH a few years back, it helped my cantering a lot. >.<
Learning theory – it makes everything far more understandable, from general reactions of horses (and people!) to how to train horses yourself – which you effectively do every day you ride.
I had a very good grounding in riding with the British Army in Germany -and I was lucky having my own pony by 12 who taught me a huge amount. But I wish I knew how effective positive reinforcement was. I’m disabled now and now my connie gelding who has a well deserved reputation for extreme quirkiness is an almost (we’re getting there!) perfect disabled person’s handle and ride – with mainly positive reinforcement, its been way more effective for him than any other type of training and I’ve tried a few (parelli for a few lessons, he still goes into attack mode when he sees a bloody carrot stick, and that was done to him by a parelli instructor) I came from a very traditional background and have worked with TB racehorses and youngsters but this connie youngster had me really reaching!!
I wish someone had explained the keeping hip joints loose concept, so they can move with the parallel movment of the horse. That would have saved back pain and helped me sit the trot in dressage much earlier.
I got lucky. My mom was a nurse, my dad was a pilot and a damn good amateur mechanic, and someone gave me a battered old copy of “School for Young Riders” when I was a kid. I was also prone to nasty Crohn’s Disease attacks, so I was already acutely aware of how different parts of my body affected other parts, and how to differentiate. But I had a proclivity for seeing things mechanically anyway, and there’s this great illustration in School for Young Riders: a kid balancing over his feet on skis, a kid balancing over her feet with a tennis raquet (I think?? I can’t find my book!!
) and a kid balanced over her feet in 2-point position. That was a real a-ha moment for me.
Then my trainer attended a Centered Riding clinic right after the book came out (she is riding a big black TB with a wide blaze in the original Centered Riding I video), and I learned even more. That language all made sense to me, and the visualization did too. It’s like singing, driving a car, or anything else: you MUST drill the awareness of the different parts working together into your psyche, and eventually it’s all very natural.
Of course, if you’ve been away from it a looong time, you still have a certain amount of muscle memory (I can still pick up leads & diagonals w/o looking, for example), but I’ve gained like 60 pounds since I was a teen, and had a kid, and and and and and…. (EXCUSES!!!!!!! HA!)
Yeah, I finally learned it from books in the end. My trainers were too sporadic and didn’t fully explain things in a way I could visualize until my college trainer.
Oh, I just wanted to add- I wish saddle fit had been taught early on too. When I think of the nasty saddle I first rode my girl in almost a decade ago, I feel so bad. She loves her Crosby now, and hates having any other saddles on.
Hey, CP, why don’t you check this out: http://mylifeasarider.blogspot.com/2011/04/these-boots-and-book-were-made-for.html
I think you will see something you recognize!
OMG OMG OMG YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
*sigh*
I also remember the very beautiful fashion illustration from Miller’s that was in that book, a lady in formal hunting attire, and it’s simply GORGEOUS. Ralph Lauren has been emulating it for ages – and making big bucks, because old-school hunt clothes are pretty much universally flattering.
Looky what I found: http://www.cavaletticlothing.com/p-871-tally-ho-ladies-polo-breeches.aspx
I’m glad you were pleased to see your old book. Hope you looked at the post after that one, too, ‘cuz there were more pictures from the book:
http://mylifeasarider.blogspot.com/2011/04/school-for-young-riders-contd.html
Alas, not one of your Miller’s lady, but some nice riders nonetheless.
I know what you mean about equestrian-themed clothes. I’m still kicking myself for not buying a gorgeous Ralph Lauren blouse that I saw a couple years ago. It had bits and bridle pieces printed on it and was actually accurate. It drives me nuts when designers “attempt” equestrian stuff and it’s all wrong!
Way OT, but this is the epitome of Beautiful – it’s why we adore horses: http://news.yahoo.com/recovery-burned-pa-horse-offers-hope-humans-095426089.html
1. How to fall. I learned the hard way.
2. NOT all horses like people. Also learned the hard way.
I did 2 weeks at a riding camp that was very picky about long, involved, stupid Accident Reports, and one day one of the advanced students was approaching all wrong to a jump, and she knew it, but she couldn’t fix anything in time, so she yelled at the instructor, “SAY ‘DISMOUNT’!!!” and the instructor did… so the girl “dismounted” headlong over a jump, but at least no forms had to be filed.
It was hilariooos. I’d NEVER have the presence of mind to do that…
Not to wrap my legs and grip with everything when I got scared – I spent a lot of time being ran away with as a kid and it wasn’t until we had our own horse that we figured out what I had been doing and sorted it.
Oh yeah! This is often the cause of trail riding wrecks. It’s one of the first things I tell beginners – hanging on with lower leg is like stomping on the accelerator.
Don’t grip with your legs would be my choice as well. Especially with spurs on! (i know, i shouldn’t be using spurs unless I have a quiet leg, but I was convinced that I did). That was an easy enough lesson to learn though. Not because I ended up falling, which I did, but because my trainer showed me the spur marks on the horse’s belly. I was absolutely mortified and I’m still ashamed of what I did to this day, even though it wasn’t intentional.
See, but you LEARNED and won’t still be doing it when you’re 45, unlike some folks!
See, that’s the part that I don’t get – people repeating the same mistakes over an over again and never LEARNING anything from them. The horse took off because I did something wrong. NOT the horse’s fault. So I just need to correct that behavior. It’s not exactly rocket science.
Sometimes a horse takes off because he has a little too much energy or his trying to escape work. Again, NOT the horse’s fault, the horse is just being a horse, it’s up to me as a rider, to correct that behavior. Usually i end panicking and loosing balance, instead of turning the horse around or make him do smaller circles until he slows down, but again that’s something I need to work on. Why is it so hard for people to stop blaming the horses and trying to learn to ride properly instead?
Exactly – I got bolted with and ended up pretty badly injured and so many people turned round and said the horse was dangerous! It wasn’t his fault at all, more a case of me (fairly novice rider) with an ex-racer (we didn’t know this) who was too much for me when he got upset. (I did spend the entire time going ‘legs off, legs off’ lol). There is the odd occasion where the horse is at fault but 99% of the time it is rider error causing the problem (or pain)
One of my old trainers had me put a pair of inch long spurs on because the green broke Halflinger I was riding wouldn’t go for me (never mind the fact that I had a completely ineffective leg from years of being told to “jam the heels down and arch the back and smile”)… Well the pony had never felt spurs before and promptly bolted as soon as I asked for a canter, and i promptly gripped on with all my might. The trainer meanwhile stood in the middle of the ring and told me to drop my crop, as that is what the problem must have been (insert eye roll here). the of course, the pony took a corner too sharp and proceeded to face plant in to the ground and then roll right over top of me, and of course it was the first time my parents had come to watch in over a year and a half. Awesome. The lesson I took away from this (besides never riding with this trainer again), was not to use spurs until I could ride without needed my leg for that much security… and I was only 14 when I figured that out! The trainer just laughed and said we did such a perfect somersault she would have awarded us a “10″ if it had been gymnastics.
Parents that think they know everything generally do not. (My father was a dumbass know it all and did stupid shit I knew that was wrong all the time.) When a horse rears do not try to balance yourself via the reins. You will most certainly flip your horse over on top of you. (I did this when I was a teenage not knowing any better. Thank God I didnt get seriously hurt, neither did my horse.)
FEEL the horse…move with them. Lots of miles to learn that simple thing.
I had a horse that was as biter, his nickname was jaws (and he earned it). It was my first horse, my parents trusted my trainer who thought a very green teen girl could handle a very hot, very smart, very aggressive gelding. As dumb as that was it’s not what I wish was different. I WISH that my trainer had known (and then taught me) that beating my gelding only made him more aggressive and more set in his ways. I WISH that it didn’t take me a couple years to figure out that handling him in the round pen, where I could immediately make him work his butt off when he tried to bite, was FAR better than always having a dressage whip in my back pocket to smack him with. I still FEEL so guilty about that, and I still have that gelding 15 years later and he’s an absolute sweetheart now!
At least he is still with you and now you can make up for all the times he was “misunderstood”.
Thank you! That means a lot- you have no idea. I love that old guy and he really has ended up being my once-in-a-time horse. I’m glad that I get the chance everyday to make up for those times and make sure his golden years are the best possible
Ugh, mine is the old “pose” over fences. I’m having to completely un-learn it now and learn to allow the horse to jump up to me, rather than doing that ridiculous old-style hunter pose. It is the bane of my existance.
I would have saved alot of years if I would have bought 1 GOOD horse instead of buying cheap and trying to make do with what I had as a kid. Same with clothing. 1GOOD outfit was cheaper than trying to put together 5 cheaper ones who never did look quite right. I was 10 years behind other kids my age, in the qualifty of horse, tack, and clothing – thinking I was saving money. In the end, it made me a better rider riding the unbroke horses I got and trained and then resold to buy something a little better and gave me a better appreciation of what I have, but it sure was frustrating as a kid competiting against kids who had good stuff from day one. I didn’t get the good stuff till after I was married. Many of those who I hero-worshiped as a kid, are long out of horses ( or dead ) , but I’m still hanging in there! Still frugal with my horse show budget, but I realize now, some things are cheaper in the end, if you spend a little more money on them at the beginning.
I totally feel you! The only thing worse is when you understand the concept but your parents do not! When I was a young rider I relied on my parents to finance things like horses and tack. So I always had to contend with the $150 saddle that didn’t fit the $300 crappy horse! Now, grant it I’ve been able to do some great things with $300 horses but I would have rather had one decent $1500 horse than 5 crappy $300 horses! But, they’ve finally begun to realize this and just recently bought a brand new 2 horse slant load trailer
Adults can learn also!
I LOLd at your example, as my bruises are just now fading from falling off one of those sour old “root-y” lesson horses. Why did I fall off? Because I was curled forward trying to win a pulling contest with a half-ton creature, when I should have been sitting up with my shoulders back slightly behind my hips, exactly as you said. My trainer demonstrated the difference effortlessly, on the same horse, while I stood in a pile of scattered ground poles, massaging my throbbing hip. And I am not now, nor have I ever been, tiny.
That Arabians are gorgeous, smart, kind…. and can leap sideways in a single bound leaving you in the air while watching him over there without you… not good for an 18YO first time horse owner and a 3yo Arab.
That two lead ropes used as reins will NOT stop said Arabian as he blasts down the hill with you riding bareback. You WILL come off. It still hurts-30 years later.
Also: DO NOT get lazy & forget to check over your tack before mounting up. I *almost* have had accidents due to crossed reins, loose girth, etc.
I DID. Put a fuzzy blaze orange saddle pad over my regular pad since it was hunting season and went out. Didn’t double check my girth. Got to the bridle path and we cantered off. Saddle began to turn, and I leaned forward. The more I leaned forward, the faster he went. The faster he went, the faster the saddle turned. I was hanging on and couldn’t shorten rein. Finally I knew I had to get off- NOW- since the path ended in a street. I jumped, landed wrong and hyperextended my right knee, then skidded to a stop. Said Arabian also stopped, fifteen yards away. A jogger heard me shout when I landed and came up onto the path and caught Geym. Not that he was going anywhere…. I managed to get to my feet and fixed the saddle the right way. Then HAD to get back on- I was over a mile from the barn. Parked him along a small ditch/hill, got on and rode back. Knee protesting violently the whole way- I had to use stirrups as Doofus jigged the whole way. I was on crutches for weeks, could only use my western saddle if I attached an english stirrup to the saddlehorn as my knee couldn’t take ANY torque. And the kicker? It’s been fine, right up until the other night, when my Mini took a giant step forward as I was getting in the cart and the wheel smacked into bad knee, bending it in a direction it was NOT supposed to go. Now it won’t support my weight when I get up out of a chair or the car. I can walk perfectly on it. Unless I hit a rough patch of ground. Then it reminds me that yeah, stupid, you hurt me. *sigh*
Yes, green + green DOES equal black and blue! And Ace bandages, and crutches, and ice packs. My body hurts and my lovely horses did it to me.
And yet- I STILL miss that old fart. Had him for 21 years, the 10th anniversary of his passing is this August, the 21st. Miss ya, buddy.
On a related note, one thing I wish I knew was a halter and lead rope is not a substitute for a proper hackamore…and as such will not stop the ex-racing Arabian. I had a mile+ walk back to the barn after that one…as she didn’t stop after she dumped me (thankfully, not into a tree). To be fair, the hack doesn’t always stop her either…but there’s a little more control and it’s easier to pull her in a circle with it if necessary.
As stupid as this sounds, I had no clue how to post a trot for the first year I rode. I wasn’t having rhythm issues, I used to stand right up in the stirrups as high as I could and sit back down repeatedly. No one ever mentioned that you’re supposed to post from your knees. Went a whole year wondering why I kept getting docked marks at the trot. I figured it out when I finally asked a judge instead of my coach and promptly left said coach.
I wish I would have known to keep my knees off the horse. I wasted 2 years taking lessons at a fancy-schmancy jumper barn before I moved and in the first 5 minutes of the first lesson, my new instructor showed me how to get my knees OFF the horse’s side, and to use my seat, thighs and calves instead. Suddenly I had a seat (you know, working on it), and didn’t feel like I was going to fall off every second of the ride.
Sally Swift wrote about a double amputee she rode with on trails. THAT paragraph was an eye-opener.
Also, practicing for Ride-A-Buck classes will make your seat & thigh better.
I wish someone had shown me earlier that sometimes the only way to get a hot, chargey horse’s goat is to let them run and run and run and then over under them for a while until they’re begging for a stop., then park that keister in the dirt. This is something I have to frequently do with my Appendix gelding. While I use him for speed and flag races I still sometimes want to be able to trail ride, to fool around with cows, and maybe pop over a few jumps. I can’t accomplish this if he’s constantly running through my hands and bouncing around like a jack rabbit. So, the solution would be to let him run to his heart’s content, then force him to keep going. Really wished I’d learned that sooner.
That has cured many a bolter…it is not so much fun as they thought when you make them keep going instead of getting scared and doing everything in your power to stop!
“Galloping out” a bucker is often the cure for that, too. You want to buck? OK, if you have so much energy, now we are going to gallop. You can’t buck if you’re galloping, and generally it does not take long before you are sorry you ever got the idea to buck.
Unfortunately I had a bolter who really really loved to run, and considered it a treat to be made to go for miles! Since he was in eventing condition I would wear out long before he did! Never did solve that horse – sold him – no one else solved him either as far as I know.
LOL somewhere there was a teenager who wanted to ride fast for hours with that horse’s name on her…have you ever read Mugwump’s tales of her first horse?
Allicat04 — I think I own that horse. Grulla QH? 29 years old? Took me through a picked corn field last year at a full gallop with no end in site. Nothing worked on him either.
)
BUT this did work on my Arab mare beautifully, so I do recommend it.
I was training a little QH mare that had been cowboyed to death by a horrible rider who thought he was the modern day John Wayne. Poor thing was about ruined. I worked with her for 2 1/2 years in college and luckily she was still young but had a bit of an attitude (was not her fault). She had learned quickly that if she didnt want to work or do the things she was uncomfortable with she should put on the breaks and run backwards. I got tired of it one day after many atempts to thwart this habit and I took up the reins and with my arse and legs drove her backwards around the arena a couple of times. Twice was all that I needed to do and she was done with that. She eventually turned into a very multi diciplined animal. She was well bred, multi talented (though limited) and I learned alot working with her. I showed her a few times and was always in the first three ribbons. I showed her Hunt Seat, WP, Horsemanship, Halter, and I even started her with driving (two wheel cart). After I finally got her off her front end and got her using her nice powerful engine in back she was a pretty Hunter but limited on height (wich was fine with me for I didnt like to jump high anyways). Wish I could have bought her.
Glad you’re still with us to know this……off topic but…..I wanted to share
A week ago I lost my 43 year old (not a typo) paint gelding. For all the ways you and other readers shared about taking care of a geriatric horse, he was the epitomy. He ate soup….soaked senior feed and several feedings per day of overly soaked T&A cubes fortified with a wonderful senior feed from seminole feeds. Twenty years ago a vet told me to get a second opinion but most likely he would need to be euthanized. The vet that gave the second opinion used the 1st vet’s
portable xrays and did nothing else. Portable xrays are not as defining an image as on site. Which his new (third opinion) vet did. He was ridden until he was 38. He was a loud and proud and in charge of the herd alpha male, brown and white tobiano gelding. I’ve never seen another horse with his fortitude and I hope to see it again someday. Everything everyone ever commented or you advised about feeding geriatric horses has been good advise. They won’t all be the freak of nature that my big, bad gelding was but I’ve never seen anything on here that didn’t apply to him. Thanx…thanx for all the advise from all your readers and you. Riffy was deaf, blind in one eye and very near sighted in the other and his main flexor tendons had long since been constricted on purpose to keep him (in the end) barefoot with special trims and sound. Thanx again, to every commenter and Cathy, on the care of geriatric horses. Riffraff was the poster horse for them all and now he runs, loud, proud and showing them all he is in charge, at the bridge.
http://www.tailwinds.0catch.com/image/obj1147geo335pg8p7.jpg
Hope the picture link worx…thanx Cathy (Cathy in: It wouldn’t show up when I linked it but maybe it works on a click)
Thank you for sharing about your old man! I am sorry to hear he passed, but also glad that he had such a wonderful home with you. As an owner of a 21 year old, I take so much hope from your horse’s story. I hope that in the future you will share more of your tricks and tips of keeping a senior going. I want to borrow them for my guy
I’m so sorry for your loss, but wow, what a long life your guy had! I hope my boy is still going strong at 40. He’s only just turned 10, but it just makes me smile to think of him still being in my backyard in 30 years…then we can both be old, deaf, blind and crotchety together.
As for the current topic, I always had a really hard time with “heels down” and once I had an instructor say to me, keep your toes up. My weight automatically sunk to my heels and it all clicked.
And the jumping “pose” is still the bane of my existence. Now that I have a decent seat, I HATE jumping because I feel so insecure in the “pose”. I wish more instructors would work on this one.
Cut & Pasted the photo link and it worked for me (handsome fellow!). Thanks for sharing your story!
That you can ride with your legs! And seat!
I rode western for years, and was taught nothing beyond “cluck to go, pull on reins to stop.” I had to teach myself a lot of it, but I lacked that extra knowledge to make myself more competent. Even now I catch myself pulling on the reins to stop and giving no seat or leg aids (understandably, learning the half-halt has proven itself to be very difficult for me!)
Also how to fix my horrible chair seat. I’m in constant fear of falling forward. Bah.
I have the opposite problem. My trainer taught me to ride on my crotch bones without my seat bones touching the saddle to stay light in the saddle. It took years for me to find my cantle again! He was scary and I didn’t dare get a chair seat. To compound that, I have rump high horses that want to throw me forward. I really have to fight my way back to center. I do ride a lot with my seat though and my horses really read my position and respond when I shift my weight but I know I’m always a bit in front of the horse. Old habits are hard to break!
Sounds like you should have a friend lunge you without reins with lots of changes of gait and direction without warning. If that doesn’t help, then drop your stirrups. That would definitely teach your pelvis to get in tune with the horse’s movement. It doesn’t hurt to hit the trails and ride on the buckle up and down varied terrain. A chair seat going up hill without reins will loosen up your middle or plop you on the ground promptly! I think a stiff middle causes more problems than leg position. It seems to me that the leg will fall correctly if the upper body is supple and strong. I ride with a slight split whenever I’m circling – inside leg at the girth, outside leg behind the girth. It only took me 25 years to learn that and be able to balance without my reins!
There are just some horses you cannot sit a trot on because of their conformation… I let myself flop too long on a straight shouldered gelding one time and he let me know it with the wildest buck I’ve ever rode out. I learned how to post a trot very soon after…
LOL! See why I bitch about not BREEDING those horses and making more of them? No one needs their spine jackhammered. Breed nice sloping shoulders, please!
In my case, it’s all the things I wish somebody had NOT tried to teach me…like ‘horses have thick skins, they barely feel it when you beat them’.
And heh, catty…I cross my reins all the time. I have never once failed to notice before mounting, but I do do it a LOT.
hee hee
EVERY time I’ve gotten lazy or dumb with tack, I either come to grief, or very nearly.
Because I was fooling with my horse’s bridle one day and didn’t take the extra 3 seconds to take up the reins the right way when I went to lead him off, the reins got under my boot heel & flipped me onto the ground…. while folks were watching of course.
Horses are addictive! They should have warning labels on them!
sues68
you posted the best comment ever! Everyday I have to tell myself that I can’t AFFORD another horse!
Flatwork, flatwork, flatwork!
I wish I had learned that a good position is more than staying on. It isnt’ the SIZE of the jump that makes you a good jumper, it’s the balanced position and staying WITH the motion over the fence. You can practice that all day at the lower heights, and it will stay with you on the bigger ones.
Years of flinging myself and my horse over fences were all resolved with Dressage training, of all things. Good basic balanced position will take you anywhere – trail, western, dressage, games…
I haven’t ever been thrown or fallen off, but my equitation sucked out loud. Pony Club and an instructor that put me back into basic training solved it. I now see lots of jumping where the position is not good, and I want to send them all to basic training. Some of these bad positions are winning classes – good luck teaching them they aren’t doing it well.
GROUNDPOLES. Lots of ‘em.
I finally understood about “heels down for balance” when I went one way the horse another over a jump and ended up
knocked out for several minutes (I had a helmet on but the force shook my brain up). Plus “don’t look down, look up!”
You’re also right that you are never too old to take lessons. I started my lessons at age 48 and here 10 years later
I still expect my trainer to critique my riding so I can keep improving. I expect to learn every day something to
make me a better horse owner and rider.
“Don’t look down, look up” lol I can still here my old riding instructor’s voice in my head even 20+ years later. You want to end up on the ground? Keep looking down at it, you’ll end up there.
Right on, Deeceecat! I am 65 and still taking lessons – you are never too old to learn and you’ll never know it all. I have many times heard people say ‘I’ve never taken a lesson in my life’ and thought to myself ‘Obviously!’
LOL I know…it’s like yeah, and we can ALL see that!
I wish we’d had Pony Club in our area when I was a kid. Instead, we had a rough old cob of a 4-H leader who told us things like when you’re cinching up your saddle and your horse holds it’s breath, give it your knee good and hard. I wasn’t the first child in our family who was horse crazy, and I was pretty much left to my own devices, which more often than not were totally F’d up.
This is not on topic, but I just saw this ad on our craigslist:
http://annarbor.craigslist.org/grd/2505095771.html
I don’t get why the seller thinks this is such an attractive pose that it deserves all the lettering. To me, it looks like the mare is tripping and about to send the rider ass over teakettle. Can someone please explain this? I’ve seen this kind of thing before although not this extreme, and it’s a puzzlement to me.
Well… sheesh, if she is SO GREAT, they should have photos of her doing something other than standing there…
Did you link the correct ad? I see a rather weedy bay mare standing on a very loose rein and looking around, no lettering, no tripping.
Wow, they changed the picture, didn’t know that was possible. Not much of an improvement though.
Looking at the big picture…Is that a gelding and not a mare or???
One rein stops.
I have always hated circles and the idea of pulling a horse into a circle or turning their head around while they are moving did NOT appeal to me. Aside from that, nobody ever taught me how to do it. Luckily it was pretty easy to learn and I now know that if you turn a horses head, you can stop it from broncing, bolting, going too fast, rearing ect.
I quite like them now =)
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
Don’t get into a pulling war with a horse that doesn’t respond to the bit, go back to basics and teach him to respond to the bit.
I wish my first trainer had taught me to steer using the outside rein, as opposed to just dragging the horse’s head around with the inside direct rein and getting the good ole’ school-horse rubberneck whenever I wanted to circle! Granted, at 9 I didn’t need a dissertation on the 5 different rein aids, but like most of us, I could have used a more complete education on steering instead of having to fumble through it as a teenager with my green horse whose shoulder went right out the other side the minute I hauled on the inside rein to drag him around a turn. I’ve vowed to do better by my own students, LOL! And really, when you get them as never-been-on-a-horse beginners, it’s just as easy to teach them to use the outside rein as the inside rein and saves you a lot of trouble later!
Change in topic here, a friend of mine is rehoming her draft cross retired eventer. Because of soundness issues, he’s a giveaway for light riding and trail use. She’s had some inquiries and at the moment has a very interested party coming to look at the horse and try him on Monday. She’s trying to do the right thing and be very thorough in checking out potential new owners. She wants to meet them, see the place the horse would be living, let him go on trial to make sure it’s a good match and then sign legal paperwork…everything she can to make sure the horse is happy and safe and everything that is always talked about on this blog!
So here’s the rub: she is getting so much static from people, it’s unreal. Interested parties have become uninterested immediately after she requested to meet or asked for pics of the facility where the horse would live and stopped returning her e-mails and phone calls with no explanation. Her trainer (who agrees she needs to rehome the horse!) is getting annoyed with her for “getting picky”. The client and other trainer are getting snippy about her requests and making noise about not wanting to see the horse if my friend is going to “change her mind”. In short, everyone involved is acting like my friend is being completely unreasonable, and is also acting so superior as if they are doing her a favor by taking a problem off her hands. Like the horse is not worthy of her care and attention now that he’s a giveaway. I’ve known all of the people involved for many years but my friend doesn’t know the interested client and trainer at all. She just met them. How many of us would just let a total stranger drive off with their retired horse on trial several hours away? I’m completely baffled by all the attitudes swirling around this issue, when if you took each individual aside and asked them straight out, each one would agree that rehoming a free horse is more dangerous than selling it and needs to be handled very carefully!
What about keeping the horse as a beginner lesson horse at the trainer’s and having him work off his board with beginner lessons? Is that an option or is he not suitable based upon temperament? Also, what about an in-barn lease to someone who is more of a beginner?
It’s very hard to rehome a horse like this and of course the TRAINER wants her to get a new horse because the TRAINER is not making as much money while she sits there with a horse she can’t compete. She needs to remember the motivations here.
That said, I have said it before, it FREQUENTLY is kinder to euthanize than to rehome where there are soundness problems. The odds of keeping the horse safe are genuinely slim. If she cannot afford retirement board and is dead set on owning another horse to compete with, putting this one to sleep is a better call than putting him out there to someone that, as you observed, she just met.
She needs a buy-back (or take back since he’s free) clause in the contract. If the person she gives him to ever wants to get rid of him, he comes back to her.
Not sure why there would be this problem with a reputable trainer. The trainers in my area are constantly inviting everyone they meet to visit and tour their facilities! Doesn’t this trainer know the value of networking? Your friend might have relatives who have little kids who need lessons, or know other potential clients.
Surely professionals are aware that there are problems with horses ending up on kill trucks, and want to help be part of the solution to that problem? What’s the major malfunction here? You say you know these people, so I assume you know that they are what they say they are, is there some reason they would act like jerks? This behavior is so whackadoodle that frankly I’d be suspicious there was something up with their facilities.
Dude, often it’s the professionals who SEND the horses to kill: Palomino breeders who end up with “too many sorrel colts,” WP trainers who get stuck with a horse who “can’t lope,” etc. Instead of trying to find the horses suitable homes where they’d be a good fit for somebody, they just send ‘em to auction, because it’s “kinder than letting them starve.”
Yes, that is what they will tell you.
Just because they claim to be a riding instructor, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a good one… When I was eleven my family moved to a new province. My parents made it my responsibility to find a new place to ride. Not knowing any barns in the area, I just flipped open the newspaper and callled the first place I saw offering lessons. Needless to say I went to quite a few bad instructors before learning to ask around and using the horsey resources availble to me when searching for a place. After simply asking a few people at my local tack shop for some recommendations I now ride with the perfect instructor for me (jeeze it only took me nine years)!
My students always had to ride without stirrpus so they quickly learned what their stirrups were for! (Or rather, what they were NOT for, lol)
I wish I had learned that horses DO eat Paterson’s Curse. (That’s an Australian weed with a purple flower, very common especially in the dry conditions). I was always told that horses didn’t eat it, and when mine grazed a pasture riddled with it, people kept promising me they wouldn’t eat it, they’d just eat the grass. My gut told me something was wrong, but as I was very young at the time I chose to believe people who were (supposed to be) more knowledgeable and experienced than I was. As a result, I ended up watching my beloved mare die a horrible death of liver toxicity. Horses DO eat Paterson’s Curse. That I can tell you for sure.
Truct your gut instinct. It’s usually right.
I’m sorry about your mare. I’m guessing from the name that whoever Paterson was also learned this lesson the hard way.
A pox on people who introduce non-native species! I was reading the other day about how Memphis has its first specimens of invasive Giant Hogweed, which causes terrible burns and blindness and was introduced to America by the Brits as an ornamental. Nice move! The flowers of Giant Hogweed pretty much resemble Queen Anne’s lace, which is a nice polite CARROT, but that wasn’t good enough so someone had to import giant burn-plants!
Paterson’s Curse is also called Salvation Jane – as cattle can eat it with no worries, and it has saved many cattle stations in drought times when no other plant would grow. It’s a b**stard of a thing, hardy in the dry times, and hard to get rid of once you’ve got it.
I have heard that too. Usually horses don’t like to eat poisonous plants (because they aren’t very palatable), but there are some that they really develop a taste for.
We had Pattersons curse and Marshmellow weed on our old property – I never caught the horses eating it and always got it out of their paddocks, but to begin with, I didn’t even know it was posionous!
Deadly nightsade is a real bastard too, we used to get that growing in HUGE piles, inside trees, under stinging nettles, behind the fence posts. . It was a nightmare – I filled up the tray of our ute with deadly nightshade from a paddock of about 1.5 acres one day!
Sorry to hear about your mare =(
It sucks when the people who are SUPPOSED to know more than you, tell you all the wrong things. Even the internet can be very misleading – I found out Marshmellow weed was poisonous from a book, after searching the internet for a list of plants in our area – nothing came back about THAT though.
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
Can you explain the shoulders behind the hip bones thing? I am sure its not as simple as just leaning back and both the lesson horse I ride and my own mare will put their heads down between their knees and try to get to the middle of the arena. I have mastered the pick up one rein maneuver to get their heads back up but both horses are smart enough to avoid this at times and we end up in the middle of the arena anyway.
Also I think you or whoever takes over the blog could do a follow up on what you wish the people at your barn or the people you ride with knew. Mine would definitely be that the stirrup is not a security blanket as mentioned above and neither is the saddle horn.
If you get your shoulders back, the horse pulling you down forces your seat bones into the saddle and that is what they are pulling against rather than your easily-pulled hands and upper body. Of course it also helps if your heels are down, but that was never my problem. I was always leaning forward just enough that they could very easily pull me! So, sitting back with a combination of putting your legs on them to drive them forward and raise their head will generally correct this very common lesson-horse evasion.
However, if a lot of horses are doing this with you, you also have to remember that it may very well be that you’re riding too much with your hands and too little with your legs (I wrote that blog a while back). Try lightening up and softening up. You may be locking your elbows/wrists in the anticipation of the pulling and escalating the problem. You will never outpull a horse, with one rein or two. You have to soften up on their mouth and drive them forward with leg instead.
Go buy a copy of Centered Riding. NOW. Seriously, it’s so great at explaining the biomechanics of riding. Very readable with fun illustrations. Read it, digest it, close your eyes and FEEL your own body as you ride.
So you’re saying I should go buy the copy I saw in a thrift store for $1 before someone else does?
DO. IT. NOW. Lucky duck!
I first learnt to ride when i was 10 in the Caribbean at the local island humane society. They had old ex race horses and a couple of eldery over worked ponies. The instructor was a swedish lady whom shouted alot, and i couldn’t understand a word, ever. The ‘arena’ was basically a gravel ring with a path you could go down through the middle with was other wise just full of plants with miniature spears on them. It wasnt even enclosed, so the ponies often sensed the nearing of the end of the lesson and would randomly gallop off home with you on board. I was taught that sitting trot was ‘collected trot’ and that rising was ‘extended’ also that jumping position was literally just standing up in stirrups. The saddles has massive holes in them, and they mixed western and english tack (tho they were technically teaching english). The horses (about
were kept in a full barbed wire dust paddock with only prickly trees and chickens in it. They were fed a diet of hay and BREAD they got free from the bakers because it was mouldy, albeit they weren’t underweight so they must’ve been doing something right at least. The kids riding in the lessons wore bicycle helmets. They let the horses roam free every Sunday, and when i same roam free I mean literally they could’ve gone anyway included the ‘main’ (i use that term lightly though) road near the place.
Despite this, this was actually very GOOD treatment of animals for the island’s standards. And one positive thing I did get out of it was that the instructor regularly for long periods made me do everything without stirrups, which i think is something often neglected in lessons. Even now i have very good core balance, and genuinely find even the bounciest horses easier to ride without them
THE NECK STRAP!
I wish that my first (really average) first riding instructor had made me use a neck strap until I could ride well enough to keep my hands quiet.
To beginner riders out there — USE ONE, they help give you confidence, balance, they keep your horse happy (especially his mouth!) and help to improve your riding overall.
My current instructor still has her (intermediate, capable) riders use neck straps if the need arises, and I use one when hacking in the spring (the horse I ride has a powerful spook and there are deer in the hayfields), hacking a horse I don’t know well, a young horse, etc. etc. My balance, seat and hands are decent, but sometimes it’s still good to know I have the “oh shit” strap there if I need it for any reason. It gives me peace of mind and can be a great training tool. NO ONE should hesitate to use it when the need arises.
Or start beginners trotting on the longe with no reins – that’s what I always did. You can have your reins AFTER you master posting and keeping your hands quiet.
I keep neckstraps on xc on the young horses that are just learning aobut xc. Don’t leave the barn without them. I also used one when I started my young mare years ago, never needed it, but if I did it was there. I also use to keep one on both my Paint horses on xc the first few years they were at BN until they learned not to overjump everything!
GREAT TOOL!
I ALWays use a neck strap on all beginner students and even some intermediate students haveing trouble with heavy hands. I esp use them when longing a beginner, best mouth saver ever. Suprises me that so many trainers/ instructors are getting away from this. I was a riding instructor at a Saddlebred barn and about freaked out the triner there because I was lounging a beginner with a neck strap teaching her balance and helping her to post. She went off saying that it was unsafe and that the rider needs to ride with reins. I didnt last long there, I eventualy quit. NONE of thier riders ahd secure seats and quiet hands. All riding off the legs and hands. Horrible.
On the longe in two-point, with your arms out like wings, and you with a solid base of support.
I wish someone had taught me about saddle fit. My horse would have been so much more comfortable for the years it took before I figured out that my saddle did not fit, and then went on a quest to learn how to tell if a saddle fits…
I also wish I had learned about bits to begin with- fortunately for my 1st horse I used a plain snaffle on her and she did ok in it- but in more recent years I’ve had to self-educate about bit design and function because I’ve gotten involved with gaited horses and the right bit (that is, one that’s comfortable and functional) can really make a difference between an ok gait and a great gait, if you know what you’re doing. I probably could have had my 1st horse in a more comfortable bit than the plain snaffle I used all those years, had I known what to look for.
I used to think $40 for a bit was insane… these days I realize the value of a truly comfortable bit for my horses, and I use Myler bits, which cost around $100 each… and I don’t bat an eye at spending it.
A properly fitting saddle and a comfortable, properly fitted bit are practically worth their weight in gold.
I have to admit, I rolled my eyes at the cost of the Myler snaffle for the VLC to show in but now I admit I am using it on polo ponies to lighten them up! Once I used it, I really did become a fan.
I’ve been using a MB-40 which is a Dr. Bristol style bit. Sort of like a French link snaffle but my horses seem to like it a lot better. It is definitely better for independent communication from 1 side or the other, than ony other bit I’ve ever used. Something about the way the joints are constructed, I guess.
I have used Brand name Myler bits and tried a well made off brand and found nothing to be different on how my horse reacted or behaved. There are well made off brand bits of the same type priced for considerable less that will work. Again I said WELL MADE off brand bits. Some times you have to realy look for them.
I would agree that saddle fit was what I needed to learn about. A crabby old cowgirl pointed out that my horse’s irritation was due to the crappy saddle I had that didn’t fit him. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but did figure out that the only saddle that would fit that mutten withered Arab was a treeless one, and then he was a totally different animal to ride. I still have the first Bob Marshall old sued saddle and use it!
That not all English riders are nice to their horses and not all Western riders are mean (seriously that’s a common attitude around here).
That bigger is not always better horse-wise.
Don’t buy a green 3 year old ex big lick TWH with no brakes as your first horse!
I was going to say lessons, lessons, lessons! but back then (early 80′s) I don’t think it would have made a difference. I was riding like we did back then, no helmet, no clue about saddle fit, tight jeans and tennis shoes. If the horse won’t stop, get a bigger bit, etc etc.
For someone starting out now I would say lessons first, and make sure you are being taught correctly. bareback lunging to get a seat, driving to develop hands, dressage to teach you how to use your core, and don’t jump until you can w/t/c get leads and rate your horse.
Then shop for a horse with a reputable person who knows your riding level, get a vet check, and plan on spending more than you want to.
COLLECTION. I rode for almost ten years, and went through four or five trainers (english and western) before anyone ever bothered to tell me what collection is. I finally went to a 4H clinic with a new trainer and she spent most of her time talking about what collection was and why it’s important. I was amazed. My poor gelding knew how to move very nicely, I just hadn’t known how to ask for it. Two months of lessons with her, and suddenly I was kicking butt at shows and getting comments about how much better my horse looked. I never knew before why I didn’t place higher in pleasure classes, and why I couldn’t slow my gelding’s lope down any more.
I still think I’m missing some things, (I’m looking for a good trainer in Oklahoma if anyone has suggestions), but just a few months of lessons focusing on being collected made all the difference in the world.
I can’t fathom why none of my previous trainers even mentioned the word “collection” when it’s such a basic, integral part of any style of riding.
Well, and so many Western trainers think that Collection = going really slow with the horse’s head down and/or nose tucked in. *sigh*
Because collection is scary. Collection will separate the chaff from the grain, as they say. There are a whole lot of trainers that can talk about head sets and speed, but when you start talking about collection, impulsion, and cadence, you are then talking about more advanced concepts that require knowledge of equine physiology, psychology, and athletic training. So why don’t more trainers talk about it? Because most trainers can’t. They can tell you that collection is a good thing. They can even explain, haltingly, that it has something to do with lift and … and… driving up under and… well.. being COLLECTED.
One great way to tell how good your trainer and instructor are: start a couple of conversations about collection, impulsion, or cadence, and find out what they recommend to improve those attributes in your horse. If the first thing they do is talk about the horse’s head, you have a ringer. Do not pass Go, don’t collect (or pay!) $200.
I *HEART* YOU.
Geez, a weekend reading some Deb Bennett, watching Visible Horse videos, and surfing around Sustainable Dressage will get you some good grounding in theory.
I wish someone would have taught me that is you fall off and the horse is dragging you, let go of the damn reins! Usually the thing spooking them is YOU dragging on the ground next to them.
Also, someone should have clued me in earlier about equine dental care. I used to ride a horse that pulled on the reins so much that the rider would have blisters on the fingers. It turns out her wolf teeth were really bothering her and she hated having the bit in her mouth. Finally someone suggested having her teeth checked – problem solved! Poor girl!
I was very well instructed from the get-go and consider myself blessed to have had an extraordinary instructor from lesson one. I started with her on my eighth birthday and still ride with her today, which happens to be less than a week from my 23rd birthday. I also had a mentor whose words still echo in my head on a daily basis who I considered a second mother from the day I met her. She passed away just after my 18th birthday. Here are some of her lessons that I wish everyone who rides got the chance to hear from someone as wise and encouraging as her:
* Just because it’s a pony doesn’t mean you should buy it for a kid. Sometimes a very big, very old Quarter Horse is the best first “pony” a child could have.
* Don’t forget to curry legs and bellies!
* Always end on a good note, even if it’s just three calm strides at the walk.
* If you get mad, the horse has already won.
* If it bucks, get its head up and GO. They can’t buck when they’re galloping at full tilt.
* Your horse gets taken care of before you do after a ride.
* If it has testicles, that’s probably a good enough reason to remove them.
* The purchase price is the cheapest part of owning a horse, no matter how much you paid.
* A million dollar horse can break the same leg as a 5 dollar horse tomorrow.
* Get your daughters riding lessons and a horse. It’ll put off the first serious boyfriend for at least three years if she’s busy mucking stalls and getting up at 4 AM to show.
* You do not have the right to make a horse suffer long after it should be put to sleep just to make yourself feel like you’re not “killing” it. Call the vet and hide in the barn until they’re done if you can’t stand to watch, but if it’s in agony and has no quality of life, EUTHANIZE.
All very good advice!
I have two, one for each discipline.
When I started riding English (hunter/jumper) after 6 years of Western, I wish someone had told me to shorten my stirrups even more. My first instructor (who is fabulous and I love her, she just didn’t catch this little thing. I still lesson with her because I like her.) kept yelling at me for having my leg too far forward (a side-effect of riding western), and I couldn’t seem to get it back far enough for her. It wasn’t until I started taking lessons from another trainer about a year later (I sort of moved, which is why I lesson with both now. It’s a college thing…I’ll stick with one or the other when I graduate…or someone else entirely, depending on where I go.) who made my stirrups way shorter that I figured out where my leg needed to be. She put the stirrups so short (so it felt) that the only way to sit comfortably in the saddle was to really get my leg back and under me…and as a result, at my last lesson with Trainer A, she said my “leg and seat had really improved”. She’s not one to give compliments (she’s British…), so that meant a lot to me.
The other thing I wish I knew (pertaining to Western) was that sometimes, the harder you pull/the shorter your reins, the faster the horse will run. I did drill riding on a Mustang who never learned “stop” (and still doesn’t know it…most of the time.) When I first started riding her, I kept shortening the reins and (basically) doing half-halts on her to try to just slow her down…and she went faster. Not the grab the bit and run type, just faster. It wasn’t until I got so frustrated I just gave her her head and let her go for a moment that she slowed down…and to this day, the looser your reins, the greater chance she’ll listen and slow down (she loves to run). Had I knows that, far fewer people would have been run into and I could have saved a lot of pulling on her mouth (she has a callous from her chinstrap…that I definitely contributed to. It makes me sad every time I see it. Her strap is now wrapped in vetwrap, but I wish it didn’t have to be.)
As a side note, because of that, now I’m frequently told to shorten my reins by both English trainers. Sigh. Some lessons die hard.
I was always taught that you should let your legs hang loose, and your stirrups should hit:
1) right at your anklebone for hunt seat flat work
2) a skosh above your anklebone for 3′ and up
3) right at the bottom of your anklebone for dressage & Western
I HATE HATE HATE seeing people tape wooden blocks to their little kids’ stirrups. If the fenders are too big to shorten ‘em, CUT THEM DOWN or find some kid-sized ones. Sheesh.
A power drill works even better than a hole punch on thick Western saddle leather, BTW. A resourceful cowboy showed me that.
You can never win a pulling contest using two hands. You will win if you switch to one or the other though!
Using a solid wall to stop doesn’t always mean you will. Stop that is. Ditto that on a fence line.
Luckily I learned this last rule by watching someone else learn it the hard way.
I remember being in a class once and having the horse jump the line and I FELT her zero in on the arena fence heading for the trailer. I got her turned but damn, I thought I was toast! LOL!
Oooh yeah. When I was really young (maybe 7 or
I rode at my first barn, and it was awful. Lessons were generally 7 little kids in a tiny round pen, with the instructor in the middle cracking his dressage whip at the ponies to make ‘em go. Ponies that would kick at each other when they got crowded, and would try to take chunks out of kids’ legs when they passed each other (in a teeny round pen where we couldn’t help but be close).
Once they put me up on a big mini (yeah, I’m tiny
) and had a lesson in half of the jump arena, while a jumping lesson was going on in the other half. Apparently the mini was inspired, because she bolted and ran straight for the arena fence that was taller than she was. I mean, she felt like she was absolutely committed to trying to jump it. O_O I hauled her head to the side so hard I actually felt a little bad about it later, we turned sharp, and missed hitting the fence by inches. It was a horrible feeling watching that gigantic fence looming over us and her getting faster and faster and stretching towards it. Still shudder to think of it.
I wish someone had taught me to keep my hands quiet. I started at a western pleasure barn and was taught to see-saw the reins to get the horse’s head down and tucked. Years later I still get yelled at for working and wiggling my hands to get collection instead of working through my leg and seat.
And Fugs, I’d just like to reiterate what CitySlicker said, thankyouthankyouthankyou so much for continuously advocating that old does not equal skinny. My own old mare hit 33 this year and even though its been a struggle to keep her weight on, I’ve never accepted anything but show condition for her. Extra meds? done. Switch to a new and more expensive feed? done. New winter blankets every year because she destroys them? done with extra’s just in case. If I chose to make the commitment to keeping an older horse, then I should commit to the required higher level of care, otherwise I should make the humane decision to have the horse put to rest.
I’m going to miss your snarky educating ways Fugs, but it’s been a great run and hopefully the blog will stay up so I can scroll through old posts and send them to people I think should read them
So great to hear about another oldie doing well – and remember, your 33 year old looking good is the best defense against people who think there is an excuse for anything less!
ACK!! One time I rode with a local AQHA trainer for a bit because I’d known her for years, and she was cheaper & closer and very popular in my immediate locale. She was all about draw reins, see-sawing viciously, backing your horse angrily around the arena, and all the other horrible WP things you see and hear about. (She STILL is, and is even MORE popular and successful, and has added tail-blocking, spur stop & slanted-in hindquarters to her repertoire. Yes, she does all the big circuits, and wins.)
So then I went back to my H/J/D barn, and my trainer was all like the Sassy Gay Friend: “WHAT are you doing?”
I agree with UrbanZebu – I didn’t learn about using the outside rein until I started riding with my current trainer. She went on to break it down for me the importance of using the outside rein with my inside leg – how the outside rein helps to maintain the horse’s shape around the leg. We do lots and lots and lots of bending and then more bending.
My horse has a less than perfect shoulder and she has harder time working from her hocks. Something I learned from my current trainer is correctly timed half halts. Wow what a difference. She is also forever telling me to get off the rail. Circles, circles and more circles.
I also recently learned the wonders of equine chiropractic care. Always thought it was nonsense and for the ladies that had too much money and time on their hands. My trainer insisted on it and holy crap what a difference. My mares center line of balance was so outta whack no wonder she was struggling to pick up the correct lead.
This is really eye-opening, especially the canter depart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MAw61kegd8
Everything.
Oh, and I wish I someone had told me to watch the Dorrance brothers work horses.
Sorry to be off topic, but this shows just how unpredictable horses can be: http://tumblr.com/x2w2yjbibz
It’s hard to tell what caused that just from an animated gif but it seems to me that the little girl was trying to push the horse and it was just showing her he didn’t want to be pushed around. It’s hard to tell if that horse was being pushy because or bad handling or because it wasn’t used to being handle at all, but it seems to me that it was trying to tell the girl to back off and not actually hurt her. And I bet you it was never taught that grabbing someone by the hair is not acceptable.
Breathe. Relax. Elbows bend (really! they do!) Drop your shoulders. They don’t belong around your ears. Chin up.
If a horse won’t go forward, ask him to turn one direction or another.
Look where you WANT to go. Looking down at the ground means you WILL end up there sooner or later.
Have fun!
This sounds weird, but years of classical voice training also helped me develop a relaxed-but-ready, correct form.
I wish my first trainer had taught me to be kinder. I learned a lot of the smack, grab, yank, see-saw crap from her, and I still have nightmares about what I used to do to the horses I rode because that’s what she told me to do, and she was an adult. Sometimes I REALLY feel the need to snatch on my horse for pulling or not listening, but then I remember the “final confrontation” with that trainer where I told her that she needed to learn to be nicer to her horses (after seeing her yank on the reins of her horse with a twisted wire snaffle in his mouth until he was laying on the ground w/ a bloody mouth and terrified beyond belief) and she told me to get off her property and I ended up selling the best horse I’ve EVER owned because I couldn’t find anywhere else to keep him.
So, now when I want to get upset, I grab them around the neck and give them a huge hug and try not to miss my pony too much. Believe it or not, laughing it off, or hugging them instead (when they’re not being NAUGHTY, just silly) defuses the anger, and a LOT of times does what you were hoping the yanking would do in the first place. You can see the “Oh! Hi mom! Sorry about that!” look in their eyes. It’s NEVER EVER worth a fight!!!
I’d say I wish I’d known that there was nothing wrong with cantering in gym class as opposed to running, and that being horse-crazy as a kid would translate into being a full-blown addict as an adult. That there’s nothing wrong with that, either, since from this blog alone I think I can tell there are PLENTY of others out there just like me.
Seriously, I guess it would really be to trust your instincts and your muscle memory. People telling you “You can do it!” is different from really feeling and believing you can. I had a lot of good training as a kid, and I simply astonished myself by my body “remembering” as much as it did when I got back into riding after a 10-year hiatus. Not to say I didn’t hurt like hell afterwards (!), but hey, I could still “do it.” I was fairly shocked! Trusting myself was a revelation in my old age. And by instincts, I generally mean if you think something is wrong, whether it’s the wisdom of your instructor/trainer pushing you to do just one more line when your legs are like noodles, or that old horse being skinny, or the crank n’ yank trainers who give you a sick feeling inside, it probably is. Having the courage to say something is another story, unfortunately…
Two things…
1. Saddle-fitting. I don’t ever recall even one riding coach giving a damn about saddle fit.
In retrospect I’m pretty sure my English saddle pinched my Morgan. I noticed that he developed wither spots and did enough reading to know that was bad, but every tack shop or instructor would just say “get a pad”. A Cashel did get rid of the white spots but years later I realized that what I probably needed was a wider tree. (Thank goodness we went Western a fair bit…The poor guy never complained about it and was just a sweetheart right up until his last breath, even with a pinchy saddle…What a doll!)
2. The Tom Thumb is a terrible bit and not suitable for training – A nutcracker and confusing pressure signals all in one piece of metal! I don’t get why trainers are so in love with this bit. Personally, I don’t think people should be allowed to use a bit or tie-down of any kind until they have actually learned how to ride.
I had a goof of a bouncy colt that one woman kept insisting needed a harsher bit and a martingale. (Yeah right! I rode HER horse..Holy crap!!! It was like sitting on a sewing machine.) I went bitless instead, probably just to spite her LOL, and stopped worrying about my hands and he was fine. Turns out there wasn’t a thing wrong with him, and he certainly wasn’t disobedient, but somehow I had trained up a colt that was a complete mismatch for my “getting creaky” riding needs. (He didn’t seem to know he was 15 hands – He thought he was a giant sport horse and he wanted to jump everything so he went somewhere where he could do that and they love him to bits because he’s a point-and-shoot guy who never refuses!)
I so agree about the Tom Thumb! I know so many people who think it’s a “training” bit. I personally like them for a Western bit, but I’m am experienced rider with relatively quiet hands, and I know how NOT to use it. (I like the freedom of being able to give a little more pressure on one side if need be. Just pressure, not pull.)
Coming from non-horsey parents, it too several hors wrecks for me to learn that just because a piece of tack was for sale and available didn’t mean it was: (1) Something an inexperienced pre-teen on an ancient horse should use; (2) Not necessarily a piece of tack anyone should use.
My two worst horse wrecks: The first was using a bareback pad, with stirrups, on what is supposed to be a bomb-proof 30+ year old horse, riding double. I was the driver, both feet in the pad’s stirrups; the horse’s owner the passenger. She kicked him in the flanks, and off we went, neither of lasting anywhere near 8 seconds. My feet went through the stirrups and I was dragged a short distance until the stirrup leathers tore from the pad. Couldn’t straighten my left arm and had pain in my left hip for months, and lied about the severity of my injuries. Second tack mistake: a very skinny leather “show” headstall that caught on a fence when I was visiting with friends, horse rubbed head on fence, headstall caught and quickly cut on fence. Bridle fell off. Horse took off in an arena full of other kids.
So to sum, I wish I’d been taught more about selecting tack, both for rider safety and for correct equine use.
Bareback pads are THE DEVIL. I blame too many romance & fantasy novels for making ‘em seem awesome.
Mine is kinda long, but basically I learned that even if you are a beginner not every other person who seems experienced actually knows what they’re talking about. I first got involved with horses through an after school program that showed you the basics of riding. They held the program at a not so great barn with most of it’s horses being green and/or not trained properly. There was only one real riding instructor for the whole group lesson (of 8 horses!) and the rest of the “instructors” were teenagers who thought they knew it all after 2 years of riding. (That’s not much with real riding, let alone these kinds of lessons, they hardly count.) Going into this knowing nothing about horses I had no idea what I was getting into. I eventually started working at that farm and got to ride some of the horses for free for the work I did, and always thought it was my fault when a horse couldn’t keep a consistant pace around the ring at the trot. In the program we would always get yelled at for everything…I always put myself down thinking that I’d never be able to keep a horse cantering for more then half the arena like all the boarders could. I moved on to take real lessons at another barn a year later, and BAM I was cantering around the arena 6 times. And here’s a plus, the trainer wasn’t yelling at me and the horse wasn’t taking off! It took me a while but I eventually learned that the horses at the other farm had problems, it wasn’t my fault, and all those “experienced” people didn’t know what they were talking about! I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t seek lessons elsewhere. I wouldn’t be jumping and showing that’s for sure! Do your research and find a good barn. It’s worth it.
I speak from experience. I was totally green. I leased my first horse when I was 32 yrs old. I never knew any better, but I treated my horse as a dog. It only took about a month before he became dangerous by walking all over me. A trainer took pity on me one day, and offered to help me. I was the one that needed to be trained. I learned a ton, again, no one ever told me to be a horse NAZI.
It’s been many years, and now I own that horse. He is my buddy and we are a great team. I am his clear leader, and he respects me. He is happier now, than when he was walking all over me. I am still the horse NAZI!! My horse knows what is expected and he responds likewise.
Whenever I see newbie horse people, I am the first one to tell and show them how important it is when you tell your horse to do something, he needs to do it NOW!
There needs to be a booklet they give all newbies. It would have saved me a grief!
I’ve ridden all my life, owned for 20 years now. We learned a lot the hard way.
–> Just because you can ride a riding school pony, doesn’t mean you can ride anything. Ride as many different horses as you can – before buying, it’s the quickest way to find your flaws (and sometimes merits).
–> Biting, kicking etc is not acceptable under any circumstances, saying ”I don’t believe in hitting horses” is akin to saying ”I believe in having my face torn off by horses” – I still have the scar (20 years later) on my throat where my newly bought Welsh Cob bit me, having came from a place that didn’t discipline. Short, sharp discipline does the trick to the point where you don’t need to discipline. Hitting a horse to discipline them is not going to make them headshy or abused, but it will stop YOU from being abused.
–> Riding lessons once you own your own horse is not admitting you cannot ride (As some idiots around here seem to think). You don’t stop learning, and you do get sloppy when not under instruction. It never hurts anyone to get even a riding ”review” done if not regular lessons in chosen discipline.
–> Buzz words and trends and ”hip” things are just that. They might work for your horse, but if they don’t, don’t force it on the poor beast. (This in the main is what I want to tell all new owners, while beating them repeatedly with my NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP IS JUST FUCKING GIMMICKY ADVERTISING/MARKETING stick)
–> If you can’t control it, don’t take it out in public, and especially not on roads. Safety first.
It doesn’t matter what height you jump at that makes you a good jumper/hunter/etc. What matters is how good your flatwork and seat is because what makes a good jumper is all the flatwork between the jumps. In a course (actual timing varies per course or whatnot) there is one hundred twelve seconds of flat work, and eight whole second of jumping. Isn’t it worth it to get your act together before and after the jump to set you up for the few milliseconds of airtime?
Off topic: Fugly, while I know you’re selling the blog, is it possible you could somehow interview the buyer to make sure he/she won’t delete all the blog posts or make it all awful or something. I actually use this blog as a referral site on help for training my horse and have gotten a lot of feedback on it for the care of my older horses.
DO NOT have a “kindle and gentle hand upon the rein” of that cranky old barn sour lesson horse. It may have worked well in Black Beauty (which you just finished reading), but fiction and reality oftentimes part ways in a surprisingly abrupt manner.
The Lessons Learned (that fateful day *grin*):
1. Most horses are smarter than most six year olds (and some adults);
2. Horses can go REALLY fast;
3. A buck is when the back end of the horse suddenly goes waaaaay up in the air, and then you do too;
4. I can fly;
5. Gravity is a hard taskmaster
A horse that is moving forward cannot buck hard. Learning this saved my butt many times.
Ohhhhh I beg to differ on that one. I’ve galloped plenty a Thoroughbred on the sand track, and I assure you, they most certainly can buck as they are moving forward. Especially mine… how else did I end up with this wonderful concussion? I remember his entire hind body leaping into the air, hitting the ground, and watching him run off, bucking and farting, back toward the barn xD
Beg all you want, doesn’t make it true. I exercised horses at the track and have been dumped, but NOT by a buck. It is physically impossible for a horse moving forward to get into a full heels over head buck, period.
I agree with you. They can leap and bounce but not put their nose down and do a rodeo buck.
The two things I wish I had been told and then reminded of repeatedly when I started riding as a blissfully ignorant child: one, that we will most always outlive our horses and, two, that most people don’t care about horses the way that I do. All these decades later I daily remember those horses who have gone ahead of me, and I have never gotten “used to” the terrible cruelties to and neglect of horses (and dogs) by humans. Perhaps if I had been “educated” in the usual ways of the world when very young – e.g., helped along the road to thorough cynicism by an astute adult – I wouldn’t keep hoping for rainbows and butterflies yet be doomed to eternal disappointment in both time, the great enemy, and humanity, a close second to being the great enemy.
Thanks for clarifying the shoulders behind the hip bones to keep a horse from pulling. And you are correct Cathy, I lock my elbows and wrists but since I found an instructor things are improving. My main problem has been been remembering to keep my hands forward (reins low by the saddle horn) to achieve and continue forward motion. In my lesson yesterday my instructor was standing there with a big grin on her face, nodding and told me that it was the first time I looked relaxed and not as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!
Cattypex–Thanks for the recommendation! The book has been ordered (gotta’ love Amazon) and I will read, digest and feel!
YAY! Even if you only study the pictures, you will learn so very much about your own body.
This was a SUPER helpful blog!
I am getting back into more-than-occasional riding after a break during my college years, and I feel scared and stupid. I just got back on my short, arthritic old TWH and felt scared and out of balance just sitting bareback up there. Thanks to this blog, I have already ordered a copy of Centered Riding from my library. And I will be getting a neck strap, because I tend to grab the horn when things get a little rough (bad!).
What’s the difference between “sinking your weight into your heels” and locking your leg and jamming your heels down? How do I know if I’m doing it right?
Keep the advice coming!! I can’t afford lessons right now, so please, more advice!
Hey, if you don’t mind getting some advice from a fairly novice rider I think I can try to explain that. From my experience, the difference is that you have to keep your legs relaxed even though you put your weight down on your heels. If you jam your heels and don’t relax the leg then you’ll end up locking your knees and get thrown off balance if the horse does something unexpected.
The way I say it is the stirrup is a foot rest. If you are putting any kind of pressure on it other than a light contact, you’re going to lock your ankles and knees and bounce and feel insecure.
YES. Bend your knees a little, keep everything elastic. Look how a downhill skier keeps their knees bent, and yet is perfectly balanced over the skies, and how the angle of their body opens and closes according to terrain. The top part of the body remains somewhat quiet, while the bottom part is all sproingy and active, even if it looks like it’s not moving.
There’s a scene in “The Black Stallion” where Mickey Rooney has the kid on a bale of straw and explains some of this. Your whole body is made of moving parts.
Your heels sink down (don’t force them TOO far down), and you maintain strength and elasticity thru your ankles because they are your shock absorbers.
Rather than ‘drop your heels’ try ”raise your toes’. You should be sitting on your seat bones (NOT your tailbone!) and if you reach your legs down and slightly around your horse (like you were holding a big beach ball between your calves) your seatbones should feel the same weight. If you feel your weight lifting out of the saddle, you are jamming your heels. Note I said ‘between your calves’ and not between your knees – your knees should be GENTLY touching the saddle – not gripping. And it doesn’t matter which dicipline you choose – those heels need to be directly below your hips.
God. I can agree to so many of these.
I would have to say wear a helmet and stop hauling off the horses face and a good instructor.
I grew up adoring horses, and I still do. I had been taking lessons, but my lessons consisted of “Heels down! Jog! Lope! Reverse!” which obviously didn’t teach me much. Somehow I convinced my parents to get me a horse when I was 10. She was old and ornery but I could remember this horse giving me my first pony ride when I was 3, You can’t forget the first time you ride and you feel like you’re super tall. So I got her. I had no idea how to ride independently from my hands and looking back I feel so bad for her and I don’t blame her for dumping me all those times. I can’t believe this horse didn’t kill me for all the stupid things I’ve done. I’ve always kind of thought she trained me. She knew when I was little I was fragile and not to let me fall, now I’m 16 and if I jump on her with a halter and lead for a lap around the pasture, she’ll throw me off. Sorry, I ramble. I love that horse.
I’ve learned a lot of things the hard way but you know. A good old horse can teach you a lot and Cocoa certainly did. I’m happy to report 6 years later and at 34, her best friend is a Grand Prix level TB (Who she keeps up with.) and my other mare, Juliet. She’s fat as can be and has not slowed down a bit. I actually saw her chase a bear out of the pasture the otherday! I wish I knew how to link a picture so I could show you guys her!
Moodymare: You took the words right off my computer! Having always loved horses but never being allowed to own one until I was an adult, I only rode dude string horses or old broken down rentals anywhere I could find them. I was always told to “steer” by right or left rein and pull back to stop. I wish I had known that seat, legs, and balance were much more important than reins. It would have been so much easier on my poor appendix/TB gelding when I got him in my 40s!! Now at 58 I am finally taking lessons to learn how to ride my Rocky Mountain horse. Everything I learned before was by reading or from friends. Oh, how I wish I had known more when I was young! I am sure the horses I have ridden over these many years wished I had known more too…
What I wish I had done 40+ years ago, and before dozens of young training horses, I wish I had put 2 nightlatches and covered trail sturrips on my western saddle training saddle. They give so much more security and rule out a few common accidents. My big fear is getting a foot caught up in the stirrup, since I always ride and train alone. The covered stirrups take care of that and the nightlatches are just great on some of those spooky broncs. I won’t trail ride now without them.
I wish that someone taught me the joys of bareback earlier. I’ve been riding for 15 years, and it took 11 years for me to figure it out.
Honestly, who learns how to fit a saddle before going out on bareback?
I decided, after a constant struggle with my mental demons on if the saddle I had actually fit my leased horse – that I would try bareback. So I hopped on my bony little TWH, and putzed around until I felt confident enough to go on trails or train her how to canter… 4 years later, its my favorite mode of riding, and usually my alternative if I get a little too OCD about how well a saddle fits a horse.
Yes, yes, yes!! The shoulders behind the hips. The belly button behind the snatch. Sit back, sit back, sit back! It’s been a slow go but, hello?!?! How did I miss this? In dressage, I can now drive him forward. Less busy hands, more busy hips. In jumping, I no longer throw myself forward at the base of the jump. I get several different canters with my lower body and can than adjust coming to the jump. (I don’t always make the right decision, but I’ve got options to choose from, and hope I will one day choose correctly to either sit or close my leg. Ha!) But, it’s all about the upper body being behind the lower. Who knew? What a great secret I’ve learned after, hmmmm?, 40 years!!!
“The belly button behind the snatch.”
I just about peed my pants….
So true! So true!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think my big wake up call was when I took my Arabian from an “old school” dressage barn to a Natural Horsemanship facility. He went from spooking at everything, constantly alert, bolting, shying and generally not being a very good partner, to calm cool and collected in almost every situation I put him in. I wish someone had previously taught me more about how to understand my horse so I could be a better partner for him, I used to blame it all on the horse, but most of the time it was MY body language telling him to always be alert. Now, four years later, he is my main lesson horse and totes around students from 5 to 50. Now he’s teaching people not to be afraid.
I wish that someone would have explained to me that a different bit will not cure your horses headset problems. Draw reins are not the answer. Just because a horse is curled in the neck doesn’t mean that it it is collected. It took me a while to figure that one out.
“There is no one true way.” Actually, I wish I hadn’t been just told, but perhaps beat over the head. And that you don’t ‘ride’ a horse, you have a relationship with them.
That just because a person owns a horse (or is wanting to sell a horse), it does not mean they know what they are talking about or telling the truth.
And that kinder is better.
I wish someone had told me how to tell a good trainer from a bad trainer. I would have saved so much time and money and especially pain for the horses I rode. I feel so guilty for the pain and frustration I inflicted on the poor schoolies from the “crank and spank” style of dressage. It took a really long time to train out those bad habits I had been taught by the previous trainer.
On a related note, your trainer’s opinion is not the end all be all of horsey wisdom.
To not control with the reins. SO important, but I was never taught how to ride from the legs and seat and how to correctly use reins. I picked up the common bad habits of see-sawing, pulling hard, trying to stop a horse with them, etc. It took a lot of reading and simply figuring things out to discover how to best communicate with reins. I wish I had been taught from the get-go on the lunge first. Luckily, I eventually figure it out.
One of the most important lessons I later learned about riding is that it is easier to fix problems that occur under saddle by getting OUT of the saddle and figuring out what it really is that you’re dealing with. If you can read your horse from the ground, you’ll have a better time fixing things when you’re on him. I only had a few years of lessons, and it was groom, tack up, and go. I never spent any time with the horse other than that, and so I didn’t figure out how to read a horse, how to properly communicate with them, etc. Learned quickly when I got my horse (and after working at a quality boarding stable) that your relationship improves dramatically when take the time to learn your partner (and horses in general). You won’t know the solution until you can correctly read the problem.
Great topic, btw. I love hearing what other people have to say on subjects like these.
I really wish somebody (parents!) had told me that you could take riding lessons! I would have hung up my ballet and tap shoes so fast! A little late, but I finally got to start taking lessons at 50 – and intend to keep doing so until even a hoist won’t get me in the saddle. After all the trainer horror stories, I count myself extremely lucky that the first has been the only and is right. When I got ready to buy a horse, I ended up buying one in her barn. I had known him for several years; she trained him, sold him to one of the barn kids who, then, wanted to do hunters, took him back after the kid liked jumpers better and he sat for about a year. I tried him and bought him. He is turning into the a real sweetheart – except, he too is a rein leaner when he doesn’t want to work. I either, as Fugs said, leg him forward or just really loosen my reins – either way, he suddenly has to balance himself.
I wish I knew early on that:
If you can’t ride your horse with quiet hands and a soft mouth, you need more training (ie time working the basics).
Also, I still don’t “get” how to stop my horse with my seat. I wish I’d learned that early on.
Now, mostly, my horse just reads my mind ( or maybe I know how to do it but don’t know what I”m doing…who knows). After years in a nice Reinsman western saddle and Tom Thumb bit, we ride in a bareback pad and halter. If I pull back and say “whoa” he generally says, “sure thing dude”. That comes from us starting off together: green horse + green rider = black and blue for a while, but then, years into the relationship, it’s a fine tuned partnership founded on respect and clarity. I’m clear with what I want from him and he is clear with what he needs from me…we take care of one another. I am convinced there’ll never be another relationship in my life that is as full and complete as the one with my one true (horse) love, Taz. (just had to share)
The one thing I definitely wish I had learned right off the bat was to keep a fluid, following contact on the reins. Thank goodness I started beginner lessons riding an old schoolmaster in a halter with reins attached, or else that poor horse’s mouth would be ruined.
Another thing I’ve learned when giving beginner lessons — use a very quiet horse and have the beginner rider use a halter/rein combo until they can balance with their seat, and NOT with their hands! It keeps the school horses quiet, happy, and soft-mouthed. Definitely something I wished I’d figured out years ago!
The hardest thing for me to learn is when to stop being brave and purposely riding a horse that was too hot for me just so I could learn to ride the horse. I used to ride a saddleseat horse that would consistantly take off with me at the canter, even though he was in a double bridle. I was uncomfortable riding him, but I wanted to learn how to deal with him. I took him to a show and actually did quite well, but a few lessons after that he took off with me and I fell off. I rode a few times since that, but have now become more interested in learning dressage. I switched from saddleseat to dressage, so I can learn how be a more effective rider. I am enjoying dressage a lot more than saddleseat. Now I have lessons on a nice quiet horse who can help me get my confidence back. Now I know, when I am on a horse that seems too hot, to keep my riding to a level where I am confortable (canter on a longe line) or not get on a horse that I know makes me nervous. Learning to relax at the canter is the hardest part of riding for me.
I wish I’d have known that trust if better than fear when i first started riding. My family owned horses and my uncle always came by and led us around. My aunt had horses right next door too. I’ve watched so many horses get slaps on the neck, hit in the head, whipped, beaten after they were caught for running away in the pasture, and snatched in the mouth. I didn’t know any better when I first started riding cause I grew up around that and thought it was ok. “oh horses are just dumb animals” I used to hear all the time. I got smarter when I started reading books. I also learned from a woman I started riding for in high school. I still ride for her and she is like my second mother. I’m her guinea pig when she gets a new horse lol. I never chased boys or went to parties. I was at “work” on a farm brushing, riding, cooling out, rearranging the tack room, feeding, cleaning saddles, etc. I loved my job, and bought my first horse from them. Teka, a 9 year old Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse. I was looking for a QH, but she turned out to be my once-in-a-lifetime horse. She taught me so much about respect and trust that I call her my teacher! I had to teach her that not all humans would yank her mouth, or beat her though. She had problems, but almost all of them were trust. After about a year or so my little brother could ride her no problems. She taught me that making them work if they behave bad is the way to go. I still have her to this day. She’s not riding sound, but is pasture sound so at 18 she’s in retirement. lol She’s still my best friend and my “teacher”. She especially taught me how to read a horse’s body language. Now I’m always the “herd boss” in my pasture.
1. That some trainers want you to buy a horse because they like the horse, not because the horse is right for YOU.
2. (related) That green riders shouldn’t be riding young horses.
3. (also related) That you can’t out-muscle a determined, bucking horse by pulling her head around; instead drive, drive, drive her forward (and then pull her head around if you want to).
My first barn was pretty bad, although my mom had no idea and neither did I (I was 10). Students weren’t allowed in the barn, for one. You literally stood on a mounting block while the horse was brought to you, already tacked, and someone took the horse away as soon as you dismounted after the lesson. The lesson sizes were so huge that we took up the entire long end of the arena when we lined up. In 2 years of riding there, I didn’t learn anything new that I hadn’t learned in one week of summer camp. I think they had the best rider trot a pattern while the rest of us followed, so we didn’t even have to steer at all because the horses just followed each other. Every summer, they’d hold a schooling show, and I signed up. Except, someone goofed and put me in the walk-trot-canter class, and I didn’t even know what canter meant. Needless to say, I left the ring crying, humiliated, and terrified (my horse cantered when he saw everyone else doing it, you see) and I never rode there again. I was too scared to show again until college! :\
I was quite behind at my next barn because of this place, not knowing how to tack up or anything.
I loved that next barn, but no one ever did explain to me how to ask for a flying lead change, and I was too shy to ask, so sometimes I’d get yelled at for not getting changes. Even today, almost 20 years later, if the horse isn’t already automatic, I won’t get them. Maybe I should take a few private lessons and ask my instructor to just focus on that with me
That you cannot save them all! I miss my little girl (she would have been 4 this March) but with all her injuries then getting EPM (test came back 99.9% positive) then fracturing her hock the day before, there was no way we could save her and I really hate it! I was very upset for weeks even months trying to figure out if I could have prevented it, but nope, it was the backyard breeder that lied about everything that was really the problem. She had great working bloodlines that had proven show records, I knew that but the lady lied about the sire and dam also being working horses. The dam never worked because she had djd, with a crap load of ocd lesions and had shitty hocks, if I had known I would not have bought her, but her little wormy gut and sad face made me take pitty. I learned my lesson, no more pity buys!
I have also learned that horses do respect boundaries, if you don’t give them any they become nasty and pissed constantly (ask how I know), also I am not meant to own mares (unless to breed which I don’t) that also happen to have all or mostly all TB blood in them, I do not get along with them.
I learned early on (thank you to my wonderful child trainer) to use my legs, seat voice then hand, but then had a hard mouthed horse that you could half halt and do whatever you want. I watched him plow thorugh my trainers aids and run her smack in to a fence, that was one horse that deserved the many smacks with the crop it got, once she did that he learned a whole new level of respect (I was too small to stop him didn’t even weigh 100, he was a 15.2 stocky ass QH that could pull like a train I still have the arms to prove it).
Lastly, that horses do forgive. My latest and last pity purchase is my heart horse ( I have 2 both still going) I got him from New Vocations in 09, I knew he had a bowed tendon (resolved thanks to stem cell and careful rehab) I also knew I was his 7th and final home. I knew the second I got out of the truck and saw his face that I wanted him badly, he now has severe ringbone and though is under management for discomfort and pain, I cannot afford the fuse surgery so I hope he understands if the time comes and he is in too much pain for me to bear, now he has none but gimps a bit. I have spent/spend a great deal on injections every 6 months and a monthly supplement. This boy was not well treated in some of his homes, I can tell that the people that got him didn’t understand that he has a “OMG I am scared of everything” personality. Having dealt with many of these, I just put him to work, circles serpentines whatever and (all before the diagnoses and before he was lame) jumping where he really shined, he was going to be my next event prospect. But, the thing that amazes me everyday is that he has forgiven everything that was done to him in the past and is the biggest lover of any horse I have every known or owned. He adores me, takes care of me and will literally do anything I ask. If I tell him to move over (think side pass) he asks how much angle and how far, just a brilliant boy and it breaks my heart to know how many homes this guy went through before he came to me.
I wish I had been told or possibly had it hammered into my skull to not rag on your body in your earlier years,whether your working with and riding horses or not. I’m only 20 turning 21 and I already suffer from arthritis in my wrists,fingers,elbows,knee’s and ankles,dislocated both my shoulders once,broken all of my fingers and a few knuckles, and all of my toes,broken my tail bone about 5 times,broken 6 ribs(some were broken twice),pinched nerves,torn (muscles,tendons and ligaments) and bruised plenty of bones.The worst case being a bruised right fore arm bone after getting said arm smushed between a frantic horse and the edge of a sliding stall door.The majority of these injures are horse related but along with my love of horses I am also a hard core female gear head.So a few fingers were crushed in hoods during mechanics classes in high school and a couple knuckles broken from fighting with a socket whilst changing spark plugs and said wrench decided to slip and you bust your knuckles on the exhaust manifold XD.I wish I could travel back in time and boot my younger self in the arse while screamin’ “YOU TURNED YOUR SELF INTO A CRIPPLE!”
I now really regret running my own body into the ground.I used to be able to mount from the ground(when no mounting block could be found),I can’t even get my foot in the stirrup from the ground for cripe sakes. Thankfully my arab mare hasn’t even offered a buck nor rear, but I have fallen off a couple times.Once when I still had her boarded at a stable.I was having a really good ride with Nikki in the out door riding arena positioned inconveniently right next to a highway that led to a local dump.So there was no shortage of people driving by with tarps over loads.For the most part the locals where good,the majority knew there was a stable near by so they would tie their tarps down very well and even slow down as they drove past when they saw people riding out front.How ever I seemed to have chosen to ride when the one odd douche in town decided he’s not only going to let his tarp fly around wildly on the back of his truck(which is illegal anyways),but to speed by (the stretch of road’s speed limit is 60km max) at 100km per hour.My mare spooked,but mildly compared to some other horses I had ridden.She stopped right in her tracks and jumped slightly side ways.Being observant,before she had spooked I had just noticed him coming in time,enough to kick my feet out of the stirrups.I hadn’t ridden for 5 years until I had purchased Nikki and I had no idea how she was going to handle it.Based on her personality I was assuming she would take off at mach 5 and go bronc on me.I tumbled out of the saddle when she lurched sideways and surprisingly moved a couple steps sideways when I hit the dirt and stood there waiting patiently for my to dust myself off,have a quick smoke break and to get back on and finish the ride on a good but albeit sore note.My arm ended up swelling on me and in a sling for a month . When I hit the ground I made a big mistake and tried to break my fall with that arm.I know full well your not to do so and it was a good reminder after a few years off.I never did it again after that when I took a couple tumbles more while trying to reteach my self to trot by riding bareback.
I’m taking measures now to help keep me going like taking up Pilates and soon to be putting my self on recovery for my joints.
OH!
Some words of wisdom imparted to me jut a few years ago:
Everything behind the girth belongs to you. Everything in front of the girth belongs to the horse.
This came from Mary McKinney, who died in the early 1990s, but was a brilliant trainer of Arabians & Saddleseat horses and riders. Oh, how Saddleseat has changed *sigh*
Off topic, but I know many of you are AQHA members, so perhaps someone could answer a question for me please.
I was looking up records on my mare(#3953729) to try and find out if she’s ever had a foal before, and under her “catalog style pedigree*” it says number of foals is 2. However it also says “*Value in No of Foals column could be multiple generations.” I don’t want to spend $25 to get a copy of that until I know what they mean by that multiple generation thing. Does that mean that the “2″ foals might be one foal, and a grand-foal? The weird part though is that it doesn’t say a number of foals for any of her other records, even the “Dam’s Produce, All Foals” record.
If anyone has experience with this new record system, or has another way of telling me if my mare has had a foal before, and who that foal might be (I’d love to meet said foal) please let me know!
I wish I would have known that its okay to say no. If something tells your gut is telling you something is wrong, your probably right. Most importantly, just because someone has done well in a show cuircuit years ago DOES NOT make them QUALIFIED to work with or teach horses and students.
I’ve seen too many chair seated students, harsh bits, horribly fitted saddles, old wounds, and lack of veternary care at the only boarding/training barn from my old home town.
Also, it’s NOT okay to be forcing students to ride undertrained horses, to work off lessons in unsanitary conditions and to have no helmet or safety policy at all.
Uggh so many things I wish I would have refused to do… it breaks my heart to know its all still going on.
“I’ve seen too many chair seated students, harsh bits, horribly fitted saddles, old wounds, and lack of veternary care at the only boarding/training barn from my old home town.”
Wait…did you grow up riding at the barn I did???
Lol I doubt it, small town northern/central michigan…
Can’t tell if you were being sarcastic or not
Mendy strikes again! Attempting to unload an unpapered stud colt in a package deal so he can go off into the world and make more horses that are bound for Mexico. Just a big ole WTF on this….
http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/grd/2509539921.html
Well, who is surprised? If someone hates me, trust me, there’s a reason – it’s because THEY are who I blog about.
Fugs, thank you so much for this topic! I got *wonderful* news yesterday: I finally get to learn how to ride for the first time in my life!
I just got into Arcadia University, and I get to join their Equestrian Team! 
Lessons are decently priced, and the program is run by a friend, so I don’t have to worry about learning under someone who doesn’t know my quirks. (Asperger’s Syndrome) I plan to listen to everything she says, and also keep in mind everything I’ve learned here. Thank you again!
-Cygnata
P.S. – I hope you’ll get to guest blog occasionally. We’re gonna miss you!
I’d say “outside rein”. My younger riding years were spent learning at camps and barns that were not so good. I was one of the better riders at these places (no big feat mind you!) and could usually get the horse to do what was required half decently, at low end barns that’s all that lessons are about.
When I was older and started taking group lessons at a much better barn I still did OK….but one night due to weather no one else showed up for the lesson but me. It was a blessing, the lady went ahead with the lesson and during it she then realized no one had ever taught me to use my outside rein to ask for a bend etc. Talk about a giant light bulb going POOF over my head!
Remember to breathe! I rode the same horse as a teenager and thought I was pretty good due to all those hours in the saddle, but when I resumed at fortysomething I wasn’t that confident. I’d go out on the trail and once we were up to a fast trot I’d be having dizzy spells. I felt panicky and thought I’d black out. It was a while before someone pointed out I was just sucking in air and holding it once I felt un-confident. Once I remembered to remember to breathe, everything started to feel much more normal again.