What to do?

[JodieB]

As some of you know I had a fall about 3 weeks ago from a horse who was a bit bonkers in my lesson, she was also a horse new to the school. Whilst I got straight back on, the horse was clearly not happy so RI put me on another horse at the end of my lesson, to make sure I didn't lose too much confidence I think. It was all fine.

I then, after a couple of days realised I had hurt myself a lot more than I first realised so am having a few weeks off before going back.

I have a few friends and work colleagues all quite experienced riders who are saying to me that the riding school should never have put a beginner on a horse that was new to the school and so unpredictable (to be fair they probably didn't know how unpredictable she was until this happened!)

I think part of the reason may because they are small school who haven't been running that long and they seem to only have 3 or 4 horses that are big enough for adults.

I am planning to go back to lessons in a couple of weeks but I am now questioning myself as to whether I should go somewhere else for now. The lady who runs the school is lovely but I wonder if this is the wrong school for me at the moment and maybe I need a larger school with more horses suitable for beginners.

What do you think?

 

[Jessey]

Any horse can be unpredictable, even a saint of a school horse can do something/have a bad day/object to pain and cause a student to fall. I totally understand your hesitance to go back but I would say pop in and have a chat to the owner/manager, ask what she thinks happened that day with that horse. You are sensible enough to know if you are being fobbed off with a 'nothing happened, she's just spirited' compared to a 'she's not behaved like that before and we weren't expecting it but we are now doing x, y, z to retrain her', then you can make a decision from there about if they were negligent in putting you on her and if you should go back. TBH it's probably just one of those things and most schools will have more ponies than big horses because most of their clients are small so you may not have any more choice at a big school anyway.

 

[carthorse]

I'm inclined to agree that the school shouldn't have put a beginner on a horse that was new to the school, it would have made sense to me to use her for a few experienced riders first. However they may have done that and seen her as suitable for a beginner, as @Jessey says any and every horse can be unpredictable. If you like the school then I wouldn't let this put you off, particularly as they put you on something else at the end so you finished on a good note - finding a teacher you get on with isn't always as easy as you'd think and while bigger schools may have more horses to choose from they can also be a bit impersonal. I agree with Jessey's idea about popping in for a chat and seeing how you feel after that, and it might also help if you could fit in a couple of private lessons when you can get back on.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Trewsers]

If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have maybe been a bit more careful about where I had lessons as an adult. I totally trusted my RS and touch wood nothing untoward happened apart from the odd fall - but I did however have one which left me rather dented and worried about cantering. I can't go into details on here but I do know that at one point they had a horse that they ended up returning to the dealer after he'd been used in lessons (myself being one of the riders) because he was deemed totally unsuitable. Now looking back that did worry me and I think on their part was a bit irresponsible given that the horse was new and unsettled anyways. Sorry long waffle there! lol
It sounds like the school you are going to is good in one sense if you like the owner and feel you can talk to them - that's half the battle, feeling comfortable enough to be able to speak up if you're concerned about anything. I second the advice on private lessons too - I did get a lot out of mine, and they helped me with some confidence issues back then.

 

[Huggy]

In the early days of my riding, I went to a few different schools. I think I probably had a scary experience at every one! Some were avoidable, some were not. One that sticks in my mind was a fairly novice rider on a horse that everyone wanted to ride - he was a wonderful schoolmaster - jumped, hacked, schooled beautifully. We were out on a hack, got to an open space for a canter, she wobbled a bit and her whip touched him in just the wrong place at just the wrong moment. He bucked, she came off and broke her collarbone. Just thoroughly bad luck, and it sounds like it was that way for you, though it's not fair to put you on a new horse. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, but if you do go back, insist on a good plodder, who'll give you a nice stolid easy time of it, until you get your confidence back. Hope you're healing.

 

[newforest]

I went to a small school that only had nine ponies. The new one was ridden by the staff initially to see how they settled into that environment.
I guess one thing is certain, that's your first fall done with, it won't be your last but I hope any future ones will be less painful.
The fact they removed you from the horse suggests they realised things weren't going well for either of you, and rectified it.
Horses behave in response to their rider, so it maybe that are foot perfect for an experienced rider, but unsure of one who is unsure themselves.
I think a beginners horse can be hard to find, simply because it's the confident experienced rider that decides it is. But then the confident rider tends to find all horses fine.