[feathersdoesntlikecanter]

I’ve been riding for about a year (started when I was 15), give or take a few weeks. I can confidently trot/2point/sitting trot/pole work and I can sit the canter fine (although haven’t had much experience in this gait). I was wondering if anyone else had started in their teens and where they might be now, say 5+ years in the future? I’m not sure how long before I can say, confidentiality, that I have experience as a lot of my peers have been riding for years previously?
🐎🐎

 

[bsms]

Sorry. I started at 50. I'm sure I've been more cautious than a 10 year old, and probably more analytical in my approach, but I'm not sure how much my horse cares.

 

[Avna]

This is a common question on this board, always from teenage or young adult riders. There simply is no real answer except "it depends". It depends on your natural talent, how good your teachers are, how much you apply yourself, and how much practice you get on what kinds of horses.

A talented athlete with great sympathy for horses, intense drive to improve, the best teachers, access to a wide variety of horses, who can ride hours every single day, is going to be a better rider in five years than someone who is somewhat uncoordinated, has trouble understanding horses and training, doesn't have much ambition, and gets a lesson once a week on a dull spoiled mount by an indifferent instructor.

I can assure you, however, that constantly comparing yourself to others is the royal road to unhappiness.

 

[ACinATX]

I can assure you, however, that constantly comparing yourself to others is the royal road to unhappiness.

Yes! There will always be someone who is a better rider than you, who learns faster than you, who has a bond with a horse that you don't, who owns a fancy horse that was imported from Europe, etc. If you compare yourself to them you will ALWAYS fall short, so don't!

I will also say that it depends on how often you ride. So, it's not like you would say "I've been riding for a year so I should be able to do X" but rather, "I've had 100 hours of horse time so I should be able to do X." Someone who rides five times a week will obviously progress faster than someone who rides once a week.

As a practical example, my daughter started riding 2.5 years ago, age 12, first once a week then twice a week. She can walk, trot, canter, do poles, and some dressage. But she can also ride out a buck and can convince her grumpy ex-ranch mare to stay on the rail, which I have to tell you is no small thing. She's been riding this grumpy mare exclusively for two years. If she had been riding a lesson horse all that time, she'd be jumping courses by now. But her mare can't jump (physical issues) so she just does flatwork. Anyone else who rides this mare is shocked by what my daughter can get out of her, because she is just so grumpy and uncooperative in general. So, my daughter has learned to be really good rider to her horse in 2.5 years, rather than to be a competitive rider on a well-trained and compliant horse. So, your progress will also be determined by your own goals and the horse(s) you have to pursue those goals with.