# Being held back in my riding school



## merlo89 (24 January 2015)

This is my first time posting on this so sorry if I do anything wrong. So basically I'll explain myself: I am a 14 yo girl and I have been riding for 3/4 years and I try everything I can (I'm in a way fearless). This time two years ago I began riding after having a few years off (local riding school shut down) and I began to learn everything again and I quickly picked eveything up. I only knew how to walk and trot. Soon I was cantering and during the summer of that year I began to jump and my confidence grew and grew. I began to ride naughtier horses some who even reared for jumping lesson and yet I still carried on (never fell off) and I began jumping courses only small about 60cm and I jumped at this height for a while. 6 months ago I had to move and I started at my new riding school I was a bit unconfident at first as I hadn't ridden in at least 6 weeks due to moving house. After a couple of lessons I was back to normal and my instructor slowly began to build confidence in me and let me ride more challenging horses ( I have a private lesson one week and a group the next) and I soon began to jump with my new instructor we were jumping roughly 60cm and I was aloud to canter into jumps. Then in October I was put on a 17.2hh horse for a private jumping lesson I'm around 5'5 so the horse was very strong and was exceptionally excited about jumping and I lost control quite a few times ( I never fell off and did regain control by myself) and after this event my instructor has put all the jumps in my current lessons that I have to 30cm even though I no longer ride the massive horse and I am not aloud to canter to the jumps I have to trot which is difficult to get a good jumping position on. 

I want to know if anyone has any advice on what to do as I feel like I am going backwards and my dream is to be in the equine industry but I feel like I can't get there as I'm only jumping 30cm at max. I'm a confident rider who has only ever fallen off twice and they were years ago.

Sorry for the long rant just so puzzled and confused and desperate for help. I'll also struggle to speak to anyone about it as I'm quite awkward and shy.

Thanks


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## Exploding Chestnuts (24 January 2015)

Well I am sure others will comment, but it is difficult without seeing your riding, it may be that the instructor feels your basic position is incorrect [this can happen if you have been allowed to do your own thing].
The height of the fence is irrelevant, approach and rhythm are what need to be developed so that you and the horse act as one unit.
You need to develop good flatwork and the ability to school your horse.  Jumping a single 60cm from the canter is normal on a nice riding school horse,  but you struggled with a horse that was big and green, so really you are probably not yet at the stage where you can successfully school a variety of horses. You will need to think about jumping a course once you have mastered a combination.
Having confidence is good, but even better is to become a good rider, this takes most of us quite a lot of hard work. 
If you are not happy with the riding school or the instructor you may have to change, but they will be more experienced than you are so I think you should ask how they think you are doing as you may want to progress to sitting exams. Maybe take an adult along with you and they can ask on your behalf, to start the discussion.


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## be positive (24 January 2015)

The fact that you do not fall off is not a sign of how good you are, you are only 14 so still have much to learn, again jumping high without being scared is not a sign of ability, you may be confident which is good but you need to combine that with being able to do as asked in lessons in order to progress. 
I suspect they over horsed you and the instructor was concerned that it showed up some weaknesses in your basic training, you may have felt ok but if the instructor is good she will have seen you struggling and will now be trying to put in the fundamental parts in your knowledge that are missing, hence going back a few stages to probably work on your position and ability to remain in control, you may not have been scared at the time but were out of control which is not safe, safety is so important especially when jumping.

As you get older, and more experienced, you will appreciate that once you have developed the skills to be an effective rider they will remain with you forever, stick with the lessons and you should find they really help long term, which if you want to work in the industry will set you a good standard for the future, don't be shy about asking questions during the lessons the instructor should give you the opportunity to do so take advantage of it, even prepare before you go so you don't get nervous about speaking up, the instructor is there to help and advise, she is not a dragon, well I hope she isn't.


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## Firefly9410 (25 January 2015)

You say yourself that you find it hard to get a good jumping position from trot. It should not be hard. If you cannot do it from trot then you have a flaw in your training. The horse at take off is the same from trot or canter and take off point is where you adopt jumping position. I see a lot of riding school learners cheat and adopt jumping position in canter on approach to the fence. This is fine on a safe quiet horse who knows his job, but when you need to adjust the stride or on a reluctant jumper it is not good. You can practice your position on lower as well as higher fences, it is not sensible to make the horse jump higher unnecessarily, over a lifetime all that work takes its toll on the joints. 

Plenty of people look ok in their riding until they have to actually ride rather than steer something quiet. You were given a horse that needed riding and could not do it well. The horse although green and excited would have been fairly quiet or it would not have been in the riding school.Your size should not matter that much because riding is less about strength more about skill. I would stick with this riding school because it seems they are teaching you to ride properly. The last place sounds like a typical riding school that does not teach much at all and after s year or two produces people who are in the advanced class and think they can ride but who would struggle on most privately owned horses, which is then a problem for those people when they want to progress to sharing or owning a horse.


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## Wishful (25 January 2015)

It's not about jumping high in training, it's about practising the approach in a balanced, organised fashion.   Lessons are indoors at the moment so jumps have to be smaller due to space constraints and we've had nice challenging lessons over low jumps as it's all about the approach,  straightness after the fence and finding the right line.  Actually jumping the fence is the easiest bit!

Last lesson was a dogleg and we had to ride it with a smooth curve then straight with a sharper turn.  In the past we've done angled fences and grids.   Pne of the ponies there is prone to tanking at fences then tanking off after, keeping her guessing,  not jumping the same exact fence after she's done it right, and only releasing just enough and at the right time.

I'm happy jumping from trot or canter, the main thing is to be balanced and ready and release as much as necessary keeping the contact rather than getting ahead of the movement- trot is easier to time but less of a fold is necessary potentially although weight in the right place is still key!


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## Starzaan (25 January 2015)

Firefly9410 said:



			You say yourself that you find it hard to get a good jumping position from trot. It should not be hard. If you cannot do it from trot then you have a flaw in your training. The horse at take off is the same from trot or canter and take off point is where you adopt jumping position. I see a lot of riding school learners cheat and adopt jumping position in canter on approach to the fence. This is fine on a safe quiet horse who knows his job, but when you need to adjust the stride or on a reluctant jumper it is not good. You can practice your position on lower as well as higher fences, it is not sensible to make the horse jump higher unnecessarily, over a lifetime all that work takes its toll on the joints. 

Plenty of people look ok in their riding until they have to actually ride rather than steer something quiet. You were given a horse that needed riding and could not do it well. The horse although green and excited would have been fairly quiet or it would not have been in the riding school.Your size should not matter that much because riding is less about strength more about skill. I would stick with this riding school because it seems they are teaching you to ride properly. The last place sounds like a typical riding school that does not teach much at all and after s year or two produces people who are in the advanced class and think they can ride but who would struggle on most privately owned horses, which is then a problem for those people when they want to progress to sharing or owning a horse.
		
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I teach a girl who rides well for her age, and was very confident - happy to jump a course of fences at about 60cm, and would never say "no" if I suggested something challenging. Then her parents bought her a pony. This pony is a cracking little thing, but he's not a riding school pony. He gets excited about jumping, he can be nappy, he can charge at his fences like a hooligan if he isn't ridden into them well. 

I had to go back to square one with this little girl in her lessons as the change in horse saw her technique start to suffer. Because he frightened her when he rushed his fences, she would hang onto his head like a demon, thus making him run through the bridle and rush even more. We have done endless hours of gridwork with no reins or stirrups, and worked on teaching her to ride a horse rather than steer, and a few weeks ago she won the chase me charlie on him at a local competition.

As mentioned above, your instructor sounds like she's doing absolutely the right thing. Carl Hester always talks about the first time he won a Grand Prix class and how Dr. B really knocked the wind out of him when he said "well done, you can steer, now you have to learn to ride". He said he was so proud of his achievement that he didn't understand until later. There is a great difference between steering an experienced horse (be it a Grand Prix dressage horse, or an experienced riding school horse) round a test or a course, and riding a green or less experienced horse around the same course. 

Your instructor sounds like she's doing absolutely the right thing. Trust her - if she's got her BHSAI she's had to pass exams to get to where she is, so she'll know what she's talking about. If in doubt - ask her!


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## Shay (26 January 2015)

All the other posters are spot on.  If your dream is to work in the equine industry as you say then you need the best possible foundation and your current instructor appears to be giving you that.  At 14 you can now start to work on your BHS series as well so it might be worth looking to take your riding and road safety (you can do that from 12) and your stage 1 which you can sit at 14.  If your riding school is also a linked pony club center the progressive tests are also very highly thought of.  But if not it seems your current RI is spot on the money and I wouldn't recommend changing just to get a center.   

As I'm sure you can imagine working with horses is a very common dream and if you are serious about it then you can't start too early getting a good foundation both in terms of your riding and in qualifications.  It is also a good way to know if this actually is the career for you!


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## merlo89 (30 January 2015)

Hello everyone just thought I would post an update. I've just had my private lesson as the past 2 lessons have been cancelled due to the weather and either my instructor has read this post and figured out its me or she is pyschic (think that's how you spell it). So I had a jumping lesson on the troublesome big horse (17.2hh) and it went very good I had full control and managed to trot the whole way to the jump it was bigger than normal but not by much. He did try to run out at one time jumping but failed quite badly as he got himself stuck and had no choice but to jump. I didn't have a very good position as I have short arms and he has short reins and a long neck (bad combination) so every time I tried to jump or get into the right position I would be yanked forward. This will be work in progress but most people have this problem on him (I think). All of your posts have made me realise that I need to pipe down and listen to what I should focus on not what I want to do. I should also trust my instructor more as well and she has reasoning.

Just wanted to share my happy news even though it is very small and thank you all for your advice as it has helped a lot.


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## Exploding Chestnuts (31 January 2015)

merlo89 said:



			Hello everyone just thought I would post an update. I've just had my private lesson as the past 2 lessons have been cancelled due to the weather and either my instructor has read this post and figured out its me or she is pyschic (think that's how you spell it). So I had a jumping lesson on the troublesome big horse (17.2hh) and it went very good I had full control and managed to trot the whole way to the jump it was bigger than normal but not by much. He did try to run out at one time jumping but failed quite badly as he got himself stuck and had no choice but to jump. I didn't have a very good position as I have short arms and he has short reins and a long neck (bad combination) so every time I tried to jump or get into the right position I would be yanked forward. This will be work in progress but most people have this problem on him (I think). All of your posts have made me realise that I need to pipe down and listen to what I should focus on not what I want to do. I should also trust my instructor more as well and she has reasoning.

Just wanted to share my happy news even though it is very small and thank you all for your advice as it has helped a lot.

Click to expand...

well done 
Think about your centre of gravity, that is your "weight" being in the lower half and this is the part that holds you in position, your arms and upper body will be "flexible/extensible, this is something that comes automatically with practice, but sometimes you have to think about it. As your leg muscles become stronger, your jumping will improve as well [maybe try a bit of running]. Keeping a good position is something you need to think about almost all the time, it is essential, and sets apart the good rider from the average.


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