dont know if this affect anyone else but I realised today after 5 years of riding that I dont classify myself as a real rider! I always refer to myself in a negative way in terms of riding, always look at others and think if only I could ride properly etc, the moment of clarity came after my first solo hack in 18 months .. my horse span and cantered for home after some very scarey ponies appeared from nowhere, I managed to stop him, and turn him back round and walk on. I used to think this kind of thing only happened to me cos I couldnt ride properly, and that real riders wouldnt experience it! Today, FINALLY I realised that it happens to everyone and I got my horse over it, maybe Im a real rider after all! Just got second solo hack to get out the way now!
how many of you feel like you are not real riders?
- Thread starter yph
- Start date
I always think that everyone else is a better rider than I am. Sometimes I seem to be going backwards - getting worse instead of better! But I think I am just learning about different things such as interrupting my lessons to do some clicker training with my RI instead of riding!!
After 5 years of riding, you are probably better than you think you are. (6 years here)
After 5 years of riding, you are probably better than you think you are. (6 years here)
I just dabble.
I don't consider myself a real rider in the sense that I like to potter about on hacks with the odd bit of fast work and log thrown in.
Since seeing my horse more relaxed with a change of bit and seeing that I can get her to work properly and just need to build up the muscle to allow her to do this then I am coming round to the idea of being a proper rider! Mind you I wonder if I'll ever ride often enough to get this to happen.
I'll always just consider myself the riding equivilant of a 'Sunday Driver' though, good enough to do what I want to do and only feeling the need for lessons if I have something I can't work through by myself
I don't consider myself a real rider in the sense that I like to potter about on hacks with the odd bit of fast work and log thrown in.
Since seeing my horse more relaxed with a change of bit and seeing that I can get her to work properly and just need to build up the muscle to allow her to do this then I am coming round to the idea of being a proper rider! Mind you I wonder if I'll ever ride often enough to get this to happen.
I'll always just consider myself the riding equivilant of a 'Sunday Driver' though, good enough to do what I want to do and only feeling the need for lessons if I have something I can't work through by myself
Definately! I dont think I'll ever ''rdie' how I want to, look the way I want too, etc.
I guess its an age thing.
I guess its an age thing.
What's 'real'?
If you can sit on a horse, get it to move in the right direction and stop it again, thats riding. Degrees of skill, types of riding and how often you do it are just different ways of enjoying the same thing, not a measure of how real you are.
One of the girls (8ish?) at the yard saw me bringing Willow in on Sunday and asked are you ever going to ride her? I said I rode yesterday, and today I'm going to lunge her. Oh, she said, we didn't think you rode her. I told her that I'm not normally at the yard when they are so they don't see it. She didn't seem convinced and said she didn't think I was a proper rider.... (out of the mouths of babes!) I explained that just because I don't do lots of shows and hacks like the girlies doesn't mean I don't ride at all or don't ride 'properly'. And if I didn't, so what?
It really p*ed me off at the time, but then I just thought, who cares! I'm comfortable with what I do with my horse and I don't really care what other people think - especially if they're making assumptions based on what they do or don't see. I'm not interested in jumping or showing, and I haven't hacked out with Will yet. If that makes me less real, I can live with that!
If you can sit on a horse, get it to move in the right direction and stop it again, thats riding. Degrees of skill, types of riding and how often you do it are just different ways of enjoying the same thing, not a measure of how real you are.
One of the girls (8ish?) at the yard saw me bringing Willow in on Sunday and asked are you ever going to ride her? I said I rode yesterday, and today I'm going to lunge her. Oh, she said, we didn't think you rode her. I told her that I'm not normally at the yard when they are so they don't see it. She didn't seem convinced and said she didn't think I was a proper rider.... (out of the mouths of babes!) I explained that just because I don't do lots of shows and hacks like the girlies doesn't mean I don't ride at all or don't ride 'properly'. And if I didn't, so what?
It really p*ed me off at the time, but then I just thought, who cares! I'm comfortable with what I do with my horse and I don't really care what other people think - especially if they're making assumptions based on what they do or don't see. I'm not interested in jumping or showing, and I haven't hacked out with Will yet. If that makes me less real, I can live with that!
Completely agree.
Think we are too hung up on other peoples perceptions of us.
I expect 'professional' riders still have their moments.
Y
Yann
Guest
One person I know from my old barn and now at my current one, has had 2 horses and all she does is ride. I never heard her even talk to her horses!! She jumps in the arena and that is all. She came on a trail ride once and was totally scared and completely out of her element.
I just think she is so impersonal with her horses, not like me who likes to fuss over the horses, love to groom them and take them to graze and try to play with them.
She may be able to jump, but I think she is missing the best part.
I just think she is so impersonal with her horses, not like me who likes to fuss over the horses, love to groom them and take them to graze and try to play with them.
She may be able to jump, but I think she is missing the best part.
Im not sure if I know what a 'real rider' is. But it sounds to me that you did all the right things and managed to get your horse to do what you wanted-who cares if it doesnt look pretty as long as it works. Dont be so hard on yourself. Your supposed to enjoy it.
thanks everyone, and nice to hear that im in the same boat as a lot of others. by real rider, i guess i mean on who i have always aspired to be.... but im not even sure it exists now... you know the ones that dont appear to have any fear, just get on with it, seem to know what they are talking about etc etc etc, i have met a few or so i thought, i think im finally starting to realise that everyone prob feels like us at some point, and we all have to start somewhere.
Do know exactly what you mean. Yard I share horse is very friendly, but they're all really rather good, doing large scarey competitions and looking super fab when schooling. So despite being far older, I feel inadequate next to them. Sometimes makes me feel like giving up, other times, urges me on to try and get better. Depends on my mood!
Thos are not always "real riders" they are the ones who make you think they know what they are on about, but generally they are over confident and have lost the ability and humility to look to the horse for feed back!
"Real riders" might not be the ones at the front of the hunting field, the ones clearing the 5 foot high 6 foot wide spread. The real rider is maybe they one nobody has noticed, taking the horse for a walk in hand or plodding about on a hack! Quietly getting on with things and not imparting a load of nonsense to all an sundry who'll listen!
I have been riding over 50yrs and still dont think I am good I just plod on now enjoyimg riding and still come off now and then
Hi
I was doing okay I thought with my guy - have built up trust over the last 8 months- we have got to know each other and although I always put my riding down I for a few months felt I was doing it THEN it only takes one loud mouth insensitive person who thinks they know all there is to know about you and your horse and a few comments like What bit do you ride in ? If that were me I wouldnt and bingo you start questioning your riding ability and then that cycle starts happening cos your horse feels that insecurity and riding changes- Good rider WHAT does that mean ? Well I do not care from tommorrow I have my fingers stuck in my ears and will go back to what we were doing which was working as we were having a fab time !
I was doing okay I thought with my guy - have built up trust over the last 8 months- we have got to know each other and although I always put my riding down I for a few months felt I was doing it THEN it only takes one loud mouth insensitive person who thinks they know all there is to know about you and your horse and a few comments like What bit do you ride in ? If that were me I wouldnt and bingo
you start questioning your riding ability and then that cycle starts happening cos your horse feels that insecurity and riding changes- Good rider WHAT does that mean ? Well I do not care from tommorrow I have my fingers stuck in my ears and will go back to what we were doing which was working as we were having a fab time !
You might think you have met a few. Some people talk a good 'fearless' rider, but they don't exist and the ones that have that demenour in my experience tend to be insensitive to the horse, so I wouldn't want to to be like them!
I do know what you mean though. I don't think I really felt like a real rider until last summer when I started to take the gorgeous one out to competitions - sometimes even alone
That said I wouldn't do what you did! I have hacked out alone as a personal challenge, but I won't do it now and if I'd been in your position, after I'd managed to pull the horse up, I would have got off, never mind turned it back around to carry on I would like to be able to do what you did, but I'm a scardy cat about hacking. Does that make me less real as a rider? Nah! 
I have been riding for nine years but I am not a real rider because I haven't got a horse. The horses I ride are trained generally by someone else and are good at their job so I wouldn't know what to do if (when?) I get my own.
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