# Riding Lessons: What Are You Learning?



## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

I posted this in the western riding section because western riding lessons is really want I'm most interested in.

I've been taking lessons now since early this summer (give or take). I feel like I should be learning more. I am curious to see what everyone is learning in their lessons. What am I not learning? I just want to make sure I am getting everything that I can out of my lesson, and everything I can for my money.


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## melinda27858 (Dec 27, 2007)

I just started riding about a year ago and have been taking lessons since then...bought my first horse in January.
I remember a while ago questioning the same thing you are, am I still learning??? It felt like my learning had plateaued. I made the decision to stick with what my trainer thought was best. I have realized the better that I have gotten at the tasks I practice in my lessons (that even when I thought my lessons were becoming repetitive), I still had a lot to improve on back then. You won't realize it until things become easier or suddenly snap into place mentally for you. I was fortunate enough to have my own horse to practice on between lessons. It may take a while until you say "aha!" if the only practice you are getting is a lesson once a week without practice in between. Trust when I say that you MAY think you have it down...but you will see even more improvement!!!

If you are getting bored, ask your trainer to show you flying lead changes!!! Haha!


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## CowgirlUp616 (Nov 2, 2008)

lol I know what y'all are talking about. I've been taking lessons for about thirteen years, and I thought I knew it all at one point. But then you learn new stuff or you do something as simple as ride a different horse and you're just like, whoa okay maybe I have some more learnin' to do. And yes, I still learn something new about horses with every lesson I take. 

My lessons focus more on teaching me how to train the horse right now. I have a BLM mustang that I work with as much as I can. It's hard work, and it can be frustrating sometimes, but it'll all be worth it in the end when I can finally ride him into that show ring. =]


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## melinda27858 (Dec 27, 2007)

ETA: In my lessons we work on training me and my young horse together. Lately, we have been working on obtaining collection, shoulder ins/outs, we do groundwork lessons, respectful lunging....in my lesson on Saturday we worked on cuing my horse to slow his trot (I understand, he doesn't!!! So I guess that means I was having a lesson on training him).


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## kickshaw (May 7, 2008)

mox, when I taught western lessons, we would do the following with beginners/intermediates:

guiding - lots of circles, changes of direction etc. 
leg aids - introduction to leg aids followed by exercises to improve
transitions (lots of them)
patterns
improving balance - lots of stirrupless work, hands above your head, out to the sides, etc. 
confidence building - usually through games
rating the horse- maintaining a nice slow jog, etc. 

basically, at this point, I just "put miles" on the riders...and let them learn how to correct/troubleshoot without me having to tell them. 

Not until the rider had mastered all of these skills did i start to refine them

does that make sense?


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## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

Everyone's post made perfect sense! I am just getting a little bored with the same ole same ole. We ride around a bit, do some circles, I try and maintain a trot and work up the courage to lope.. lol... Maybe I just wanna be the best, too fast.


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## melinda27858 (Dec 27, 2007)

I am sure we all feel the same! Just keep up the hard work!


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## xkatex (Oct 7, 2007)

I took lessons at the same barn for many years. Within the last 2 years I was there I started feeling like things got repetitive. Also our instructor started putting my group on the green horses to help "break them". Unfortuneately we wanted to teach OURSELVES how to ride, not help break their green schoolers. It might just be a quirk of a group lesson but I soon left after that.

I got a private instructor who came for our farm once a week ($45) and taught me on MY horse. It was so much better. Things get explained in more detail and she help you and your horse become "partners". If you take lessons in a group make sure there is no more than 4 people in your lesson. I find anymore than that and it gets dull and repetitive.


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## kickshaw (May 7, 2008)

^^ I second that - and moreover, the instructor can't properly watch and aid you. 

my lessons were in groups of two usually, no more than 3 ever, and were private with youngsters and beginners


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## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

A lot of the time, I am taking a private lesson. There are never more than 3 in a group. I find that the instructors get preoccupied with other things. My husband goes and watches, and he ends up watching more than the instructor does. 

The day I had SUCH a great lesson where I kept a steady trot and even loped, my instructor was consumed with one of her horses that had just been brought to the barn. The only instructing she did was teach me how to ask the horse to lower her head so she'd slow down into her WP jog. Other than that, I was pretty much on my own.

I have another lesson tomorrow. The trails are closed now for the season, so I'll only be doing lessons until the trails open again in the spring. I know tomorrow there will be another girl in the lesson with me, which is fine because she doesn't have much more experience than I do, I think this will only be like her 12th lesson. 

I know that when I get my own horse and start taking lessons and what not, things will change, and maybe I'll find the lessons more informative. I know I'm still learning, but I feel like things are just getting boring.


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## GypsyNymph (Feb 23, 2008)

I felt that way about my lessons too. After I rode a couple other horses I realized I needed more practice and learning.


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## megalsbegals (Sep 6, 2008)

I had a dream last night and it was about my lessons and I was like ok then our instructor told us to go to different places for what we needed to work on and so then she came to me and was like you get to go work on driving(like a car) with her daughter to be my teacher and I was like ummm. ok...i kinda wanted to do something on a horse but ok whatever. And right before that dream--i switched dreams--weird...in the same night-this was all last nights dream/s well before that dream I was walking my dog then my mom was in the car and she said we had to go idk why don't ask me and so I got in the passenger seat and then i was like i will contnue to walk my dog with her out of the car and i will hold her leash out the window and so then my mom gets out of the car while it is driving and I like oh no it can't go strait anymore! So i had to take the wheel and then I had to make a stop so idk I somehow got across the street and so then in the dream with me learning how to drive then her daughter was in my garage in the truck i was learning to drive in and she was trying to get out of the garage and she kept hitting our said boat and then she knocked it off the whatever it was on and i was liek thanks!! now my parents dont have to take it off! --cause they kept saying they have to so then they can ut it in the basement--?? yeah this is really long sorry. but It means i got to think of somethign to work on in lessons. lol.

you dont have to read this....its long and kinda pointless.


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## bgood400 (Nov 10, 2008)

My mother is a riding instructor so I have basicly been getting lessons since day one. The one thing that she told me that really sticks with me is that you can never know it all. Someone else can always teach you something new, or there way of doing thing may work better in a certian situation. so I guess what I am saying is stick with lessons!


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## mom3x (Sep 16, 2008)

i have private lessons, thank goodness (And thank my hubby's paycheck!) and we are working on just getting the cues that i need to give the horse. Very basic. Oh, and staying on him, of course!


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## mom3x (Sep 16, 2008)

midnight_rider13 said:


> I felt that way about my lessons too. After I rode a couple other horses I realized I needed more practice and learning.


Totally!!


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## Joshie (Aug 26, 2008)

Moxie said:


> Everyone's post made perfect sense! I am just getting a little bored with the same ole same ole. We ride around a bit, do some circles, I try and maintain a trot and work up the courage to lope.. lol... Maybe I just wanna be the best, too fast.


Do you play games? We do a variety of things in lessons. Sometimes we work in the round pen, sometimes we go into the woods at the front of the trainer's house, sometimes we go out back, and sometimes we go on long walks.

In the arena we sometimes have contests or play games. My daughter and I are the only ones in the class with our trainer so it's just the three of us. We sometimes play games with swim noodles where we, well, bang each other with the swim noodles. We sometimes play catch with balls too. He who drops the ball loses. The games are a blast but they serve the purposes of getting the horses used to very strange things and teach us to handle our horses when we're doing other things. Today we learned to step up and down a 3' drop off. We've taken some very steep hills. It's nice to mix things up so we don't get bored doing the same old things.


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## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

Games would be awesome! I should suggest something like that to my trainer. Last week we did a pole. Yes... Just one. lol I dont know, I just feel like I'm paying just to ride. I dont feel like I'm getting a whole lot of instruction. My trainer will say every once in awhile, "Keep your hands low, tilt your pelvis... yada yada yada" 

Bleh.


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## Joshie (Aug 26, 2008)

Our trainer does things like throw PVC pipes into the arena We'll put things in the arena and make a sort of obstacle course. We like to tease our instructor about how we can make fewer mistakes than he makes. We always start sessions with the basics like back, circles, turns, and emergency stop. It's fun to mix up things a lot. Often it feels more like we're just playing and having fun than having a lesson but we are learning a lot. It's a whole lot of fun and it's a wonderful Mommy-daughter thing to do together.


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## mom3x (Sep 16, 2008)

Joshie said:


> Our trainer does things like throw PVC pipes into the arena We'll put things in the arena and make a sort of obstacle course. We like to tease our instructor about how we can make fewer mistakes than he makes. We always start sessions with the basics like back, circles, turns, and emergency stop. It's fun to mix up things a lot. Often it feels more like we're just playing and having fun than having a lesson but we are learning a lot. It's a whole lot of fun and it's a wonderful Mommy-daughter thing to do together.


I take lessons at the same time my daughters do, and usually in the same arena. It IS a great mommy-daughter thing. We do games, too, like red light/green light and Simon Says. My girls love it when they beat me and Hank. (Something weird about a half Thoroughbred who doesn't want to win. Sigh...) :lol:


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## free_sprtd (Oct 18, 2007)

ya.....my instructor (when i have a lesson....not often) watches and talks alot about random life stuff. i have found that to be true from almost every lesson....they just like to talk but i feel like im never learning anything. i feel like i can focus more when im on a trail ride with a friend.


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## kershkova (Jun 25, 2008)

Ive been working on geting better in lopeing and passing other horses


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## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

I have to build up the courage to lope. I had once, but not since then. Last lesson was more about the new saddle I got, but we're working on maintaining a nice steady slow trot.


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## kickshaw (May 7, 2008)

hey mox, did you ever get your stirrups to straighten so it doesn't hurt your knees?


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## Moxie (May 28, 2008)

I actually just brought my saddle home (from the barn) yesterday, I pulled the fenders down last night. I have a lesson on Thursday (depends on if I have to work), at which point I will get the stirrups measured out for me, then I will bring the saddle home again, and get the stirrups twisted. 

We had a problem with the holes not lining up with the belvins last lesson, so we were thinking we'd have to punch more holes, but now that I've pulled the fenders, I dont think we'll need to. 

Stirrup position is honestly the hardest part of my lessons. They're either too short, and they hurt, or they're too long and I get paranoid that I'm going to fall out the saddle. My last lesson was rough, after the lesson BOTH my knee's and ankles hurt, which is rare for me, as it's only my right knee and ankle that normally hurts. So hopefully we'll get things worked out so I can ride without such pain.


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## mom3x (Sep 16, 2008)

I have bum knees from being a runner, so I feel your pain. I have to adjust the stirrups every time, since other people use Hank's saddle. It's amazing how much difference one little hole can make!


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## hey little lady 123 (Dec 6, 2008)

am riding western its lots of fun me and my horse love it!!!!


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

ah... I like western too! tell me about your horse


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## Tennessee (Dec 7, 2008)

Well, I am actually learning proper care of foals. But, the lessons are from our instructor at my family's barn, so I wouldn't really consider it "lessons."

I just learned how to perfect my turns around barrels.


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## Mira (Aug 4, 2008)

Well today I went to my trainer's for a lesson. Haven't ridden in a couple weeks so.. yup. xD

If Gizmo were to ever get involved in cutting, he would make one good cow. ****

As I think I mentioned on here awhile ago, I was having some trouble with oncoming traffic in warm-up rings and such. Well, I thought we had conquered that... apparently not. I was warming up and we're coming at this other horse and Gizmo reverts back to his ways of drop the front end and spin to the side. Yaaay. So of course I get a little nervous and once we get back to passing that horse I tense up, he goes spin. 

My trainer notices this and his daughter gets off that horse Gizmo was being dumb about and my trainer gets on. Comes dead at me. Oh joy. Me being me, I try to just kinda turn away and escape the badness to come. Trainer won't have that. He's coming at me, at a walk mind you, all directions, messing with his horse and all that whilst I'm a nervous wreck and Gizmo dropping and spinning every which way. 

So my trainer talks to me, torments Gizmo and I which is really what we need. Starts jogging around me, then his horse did something so he got after it. Well it reared and was just being a little idiot so Gizmo was like OMG WE'RE GONNA DIE. Scoots and spins around and I'm goin' along with him trying to calm his stupidness down. Trainer gets his horse to chillax and we go back to our fun. It took probably about 10-15 minutes of me being jerked every which way - down, up, left, right oh the fun of it. Finally, I started to get mad because I embraced the fact that hey, I haven't fallen yet so obviously if I can handle all that I'm all right. So, I started doing what I should have been and when Gizmo went one way, he met the nice shiney metal on my heel. And if he proceeded to keep on going that way to get away from that horse, that metal was gonna dig in right back at him. 

Finally he chilled out and we were able to go around and behave ourselves while a horse is coming at us from all angles. 

Yay! That was my fun day.  I also had to ride with one stirrup for a few minutes (trainer just came up and took the other one off. I was like o.o wtf). I found out I ride better with one stirrup. Weird. xD


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## babyruth1984 (Dec 15, 2008)

I bought my first horse in November with only 2 lessons under my belt. I thought "Hey I can learn as I go." That was stupid of me. After having problems on the trail and discovering my confidence is really low I decided to take lessons. Right now with being a beginner we're working on my balance and my lack of confidence. I'm working on doing around the world bareback while walking, putting both hands out like I'm flying, that kind of stuff. Trotting without a saddle, now that's tough.


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