# Riding twice a week vs. Double lessons



## Saskia (Aug 26, 2009)

No, I think riding twice a week would be more beneficial. It can take some time to process what you've learned and then commit that to memory. 

You'll also have more energy, and have time to think about what you have learned.


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## my2geldings (Feb 18, 2008)

Two lessons back to back makes no sense. You can physically ride effectively for that long and focus on multiple things and learn adequately. You would be by far better off having 2 separate lessons than to ride two lessons in a row.

When you reach a much higher level of riding, longer lessons might be beneficial to an extent, but as most us are always learning and improving multiple lessons a week is more beneficial.


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## DuckDodgers (May 28, 2013)

No, you won't get the same benefits from taking one two hour lesson vs taking two one hour lessons on separate days. I assume you are younger and fairly new to riding (sorry if that is incorrect) so it's especially important for you to process what you've learned in one lesson before piling more stuff on top of it. You'll probably start getting tired during your second lesson, AND the horse will too. There's nothing wrong with riding longer if you and the horse work up to it or keep the work pretty light, but I don't think that's the most important thing at this point in your riding. 

Now, if you're currently taking shorter lessons (I would say half an hour or less, though that's only really common with young kids) then you'd probably be better off taking one longer lesson. You don't have time to get much accomplished in a shorter lesson. 

If you'd like to make the most of your lesson times perhaps ask the trainer if you're ready to start walking around before your lesson time to warm the horse up, and cooling down after the lesson ends? Don't be offended if the trainer doesn't think you're ready for it yet, but if you don't have to take 20 minutes out of the lesson time just on warmup/cool off you can get a lot more done during lessons. My trainer always advises his riders get on 10 minutes before the lesson to ride, otherwise that time will be taken out of the lesson.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Back to back lessons are pretty tough. I will only do that occasionally when I have two different horses to ride, just to give me something to work with on each horse when I school at home. Maybe if you had two different horses to ride for each hour?
Taking a double lesson is still more saddle time than one lesson, however this is coming for a person who rides 3 horses a day, for fun. What can I say, I love riding.


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## ponypile (Nov 7, 2007)

Twice a week lesson > Double lesson > Single lesson


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## horselova (Mar 11, 2014)

But will it still be the better than a single lesson?


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## Whinnie (Aug 9, 2015)

Ponypile's opinion above your post meant, twice a week is greater (better) than double lessons and double lessons are greater (better) than a single lesson.

You will see that symbol again in math class


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## elle1959 (Sep 7, 2015)

A double lesson would be too much for me to process at one time. What I would prefer (if I had a horse to ride) would be an hour long lesson and then another hour or twelve during the week to practice what I learned in that hour. If you can then take another lesson later in the week, so much the better!


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## DuckDodgers (May 28, 2013)

horselova said:


> But will it still be the better than a single lesson?


That depends on you and the horse. For some, it could be beneficial. For some pairs it could actually be detrimental, depending on how intense the work is and the state of mind in both horse/rider. It's probably a conversation to have with your trainer. My lessons on my current horse sometimes last longer than an hour, but I don't think she'd be up for two hours of constant work. She'd mentally shut down. My old guy would have been happy to work for two hours. 

Thinking back to when I was younger I probably would have loved to have a "double lesson" due to the extra horse time, but I doubt that I would have really progressed as a result. Back then I wasn't looking to progress so much, but rather have fun with horses. I really started moving forward when I started taking twice weekly lessons, but that's also because I WANTED to move forward at that point rather than only play around.


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