Your first riding lesson

Moutaineer
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Your first riding lesson

Postby Moutaineer » Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:07 pm

Thinking about this as Christmas approaches.

My dear father gave me 12 riding lessons for Christmas, Exactly 50 years ago. I'd been obsessed by horses since I knew what they were. (No-one else in the family has a clue where this came from.) I think he thought I might get it out of my system. But I thank him eternally for enabling my life long passion, even if he did keep hoping I might grow out of it!

My first lesson was at Tinsley's Riding School, in Clapham, Bedfordshire in England. 10.30 on a frosty January Saturday morning. I rode a little skewbald pony called Zohrab. I remember learning how to touch my toes, the pony's ears and tail, and to do a "Round the World." All on a leadline, of course. The riding instructor was called Pat Bullen.

I can see the place now, it was a busy little school, probably 20 horses or so. It was housed in a Victorian stable yard that even had it's own forge. I remember the smell of the tack room. There were usually 6 or 8 horses in a group lesson in the sand ring, and another 6 or 8 going out on a hack around the local lanes and fields. Getting good enough to go out on a hack was the goal and the prize!

Half a century of horses and riding... it's a long time.

Do you remember your first lesson?

kande50
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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby kande50 » Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:22 pm

Moutaineer wrote:Do you remember your first lesson?


I don't, but it may have been when I took Riding and Horsemanship for PE when I was in college? I'd been riding at home since I got my first pony when I was 5, and had been trail riding and going to local shows occasionally, but I'm not sure I ever had a lesson until I started taking them when I was in college.

Rockabilly
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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Rockabilly » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:06 am

I do. I was in Austin, Texas and I had a lot of time then. I took a lot of swimming lessons and I went out to this ranch to take riding lessons. It was either swimming or riding and I took to riding like a duck to water. I loved it so much I wanted a horse of my own because after all didn't I have everything already? :lol: I had a nice big barn, lots of land, but little did I know it was all wrong. My husband remodeled the barn for me turning it truly into a well run horse barn with everything a girl could could want or need. Big stalls, rubber mats, a tack room like a kitchen, a wash rack with hot water, run-in and paddocks and acres of fenced pastures. I look back now and see my horses and I had it made. I finally did learn to ride with Rockabilly and Jim Graham.

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StraightForward
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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby StraightForward » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:21 am

I posted one of these photos this summer. My dad got me weekly riding lessons in summer of '87, thinking I would get over the horse bug and shut up about it. He pointed out when he was here this summer watching me ride, that it's been 30 years and he's still waiting. :lol: I don't remember the very first lesson vividly, but do remember that this horse's name was Devil and the riding instructor's name was Barb. She got injured in a horse accident so that put an end to my summer of lessons. I do vividly remember getting my toe stepped on right after Barb warned me to watch my feet. I bit my lip and pretended it didn't happen until we were in the car on the way home. My toe turned black and I lost my toenail.
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Tarlo Farm
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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Tarlo Farm » Sat Dec 23, 2017 1:53 pm

Liz Verbanac was the instructor, she was about 12 and many years later married a young vet student at Michigan State and he became (and still 45 years later, is) my vet. I was six. On a black shetland pony, and my older brother rode a slightly larger chestnut pony. A heavenly summer where my indulgent mom drove us 30 miles one way, twice a week.

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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Sue B » Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:45 pm

Not my first lesson, but the first place I actually learned to ride, vault and jump...LA Children's Riding Center in Sun Valley, California. It was the best. place. ever. Liz ran the place like a Pony Club so that her students all learned horsemanship in addition to riding skills. If the weather was too gnarly for a lesson, we had indoor barn management lessons instead and tack cleaning races and so on. I got to ride there for almost 2 years before we moved away. My mom very kindly made the almost 1hr, 1 way, drive out there once a week year round; although in the summer, she would just drop me off for the day. All beginner kids learned to vault first and had to "earn" there way to riding independently. Each kid had to groom and tack their own lesson horse--if it wasn't done well, the kid was sent out of the lesson to do it again.

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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Amado » Sun Dec 24, 2017 12:31 am

A week of riding camp at Golden Green Stables in Urbana, Illinois. Close to 50 years ago. I remember trying to learn to post on a mule named Kate, and going on trail rides on a horse called Sawdust who would pull the reins out of my hands to eat grass. I remember my mom sending me with lunches if bologna, mustard and lettuce on white bread, and a dime for a bottle of grape Nehi out of the pop machine.

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Chisamba
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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Chisamba » Sun Dec 24, 2017 10:52 pm

I grew up on a farm with horses. My first rides predate my memory. The tale of my climbing onto. My father's horse after sneaking out of the house at about two years old is a hazy memory. I do remember my first fall.

My first memorable riding lesson was with Denton Saunders in Lusaka. It was the first time I saw an enclosed area designated for riding with actual sand footing. The actual lesson was very harrowing and etched on my memory in a never to be forgotten way.

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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Tsavo » Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:40 am

My first lesson was at Claremont in Manhattan on or around 1970.

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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby piedmontfields » Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:58 pm

My first lesson was in 1997 with my husband at a mostly western family farm in NC. The husband and wife team separated us and took time to deliberately show us correct knots, use correct hand positions in leading, and understand how to groom and do basic tacking. I also got a demo from the husband of how much the horse ("Feature") I would ride knew: He dropped the reins on her neck and put her through some basic reining work. It was to emphasize the seat and that the horse was a schoolmaster. A wonderful first lesson for sure! We only worked with this couple about six months (health issues got in their way) but we learned a ton of good basic method.

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Re: Your first riding lesson

Postby Woost2 » Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:32 am

1958 Outlands Stables near Birmingham, MI. Hunt seat. Once a week. The first few lessons were on a lead line to learn to post. I was sure I would get it in one lesson but in fact it took 4 or so. Then into a walk-trot group lessons with, oh, upwards to 8 (10?) horses. This was a big school. Your assigned horse would be presented at the mounting block and handed off to a groom after the class. This always bummed me out. My first class was on a cremello named Creamo (after a vanilla cookie of the era). We pretty quickly learned to deal with double reins on pelham bits. Lots of the schoolies wore them. No such thing as a converter.


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