Experienced riders- Would you ever allow an inexperienced rider to lope/canter for fun?
....Seems like a pretty obvious question.
I was flipping channels the other day and came across a show where these kids visited a ranch and learned to horseback ride for the first time. They were clearly bottom of the barrel novices. They could not even boost themselves into the saddle. And yet, pretty soon, they were cantering and going pretty fast. This all happened in the course of a day. It really caught me by surprise that these ranchers would ever allow these children to go so out of control. They looked no older than 12 and could barely handle these animals.
I suppose it bothered me since I'm sure most of us probably weren't allowed to canter until we mastered the trot. Most instructors would never allow their students to do this until they were comfortable. So I'm askin' you: do you agree with this? Or am I just being grumpy? I've heard of this happening with dude ranches too.
It's a silly thing to bring up, but it just seems....odd to me is all.
Forward is Your Friend2010-04-09T21:06:13Z
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No, I don't approve.
It always made me wince when my father told me his old boy scout stories when they were thrown onto horses in Montana and took off at a gallop...that couldn't have been pretty. Nothing like a group of 15 year old boys bouncing around like a sack of potatoes, jumping logs at a full gallop in a western saddle. *shivers*
It probably took me a few months before my instructors at the time let me try to canter (more of a lope on the horses I was riding). Even after months of riding, I could barely make the horse go. I recall being very behind...I kind of looked like I was riding a motorcycle. My first fall was during the up transition when learning to canter.
After remembering how awful I was at cantering, I see places like you described throwing people in the saddle and slapping the horse's @$$ and say, "just hold on to the saddle horn!"
It's not that I don't want people to have fun, it's just that I worry for their safety and of the horse.
Just making sure that I understand correctly. You own the horse, and are partially leasing him to the 4H barn? You are getting a break in the cost of the board in exchange for allowing them the use of the horse in lessons? If that is the case, then you could certainly cancel the lease agreement. Your horse will lack exercise during the week, but may be more tractable (have less energy) for your daughter when she is riding. I can see that there may be more than one issue. The first would be that your daughter is not able to ride as often as a horse needs to be exercised, so if other people are riding him, his training is (potentially) progressing faster than hers is. So when she tries to ride, he is reacting to cues that she is unaware that she is giving, or alternatively, he is not reacting to cues that she believes she is giving. it is possible that her level of ability as a rider is less than the horse's level of sensitivity, and he is reacting honestly. The interpretation by people is almost always that the horse is at fault and is misbehaving, when the reality is that the horse is doing what it is being asked to do. (Whether you mean it or not!) The second would be that the horse is being over-used and is turning sour. It is not necessarily true that 'the more he is ridden, the better he will be'. Horses need time off every week, just like people do. They need to be used for a certain amount of time in a day, and not longer, and they need work that does not just irritate them. Not all horses have the disposition to be lesson horses. So if your horse is being ridden five or six days a week, one or two times, that would be ideal. Sometimes, three times is fine. I don't mean going three hours in a row, either, I mean a morning, afternoon and/or evening training of between 20 minutes to 60 minutes per time. Having said that, it is rare to never that a very experienced rider cannot convince a 'sour' or overworked horse to do what it is asked. The solution for the sour horse is to determine what its current workload is, and then make a more reasonable schedule. Thirdly, there is the possibility that the 4H barn instructors are not very good, and the riders are not being taught properly, and they are damaging his training or attitude. They may be riding too hard, using wrong bits, spurs, who knows? There is the possibility that they are 'ruining' your horse. In which case, you will have to insist that they do not use him for lessons. It would be a good idea to find a rider who you are happy with to ride him during the week when you cannot come out. Has he changed for the worse since you brought him to that barn? Was he different before, and how was he different?
Im a Certified Riding Instructor, a Trainer for 25 years, And a rider of 35 years.
That is VERY unsafe, NO you are not being Grumpy, I have never allowed children to Even Trot the First day on a Horse, The child could get hurt very bad, as well as the horse..
Children need to Gradually Make their way up to a Trot, and YES once they master the Trot they go to a Lope....
It all depends on the rider and the horse. If one of my brother's (not-so-horsey) friends come over, and they are mentally stable, over eighteen years old, and I put them on a trained horse...maybe they could try loping a little. If a six year old beginner rider comes over even if he's on a good horse then no loping. Now no one in their right mind would put a little kid or an inexperienced teen/adult on a crazy unfinished horse but if they did--still no loping! Well if it was a crazy horse then who knows what it'd do!!!
Personally I wouldn't try it with someone on their first day it should at least take 3-4 days to teach some one to lope a horse properly. It can be the hardest gait to manage for a beginner rider and a lot of times if you push them to far too fast in their riding they will fall off and possibly get hurt.
But remember those horses at the dude ranches are often, you know, bombproof (not saying accidents couldn't happen) but the staff are well-experienced and the absolute last thing they want is for someone to get hurt it would ruin their reputation. I wouldn't worry about it.
Another thing, it was TV. The land where cars fly, mice talk, and skittles come from rainbows. They might have taught the kids to ride before filming or maybe they taught them between the shots. MAYBE. Maybe not. Just saying, they could have. Or maybe they had riding lessons/experience before ever coming on the show at all.
it depends on the attitude, suppleness and natural balance of the rider.
I had a small French boy come with his class mares for a ride. He was tiny in comparison to his peers and loved riding. He hadn't ever even touched a horse before let alone ridden one. Eric then missed school and would be at the stables every day and he just didn't care what he had a go at doing. Yes, I let him canter and when he and another boy, who could ride, wanted a gallop I told them to wait until I had reached a certain point with the rest of the riders and they could gallop to catch up. They cam charging along, disappearing from my sight for about 100 yards - the pony Eric was riding appeared minus Eric and the other boy was nearly falling off from laughing so hard. Eric had tried to stand in the saddle - at a gallop - and had of course fallen off. He was fine and was running like a greyhound to try and catch the pony.
Personally I think there is to much health and safety involved in teaching riding nowadays. It should be first of all, fun. As long as the horse is not suffering then why not let a person who wants to canter, canter?