Riding lessons "Help!"

So, I've been looking into taking riding lessons for sometime and am looking for a good instructor. Well, one of my dad's friends offered to give me lessons for free. But he isn't an instructor....he owns a tack shop. And they won't be lessons focused on getting me into reining or cutting and team penning, just how to do basic riding. It's really nice and stuff for him to offer that to me and parents are sooo happy because its free, but I know how you have to be on the lookout and really look into this stuff because a lot of people have lots of different opinions on how to ride and I don't want to learn how to ride from this guy and then turn around and take real lessons and learn I've been doing wrong and have to relearn everything, which would make taking "lessons" from this guy a waste of time. And I really don't know what to look for to see if what he teaches me isn't the right or proper way to ride (by the these are western riding lessons if you need to know). I just don't know what to do...what do you think I should do?

Well, maybe you could just take a few lessons from him to actually learn the basic stuff and then quickly move on from there? If it's strictly a one or the other decision than I would definitely try to find a real instructor though. Good luck!

First how dose this guy ride him self ? Have you seen him on a horse? Do you ride now ? Before you jump to the condition that he could not teach you any thing see how he rides, he may not be teaching but that dose not mean that he dose not know what he is doing it maybe a good place to start your riding lessons?? :)

I guess it depends on your own level. If you are a rank beginner, then anyone with a modest amount of experience can teach you something. But, if you already know the basics and want to specialize, it might be best to find a proper teacher. It really depends on the teacher. Some folks are very good , natural instructors and some are just nice people, but don't know how to teach well.

Perhaps you can let him be aware that you want to find a reining teacher, after a dozen lessons with him.

Well, what are you doing now, riding wise?

You can't teach a reining horse how to spin without first teaching it to lead. Same for riding. You have to start somewhere. Learning from tack shop Joe is better than sitting on your thumbs waiting for reining master Tom to scoop you up and take you under his wing.

As my dad says "A little bit of something is worth a whole lot of nothing."
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No, I've never seen him ride, and yes I ride a little bit with my cousin. But this is the problem, I don't really know what to look for if he's not riding the proper way. I don't know...I don't really know the guy except he's in his 60's and used to be my dad's baseball coach. I already have a place picked out to take lessons from...I'm just so confused on what I should do! I personally would rather take REAL lessons from a REAL instructor...but I don't know!

That's is true though, it would be nice to get on a horse and ride, I haven't done it a while.

If your a beginner you need flat lessons first, before you really "specialize" in anything. Check it out if its free!! Better then throwing $50 away on a reining trainer to teach you basices when I can do it for half the price! ;)
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There's a lot that can be learned from old time riders ;)
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I would try it!

Don't prevent yourself from learning. When you finally get "real" lessons, your "real" instructor can correct you and teach you better. And when you switch instructors, that person will tweak a little more. And then it will happen again when you move again.

What you need are the basics like handling and balance. You also need to experience different types of horses. Lazy ones, quiet ones, spooky ones, trained ones, less than trained ones, logs with ears... The more horses you learn how to handle, the better off you will be. You have plenty of time to find a reining barn and go that route. Get your personal groundwork done first.

Don't turn down an opportunity to learn. If there ever comes a point where you do not want to learn, then you have stopped growing and can no longer become more or better. You can learn something from everyone.

If you had said this man was an accountant, then maybe you wouldn't assume he knows anything about horses. Tack store though. That is promising. You have to have a good knowledge of the products you are selling and what they are used for to run a shop like that. I wouldn't count him out.
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Never hurts to have a person on the ground giving you pointers, whether it be from an instructor or a person who owns a tack store and knows a bit about riding. Free is free, take the lessons!