# When did you first ride unsupervised?



## Golden Horse (Feb 20, 2010)

That is a fantastic question....

Sadly I have no answer......I can't remember when I started riding alone, strange thought, I have no idea...


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

Actually, I haven't, just because I don't own the horses I ride.


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

Firstly out of curiosity may I ask why you ask this question? You own your own horse and want to go out by yourself? 

I got my 8yo Irish draught X mare in Jan 2018. First horse. 30 year old return to riding, can ride but not really RIDE well, so to speak. I so far have only ridden her during a paid lesson with the yard's resident instructor, who is amazing. Every time I am there she always asks "are you riding Katie today?" and I feel guilty, because unless it's with her, usually I am not. BUT last week I asked to cut my paid lesson short and completely out of nowhere decided, on my instructors suggestion, to hack (trail) her out. Normally that would have been a huge no-no and it came out of nowhere. I just KNEW in that moment I felt confident enough. And I can't say I wasn't nervous - I placed a lot more trust in my mare than my own ability, to be honest. But she's proven time and again that she will look after her rider. I'm even less comfortable mounting her than riding her, actually. It's just so drastically different with my own


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## spellbinding (Apr 15, 2018)

I am a very confident beginner, and considering a part lease of an older mare, as well as my weekly lessons. 
But wanted to gauge when others rode alone for the first time and felt confident doing so.


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## beau159 (Oct 4, 2010)

Golden Horse said:


> That is a fantastic question....
> 
> Sadly I have no answer......I can't remember when I started riding alone, strange thought, I have no idea...


I’m on the same page Golden. I don’t actually remember when I started riding alone, or which horse I rode alone. 

I *think* I was probably about 11 or 12. Of course, we grew up with horses on the farm. 

I do distinctly remember riding my horse Beau “by myself” even though I wasn’t supposed to ride him alone (because he was only 4) so I drug my little brother along on Misty so I wasn’t “alone”! I was 13 or 14 and my younger brother was 8 or 9. So technically I followed the rules .... sorta ...


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## Layneywashere (Apr 6, 2018)

I started riding on and off when I was 2, and got my first horse when I was 7. By this time I was pretty comfortable around horse and in riding. My first horse was a 12hand pony, and more on the lazy side. While I needed helped getting on her, I was more then happy to go adventure on my own. Being comfortable is the most important thing, that and having a trust worthy horse.


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

Don't remember exactly when, but u think I started riding without instruction when I leased my first horse. I would ride with my friend or my mother watching. It was probably a year or so after that I was riding truely alone, but it wouldn't have been common until I could drive myself.


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

It was about 2 years into my lessons. BO told me she'd take me on a trail ride, and I was riding a new (for me) horse. She took me to the arena for 15 mins, and then, instead of going back to the barn to pick up her horse, she told me, "Trot and *controlled* canters! Have fun!" – So my first unsupervised ride was a trail ride where I ultimately had to rely on the horse to take me home because I got lost, too.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

This is a modern concept . . .

1967. I was eleven. My parents finally got me a horse, an old sorrel gelding named Rusty. I believe they paid $125 for him with all his tack. I got on him and rode off. The idea that such things should be supervised had not yet been invented in my part of the world.


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## Caledonian (Nov 27, 2016)

I started when i was 3 and rode occasionally with help until my first proper lesson at around 6. I didn't ride completely on my own until i was about 11. I did pretty much the same as when i'd company - ride in the field and jump. 

It was another couple of years before i was allowed to ride out on the tracks on my own though. It was too long ago to remember so i'm having to relying on information from my parents. LOL.


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## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

Just like @Avna for me too. I had a whopping set of 10 lessons at age 8 and another set of 10 lessons at age 9. At 11, I got to join a "riding club" where there were 9 horses you could pick to ride. My parents didn't know it wasn't smart. I got on and rode off. "The idea that things should be supervised had not yet been invented in my part of the world."

My kids, who started riding before they could walk, started riding alone around age 10. They didn't have super quiet gentle ponies, so it was kind of a big deal. Plus I knew how dangerous riding alone could be.


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## Phantomrose (Jul 25, 2016)

I started riding alone about two years ago, when I found out that the barn provided paid practice rides; you pay $25 and take one of the lesson horses out to practice your skills alone. I’ve done that on and off in addition to my normal lessons. Now that I have my own horse, I ride alone at least once to twice a week, since I take a lesson every other Wednesday. 


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

I was 5. My grandparents had a farm and they bought me a pony. He was not the first horse on the place. My grandfather still had an old mare that he used to plow up their garden space so I was familiar with horses and livestock. I guess they figured I'd learn! Very little supervision back in those days when kids could roan the farm and forest and nobody worried unless one did not show up for a meal. It was a wonderful life!!!!! I am so thankful God gave me those grandparents and that farm.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

When I was about 11 and I kept a pony at our house for the first time, I had no choice but to ride on my own really as all of my horsey friends were a mile away. 
My mum and I were so naïve. We saw her advertised in a local paper and rang the seller. He was a breeder/dealer and before we knew it he was bringing the pony to our house for us to try. She was an ugly looking little wreck but the man insisted I ride her so I was stuck on board and ordered to go out on her. It was blowing a blizzard but she never put a foot wrong so she stayed with us.
I used to head off on her in the morning and come home at the end of the day, no cell phones in those days. Seems insane now.


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

7 or 8, I don't really remember for sure. Another that grew up in a time where you could take off on a horse or bicycle and only show up at meal and bed times.


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## Celeste (Jul 3, 2011)

I was eleven. My parents knew nothing about horses. 

I got thrown off routinely. She bolted, bucked, had no breaks, etc. I eventually learned to stay on and how to stop her.

I do not recommend my method of learning. Almost 50 years later, some of those broken bones are starting cause arthritis issues. Especially the tail bone..........

Let you instructor guide you on when you are ready. Maybe she will ride out on a hack with you to give you the feel of it.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Supervision... or accompaniment? LOL

If you mean supervised by an adult or a teacher/trainer, I've never ever rode with an adult until I started riding again two or three years ago. As a kid, we (my friends) would grab friend's ponies, or sometimes a pony and a rough around the edges ranch horse, and off we'd go, sometimes bareback because saddling properly was so much like work when you're 12.

In my adult life, I've ridden accompanied for all but a few times, for the sole reason that in case of an accident, I don't want to lay out in the woods for hours before someone realizes my horse beat me home. I do ride Trigger alone in the round pen or the 5 acres, simply because it's a smaller area and with fewer hazards.

I've taken Sarge out once, completely alone, with no one home, and it was sketchy business at best. High wind at our tail, my dogs were zig zagging in and out of the brush along the side of the road, he was new to us, and he's not a confident horse, despite his size.

It resulted in a crow-hopping bucking fit when a 14 year old neighbor/family kid, with mild-autism swarmed up behind us, upwind, on his bike and was coming off a hill. He rode right up within kicking distance in Sarge's blind spot before Sarge or I heard him and yelled HEY! at us, and the rodeo was on. Fortunately, Sarge doesn't have a big buck - he has a 6" vertical leap, so anyone wanting to learn to ride out a beginner's buck? Ride Sarge. 

Anyway, kid's related to me, my dad's cousin's son, so as soon as I had Sarge convinced he wasn't going to be eaten by a 14 year old on a bike, I delivered a scorching butt-chewing to said kid that went along the lines of: "DON'T YOU EVER! RUN UP ON A HORSE LIKE THAT. EVER! He could have kicked your head in and killed you!"

He could have easily gotten himself killed, gotten me killed, or anyone who could have been standing around.

I have not ridden out alone like that again, just on the roads away from the house and beyond the pastures we own, for that reason: A thousand bad things could have happened and there would have no one there to help us in case of a horrible accident.

Here's a picture from that day, shortly after the chaos:


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

I was probably ten or eleven, and it was after three/four years of lessons. 

I'm in the boat that my parents knew nothing about horses, and relied on the expertise of others in the form of weekly lessons. My first unsupervised riding came when my parents first leased a horse for me.


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## Woodhaven (Jan 21, 2014)

I remember exactly the first time riding alone. It was 60 years ago. It was when I bought my first horse, I was 17 years old and I lived on the edge of a city and I rode about 6 miles out in the country to meet some others and go riding with them.
I was fairly new to riding, had done a little at a riding stable where you could go out on a one hr trail ride and had ridden some draft horses and this is where I learned the most about riding.
I rode this horse alone for many, many miles, sometimes meeting others but often not.

A great deal of my riding has been solo as if I didn't do this I wouldn't ride much.


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## Cordillera Cowboy (Jun 6, 2014)

Avna said:


> This is a modern concept . . .
> 
> 1967. I was eleven. My parents finally got me a horse, an old sorrel gelding named Rusty. I believe they paid $125 for him with all his tack. I got on him and rode off. The idea that such things should be supervised had not yet been invented in my part of the world.


I'm another of this generation. I don't recall exactly when, but it was as soon as I could catch the little booger by myself. That's not to say that things didn't go wrong at times. I'm fortunate in that any wrecks I had, someone happened to be there. But, one day, my dad found the pony tacked up and wandering the field. My younger sister was playing quietly alone in the basement. A quick check found a bump on her head, but she had no memory of saddling up the pony and riding. The lecture we all got after that, was not that we shouldn't ride alone, but that we should seek out our parents when anything happens. 


It's a different world now, I suppose. But ride out when you're ready.


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

I wonder how much of these differences truly come from generation, and not from lifestyle. I'm sure there are still people who learn this way (meaning riding out alone as soon as they're able to catch their pony from their paddock out back) in rural parts of the country. 
Suburban and urban life, no matter how "hands off" a parenting stye is, just doesn't lend itself well to such an environment. Unless a student has connections through friends or family, they have almost no choice but to do a great deal of supervised riding before it's no longer a liability to do otherwise.


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## CanteringCalypso (Aug 13, 2017)

I started riding by myself when I learned how to canter. When I rode alone I would just walk and trot 🙂


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I started riding on a family friend's pony, Snowball, a 12.2 Welsh. We rode all around the farm doubled up mostly at a fast canter as the two of us would sneak out and feed him a bucket of oats!


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## DreamerR (Dec 17, 2017)

The first time I rode alone I was actually quite scared. I was 13 and it was the second barn I had been a member at and my first barns policy was, "No one rides alone" and boy were they serious about that! So when I went to the 2nd barn it had just started raining and the trainer said that it wouldn't be worth it to do a lesson because the ground was wet and we wouldn't have full control. I had went on and accepted the fact that I wasn't going to ride until she told me to just go out and mess around, bond with Justice (the horse), and not go to fast. I was excited at the idea but once I got out to the arena and the thought of Justice slipping and falling on me crossed my mind I decided to just trot crossrails. I fully regret it now knowing that I could have done ANYTHING with him, but oh well. I prefer to ride with someone at least nearby so if I fall then I won't be left on the ground if I can't get up. I don't ride with my phone either, I leave it by the tack box so I wouldn't be able to call for help if I got hurt. I'm not trying to say that riding by yourself is a bad thing in anyway its just my personal thing. :runninghorse2:


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## secuono (Jul 6, 2011)

I always ride alone, as I have no horse friends and my horses live at home. =/ Don't ride as much as I'd like because of that as well. 
Had group lessons as a kid, then no horses until we got our farm. Piddled around on them and at some point was actually riding again.


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## koda2004 (Sep 2, 2017)

I started riding unsupervised the day I got my horses after only having ridden a horse about 3 times.
My family had never heard of taking riding lessons for years before owning and riding your own horse and quite frankly I think it is silly to think you have to do so. you learn the most about horses by owning one.
The only time I wasn't allowed to ride unsupervised was when I was trying to break a 13 year old mare that liked to buck. I got thrown just as many times with people "supervising" as I did when I was alone. I actually prefer to work with my horses alone most of the time anyway, I don't get as nervous and there aren't as many distractions for the horses. May I ask why you are asking?


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## SteadyOn (Mar 5, 2017)

My first time being "turned loose" was being told, at the end of what was maybe my second actual lesson (though I had ridden before in day camps at a trail place), that I could take the horse out for a walk in the field. They had mowed a nice wide, winding track through the hay field and it was green and sunny and gorgeous. I think I was ten years old. The horse's name was Misty and she was a sweetheart. I seem to remember one of the dogs trotting along beside us. It felt absolutely WONDERFUL to set out like that on my own.


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## Loner (Dec 21, 2017)

I have pretty much rode by myself for ever.I started riding alone when I was 8.Never really thought about it.I still go out by myself and I am 68.


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## PinellasHorse (Apr 24, 2018)

I found an app in the app store and recently downloaded it. It's called Ride with Me by Smartpac and it monitors movement on your cell phone. If the movement stopped for a period of time, say 2-5 minutes, it alerts pre-programmed emergency contacts on your phone by text and email. It helps my "worry" when I am riding alone.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

I started riding unsupervised at 10 yrs old. Basically was turned loose to ride once I knew how to bridle and saddle them. 

As many have said, this was in the old days, when kids were supposed to be outside doing things. Same with a bike; once you graduated from the training wheels you were on your own. I traveled everywhere by walking, bicycle or horseback on my own by the time I was ten. Was babysitting for the neighbors too. Only time my parents got mad was when the (new) family didn't bring me home until 4am. Never went back to that place, but I did charge them extra after midnight. I think i was 15 by then though, so not such a big deal. I was bored to death though because they had nothing to read and the TV shows all ended at 1am or so. So spent 3 hours doing practically nothing :evil: 

Things were different then.


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## spellbinding (Apr 15, 2018)

I have loved reading everyone's stories about riding!

I've been thinking a lot about my riding goals and what it is exactly that I want to achieve from my riding lessons.

I've only been taking lessons for about 4 months now, mostly group lessons, but I am also starting a weekly private lesson as well. 
I really just want to work towards being confident enough to own my own horse. (when my children are a little older, they are still very young which doesn't leave me with a lot of time) 

I would also love to maybe have a half lease at my barn, or elsewhere, but I don't want to take on anything before I am ready.
When I said unsupervised, I meant not in a lesson situation. I'm not sure when I would be ready to come to the barn, groom and tack up a horse and take it into the arena, round yard or paddock to ride by myself. There are always people here, and I wouldn't be going off on a hack by myself


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## ChasingDreams (Nov 14, 2017)

Change of the times for sure. My cousin and I were out exploring on horseback for miles on trails, roads, and through neighborhoods when we were maybe 12 and 13. We would sneak out of the house on nights with a full moon and take moonlight rides down the lane.

Besides riding horses, like others mention I would walk or ride my bike as far as I was willing to go. Which was sometimes quite far. 

Nowadays, if you try to give your children freedom you have to worry about a neighbor calling CYS on you. My 9-year old son walks a block to school by himself, and I know for a fact that I get side-eyed by other parents for allowing it. He is allowed to ride his bike around our block as long as he doesn’t cross any roads. And again, I feel like I’m considered to be one of the more “loose” parents in our neighborhood. My son is also incredibly responsible for his age compared to some of his peers which makes me wonder if all the coddling is really good for them in any event...


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I was pretty little, maybe 3 or 4? Well if you could call sitting on the fence waiting for my brother's pony to come by so I could jump on, going out alone....it was then. I was never supervised, I did it all myself.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

I'm in there with @Avna and @Cordillera Cowboy

I was ten when I started riding bareback behind my 15 yr old cousin, "over the river (well----a creek) and thru the woods" at breakneck speed on our maternal grandmother's 100 acre dairy farm. And She had no idea.

When I was 12, I started learning to train my paternal grandfather's young horses to ride and drive. 

He also helped me find my own horse the summer I turned 12. When I wasn't at his farm, working the horses or working for hay for my horse, I would head out the drive and down the road, bareback --- happy that mom let me go. What I didn't know, until years later, was that she had eyes all over our side of the county and knew every move I made.

My son was 8 or 9 when I let him go on my Arab/Saddlebred, with the neighbor kids. A couple of those young ladies were his babysitters, so he wasn't completely unsupervised.


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

I didn't live with my horses until I was a teenager and my mother is highly overprotective so the first time I went out alone/unsupervised I was 15 or 16 I think. :lol: 

I had been riding most of my life but was arrogant and thought I was better than I was (as most teenagers do!) and through my own bad decisions, got hurt a number of times. Which of course only galvanised my mother's insistence that I wasn't old/responsible enough to ride alone... but she couldn't stop me


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