The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Lessons...

3K views 33 replies 10 participants last post by  hannahfg 
#1 ·
Ok so i have been doing a lot of thinking and would like to and have the opportunity to start dressage with Hunny. But here is my question, I leave for 5 weeks for a study abroad program in January, and when I am gone she won't be ridden. Would it be pointless for me to start lessons if I am going to be gone for five weeks?
 
#2 ·
Well, I don't have any experience with dressage. But IMO, while the five-week gap might be a small setback, you'll still be farther along if you start now rather than waiting until you get back. I know once I decide I want to do something, I just want to DO it and have little-to-zero patience to wait!
 
#3 ·
If you don't leave until January, you still have 5 months to take lessons. Why not? Even if you do one lesson a week, that's some 20 lessons. You can learn quite a bit by then! I am away from my instructor for 7 months, and if I can afford to, I try to take a lesson with a local trainer if I can. I miss taking consistent lessons, I had a lot of fun when I did. Hunny will be fine when she takes a break while you are abroad. That shouldn't stop you from working with her now. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: themacpack
#7 ·
I say go for it. If nothing else, when you return, it will be interesting to see how much of the training she (& you!) were able to retain over a five month period! :0) p.s. ENJOY your time abroad!! Lucky girl! :0)
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#11 ·
well all i have is my endurance saddle, and some western saddles that currently don't fit hunny. This is a lady that competes at the grand prix level. I am kind of scared and want to make a good first impression....AHHHH! (mini freak out session)
 
#12 ·
The endurance saddle SHOULD work...as long as it lines you up heel, hip, shoulder, ear...or pretty close...any chance the instructor has any English saddles (dressage or AP?)/that you could try on Hunny and see if any fit her? Just a thought. Communicate your fears/concerns. If you can't talk to her openly, she may not be a great trainer for you, unfortunately...Give it a try!
Best to you!!! B2H :0)
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#15 ·
I bet she will work with you, whatever it takes (if she is SMART she will, anyway!! Good instructors/trainers DO that job (as you no doubt already know, but I am gonna blab anyway! :D) because they LIKE to teach and educate people AND horses, AND usually these days are not really snobby or pretentious, because people just don't respond well to that...So...II hope she will turn out to just have the best interest of her student/s-to-be (You/and Hunny!) in mind and not worry too much about equipment so long as it fits and work at teaching the basics/building blocks!

You are gonna have so much FUN! Enjoy, lady! :-p:-p:wave:
 
#14 ·
The key thing is that it fits you and the horse, and doesn't put you into some kind of weird position. You want to be able to sit more upright than you would usually do in a jumping saddle, but the endurance saddle ought to work.

I don't know whether this is anything that would work for you, but I wanted to throw it out there just in case...I board my horse, and my barn has got a couple of non-horse-owing high-quality lesson students. They're people who are working for lessons, in some cases, in other cases, they're people who have had horses before but don't now because their pockets or schedules won't allow for it. I've met several of them, and checked for myself that they're good riders, and good people, and my horse likes them...so when I need to go away for a week or so, I let my trainer use my horse to give those people lessons on. It's a very short list, and she doesn't put anyone up on my horse that I haven't already approved. But it's a really good setup, because my horse gets exercised, my trainer gets the use of a high-end horse for her advanced students, the students get to ride something other than a schoolmaster, and I get some free training for him. I know it's not for everyone, and I would have been pretty reluctant to entertain the thought of Other People riding my boy, but it's been working out incredibly well.
 
#16 ·
Thursday- I would have someone else ride her but she's gaited and no one at my stable knows how to ride gaited. The stable that I board at is not the stable we will be going to for lessons.

The stable where Hunny is boarded consists of a bunch of people refusing to believe that
1. horses have to be fit for saddles
2. collection means nothing to them
3. they believe gaited horses are useless

So I will not have her ridden while I am gone because I won't be able to trust any of them with her. Plus it's so doggone cold here during the winter that riding outside is stupid and in many cases dangerous. Lessons are inside though!

B2H- I honestly don't know what to expect. I have been to 4-H meetings as a teen when I was in high school but besides that I have never been to an official lesson. Plus 4-H sucked because my leader only had eyes for her daughter and the 2 kids down the road. The rest of us that didn't have expensive registered horses were ignored.
 
#17 ·
B2H- I honestly don't know what to expect. I have been to 4-H meetings as a teen when I was in high school but besides that I have never been to an official lesson. Plus 4-H sucked because my leader only had eyes for her daughter and the 2 kids down the road. The rest of us that didn't have expensive registered horses were ignored.
That was my 4H experience too. I stuck it out for one year, after that I quit.

Keep us posted how the first lesson goes! I hope it goes well. Does this instructor have experience with gaited horses?
 
#19 ·
Dont need a dressage saddle to do dressage. As long as your a/p or jumping saddle doesnt push you into a two point that you have to fight all the time, you will be fine. I practice dressage in an a/p saddle. And i trail ride in the dressage saddles lol! For the basics you will be fine. :) Have fun!
 
#20 ·
Totally missed the second page on my mobile...

Gaited dressage is very up and coming, and growing increasingly popular. My barn owner and trainer in North MS are trying to teach one of my BO's TWH's to do gaited dressage. The rules and movements are pretty much the same, you just have gaits to replace the trot. Supposedly, gaited and non gaited are to be able to be judged at the same events by the same people, because they are the same tests. One just gaits and the other trots.

I have some gaited dressage pdf's on my mobile and I will try to upload them.
 
#22 ·
Lol I don't have an English saddle period. I have 2 antique western saddles (1 is in riding condition), a barrel saddle, and a treeless endurance saddle. I sold my English saddle because I thought I wouldn't need it......well whaddya know now look what I need lol
 
#23 ·
ok, now im really nervous. I have been told that this stable is one of those families that think they are the best. I spoke to some friends that said they don't feel welcome there because they don't have a lot of money or expensive horses. I am kind of nervous at this point now because I want to feel comfortable for at least one lesson in my life. I'm sick of being told I can't do crap because my horse is either different, my parents don't buy me all my horse equipment, or because I am different. You would be appalled at all the times I have been scorned because I don't wear expensive clothes to a lesson or have a super expensive horse or fancy tack.
 
#25 ·
If they're nasty to you because you don't have slick clothes and expensive specialized tack, that says more about them than it does about you. You're there to learn, they are there to teach. If they don't want to teach, they shouldn't be offering that service.

Also, when someone tells me "I didn't feel welcome at X because of Y" I find that at least half the time what it really means is not "They were nasty to me" but "I felt inadequate all of my own because I'm not as glamorous/rich/thin/beautiful/etc. as they were or as I think I ought to be." Always you have to ask yourself what the other person brought to the table. This is not a criticism of your buddies, just a comment that every person has different experiences of the same exact event depending on their mindset and personal history. YMMV.
 
#26 ·
this could be true about the stable. I have no idea what to expect. In 4-H though our leader did this to 3 of us that weren't "adequate". Our other leader however took very good care of us :)
 
#27 ·
Jeez girl, pull on those
and go have one lesson, because it is a new experience, after one lesson decide if you are going for a second.

I went to a trainer with my western horse and my western saddle because I wanted help with my lope, and she was recommended. Turned out that her major focus was dressage, and I started doing English dressage in a western saddle. It was only when I decided that I was having fun that I bought my first English saddle.

Stop worrying, go, have fun, smile, if it sucks, don't go again:wink:
 
#28 ·
Today, I trail rode a gaited mare, in a synthetic dressage saddle, wearing blue jeans, suede cowboy work boots, and a cami over a bathing suit top. We gaited, cantered, and jumped. Mare didn't care what I wore and I was comfortable despite this 92* heat. :lol:

You're looking for a service, more or less. You are not looking for a fashion guru. Clothes and tack should not matter to the instructor for basic teaching lessons as long as both clothing and tack properly fit and nothing will slip or get hung up. I would only start buying discipline purpose tack if you are looking to go into competition.

Personally, I would take up reining in a dressage saddle in a heart beat. A) I am comfortable. B) It is what I own. C) I think it would be funny. :lol:
 
#29 ·
My trainer told me that back in the day, she and her riding club cohorts would be sent home by their "high brow" trainer if they weren't spiffed up and properly put together as "it shows respect"....I laughed and said I certainly understand that "mentality" being the wife of an ex-military man.

But I also said that if that were required of me (I don't look "perfect" when going to an important evening out on the town, let alone when I'm going out to ride, work my butt off, sweat a LOT, etc...)& I've also never had the $$ for "just the PERFECT" riding clothes, so my riding would not have progress very far had an instructor sent me home till I looked perfect!

My trainer laughs now and realizes there are many other ways to know a kid/adult respects the trainer/the horse/the discipline AND the horse than by the way they are dressed/his pricey their tack and clothes/boots are, etc... :0)

I know you want acceptance....I bet anyone would quickly accept you just because you care that much...you are obviously not a slacker! Z please take it easy...I did JUST THE SAME TO MYSELF BEFORE my first volunteering day...I wasted anxiety...the situation was AMAZING and has been every since!
Hang in there and you'll see it should be GREAT!!!
Posted via Mobile Device
 
  • Like
Reactions: Failbhe
#30 ·
big girl panties- CHECK
call from trainer to pick a time- NEGATORY

as of now we won't be having a lesson tomorrow because I have not received a call from her or an email...but i have a friend that is going to train me now and is letting me borrow her Stubben and a complete tack set! woo! :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top