Get Out and Ride
November 26, 2012
Don’t let a lack of confidence keep you from having fun horseback riding.
Confidence makes riding safer and more fun. Journal photo.
By AQHA Professional Horseman Richard Shrake in America’s Horse
John, 67, has a horse that his daughter, Kathy, used to show. Now that Kathy has left for college, John wants to go from being the go-fer and the groom to learning how to ride and, possibly, compete. The trouble is, now he’s embarrassed that even though he has been around horses for 15 years, he can’t actually walk the walk.
He’s not alone.
There are a variety of factors that can cause you to lose or lack confidence, regardless of your age. I run into a lot of 40 and older people who want a horse, but are scared they’re going to get hurt. I tell these horse lovers that if they go to a riding facility that has the proper animals and good instruction, their chances of getting hurt on a bicycle are higher than getting hurt on a horse.
Lack of confidence is what holds them back.
Build Confidence
Confidence is built with small steps. Reading about the proper way to adjust your stirrups, hold the reins and mount the horse is a good place to start.
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Second, take riding lessons from a reputable instructor that you feel comfortable with and who uses good, sound schooling horses. Find an AQHA Professional Horseman or a Certified Horsemanship Association instructor near you.
Third, get to know your horse’s personality.
I use a lot of word pictures with beginning riders. For example, when it comes to horses, are you working with a Jack Russell Terrier – a horse with a lot of energy – or do you have a laid-back Basset Hound? If you’re working with a Jack Russell Terrier – a Dash For Cash-bred horse, for example – you’re over-mounted if you’re a beginner. There are other bloodlines – Zippo Pine Bar, for example – better-suited for beginners.
If you start out on “Zippo,” you can make some mistakes; he’s a lot more forgiving. So, when you go to a lesson facility, you need to ask questions and talk about the lesson horses’ breeding backgrounds.
Learn how to pick up your horse’s feet, how to walk with him and how to handle and control him.
Then start filling your mind full of good information about horses. That will give you the confidence that you’re capable of selecting the right horse when it comes time to buy one, and that you’re not going to make the mistake of buying one because of his color, his big, brown eyes, or because he puts his head on your shoulder.
Feel the Love
Megan, 17, has a brand-new horse, who is far more sensitive – that Jack Russell disposition – than her previous horse. As a result, she’s having trouble bonding with him and is starting to lose interest in riding.
Megan has to realize that this horse has got to be like a best friend. She can’t blame him for his reactionary, sensitive attitude. She needs to find a way to make him a good friend – someone she’d like to be around all the time.
She needs to establish a routine with her horse. For example, when she goes to get him from his stall or run every day, she needs to follow a routine like this:
• Catch his eye
• Release endorphins – the “feel good” hormones in every animal; in a horse, you can rub his ears, poll and cheeks
• Halter him
If he has a tendency to be a little quick, then do just the opposite with him, be slow: walk slow, turn slow. That brings his energy level down.
Next, Megan needs to get her horse into what I call “herd mode” – when he becomes a follower. That Jack Russell Terrier horse needs leadership bad. She can establish herself as the leader by practicing ground work – haunch and forehand turns – with him.
If you study horses in the wild, the one way the leader of the herd sets up the pecking order is by moving the other horses’ spaces. So when you move your horse’s shoulder or hip, you’re basically telling him to trust you and that you’ll take care of him.
Give Her the Gate
Donna has inherited her daughter’s show horse and loves the challenge of trail obstacles. Except gates. Every time Donna and “Dolly” get close to a gate, Dolly shies away from it.
What’s happening is that when Donna reaches out for the gate latch, she is actually leaning out with her upper body. This causes her inside leg to press against the mare’s side, which is telling the horse to move away. To fix this, Donna needs to practice keeping her upper body in the middle of the horse and practice reaching out with her arm – essentially training herself to move those parts of her body independently from one another.
One exercise that you can do is to put your hands under your seat bones while sitting in a chair. Then tip your upper body to the left. The second you feel your right seat bone come off of your hand means you’re losing the softness in your back, that independent movement. But do that until you can lean 8 to 10 inches either way without taking the seat bone pressure off your hand.
Something for Everyone
The one thing that truly gets a rider to connect with his or her horse is breathing. Say a horse starts to get a little excited. What happens to the rider? She gets tight and inhales, and her seat bones jab the horse in the back, which startles the horse. It’s a vicious circle. If your horse gets excited, you need to exhale. What happens when you exhale? Your body relaxes.
Equally important are your eyes, the computer to your body that continually says, “There’s a tree up there” or “There’s a little hill.” While you’re riding, the second you drop your eyes, that computer shuts off.
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I encourage what I call an “open eye,” which teaches a rider that if she feels herself getting tight, she needs to look around, look where she’s going. So then she doesn’t make any quick moves. Quick moves startle horses.
It’s like a skier. If a skier looks at the tips of his skis, he’s going to have a wreck. A skier needs to look ahead down the slope to see what’s coming.
Last, but not least, learn pre-signals that tell your horse what you want him to do before you do it.
If you look at reiners or dressage riders, they don’t over-pull or drag on their horses for direction. They prepare the horse by using their bodies – by slowly turning their upper body in the direction they want to go when getting ready to turn or by putting more weight in their seat before they say “Whoa” to stop.
So if you put all three parts of this puzzle together – the breathing, eyes and pre-signals – the connection to your horse is there. Then you also need to prepare yourself mentally and think positively, and look at riding your horse as something that’s going to be fun.
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8 Comments on “Get Out and Ride”
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November 26th, 2012 at 10:13 am
Thank you for this article. I re-started riding again at 50 after watching my daughter with her horse that we bought for her the year before. I thought it would be fun to get back into riding after a 35 year absence but not taking into consideration that her horse was too much horse for me at the time. She had been riding for 6 years up to the point we bought her own so she had a lot of confidence and she picked a horse that would challenge her a bit. She’s a mare that is paint/arab X with attitude. My first time of tacking her up by myself she tried to pin me against the wall. I didn’t understand her at all so I went to riding the lesson horses at the stables and got my confidence level up. We also ended taking my daughter’s horse to a professional trainer for ground manners. Now she’s like a different horse. We’ve had her for 2 years now and I have done ground work with her and rode her some as well and it’s getting better. I have also bought my own horse now, he’s a 7 year old QH that was in the Reining pro-circuit and trained by a well known trainer. So I have an amazing horse and my confidence level is going up. My horse takes good care of me and is very forgiving of my mistakes. I still have a ways to go but I’m getting there. It was a shaky start but I took myself down a few levels to the beginning and didn’t let my ego get the best of me. I see some ladies my age who purchase hot horses and jump on them and can’t figure out why they can’t control them. They are beautiful but are hard to ride. Perhaps I’m a chicken but I’d rather ride a horse that wants to please me rather than one that just wants to do it’s own thing. I’ve actually had one of those ladies tell me that it would be boring to ride my horse because he is well trained. Well, if you don’t know his buttons to push then it can be frustrating and somewhat exciting. I’m still taking lesson and will continue as long as I can. There is always something to learn and I enjoy the company of the other women. I’m just a bit too old now to go to the rodeo and ride, I just want to go to the rodeo and watch the others ride. Thank you very much.
November 26th, 2012 at 10:55 am
Yes thank you for the article. I just started back to riding after 3 1/2 yrs. I sold my mare and had to wait for her son to be eligible /ready to ride. He is now 5 and we started riding in January of this year. I just turned 70 yrs. He jusst turned 5 in Mar. I moved him to a new stable that had amounting steps and another boarder helped us to start our
riding. He is of barrel racing lines, but a real sweet loving gelding. He is my 5th generation. He is of Three Bars, Poco Bueno, Rebel Cause, Dash For Cash lines with also Leo, has a great attitude and disposition. Loves me to a T. We have great communication. Thru him I got my confidence back. I bred for a fast trail horse and that is our goal. I agree as for the Rode-oing, me too my Rode-o days are over, so now I have a nice sweet horse to confidently ride. He has alot of spirit, but when mama’s aboard he takes care of me. If something isn’t right whether it be the saddle,cinch, bit or something with bothering him he lets me know. He is exceptionly smart. It has been 26 yrs. since I bought a horse, so raising my own I know their personality, pedigree, attitudes, what I will expect, what they will do. I did alot of ground training, I still work him on ground work. I’ve been into horses and riding for 46 yrs. The 3 yr. break didn’t take away any experience, some of my confidence in dealing with a young horse in my late 60′s to my 70th year, but we are doing great. So keep up the good work Kathy you’ll do great as I am.
Again thanks for the article it gives us Seniors alot of go power and more confidence.
November 26th, 2012 at 11:06 am
P.S. When we’re thru riding he knows, I say ok, and he heads for the mounting steps and stops, waits for me to dismount. He is neck reining pretty good, I use voice commands. I’ve gotten alot compliments on him, everyone at the stable where we board jusst love him.
So Kathy, keep up your confidence, as we get older it kinda slows down and drifts away a little, it’s almost like driving a car down the hwy.
November 26th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
What a great article. Thank you!!! I started riding when I was eight, and never thought I wouldn’t have a horse. But, to quote a favorite song, “sometimes life gets in the way.” After 15 years with no horse the universe smiled on me and dropped my dream right in my lap. That first couple of years “back in the saddle” I had a couple of horses. It was so hard. I still knew what I knew, but my timing was horrible and my confidence took a plunge. My horses were good, but not what I needed.I realized that I had to determine just what I wanted to do with a horse. And just how much time I had to do it. Then I found Chester. A wonderful Windchester grandson. This horse has changed my life. It has not been a been a bowl of cherries, but from the first day I owned him I have never felt like I couldn’t handled whatever came our way. He was well trained. He isn’t a confrontational horse at all. He will always try his best. He has some draw back. He’s huge. 17 hands. He is not real atheletic. And he has a little bit of a stiff hip. He’s not perfect, but he is perfect for me. I can ride alone. I can go out with other riders. I can just sit on him and visit. He will do his best to ride through anything I ask of him. He allows me the challenge I need, but he doesn’t challenge me. We have gone to some cow working clinics, and, in the past 2 years I have become passionate about traditional Californio bridle horses. With the guidance of my friends Pat and Deb Puckett I have been able to pursue that with my wonderful AQHA gelding. Last winter I started riding one of our other horses, a broodmare that hadn’t ever been ridden. I ended up getting dumped, and hurt. Couldn’t ride for 3 months. My confidence plunged again. When I finally got back on, Chester of course.3 months off and still, he walked right out, ears up, confident, and taking care of me. I swear I could hear him say “I know that mare is cute, but she will never give you what I do.” He’s right. Chester is not a perfect horse, but he is perfect for me. It took some time for me to define just what I wanted, and what I wanted to do. The right horse gave me that time. And was happy to do it. Hooray for my American Quarter Horse.
November 27th, 2012 at 5:04 am
There’s nothing like being happily “back in the saddle again.” Enjoyed reading the article, the tips, and the sharing.
November 27th, 2012 at 5:48 am
This article is so timely for me. I have a wonderful 12 year old Paint Mare. I took a spill back in June (ended up with sciatica) and then overturned my left ankle in early October. My left toes are still a little numb. I did little more than feed and had help cleaning stalls. It was difficut to even brush or pick hooves. Needless to say the mare has been out to pasture for five months.It’s time to start riding again and I must admit I am a little hestitant at 56 years old. I am going to start small, do more ground work,etc. Our goal is to get back out on the trails. I usually ride alone. Also an older gelding went to the great beyond on May soIam back to two horses and must deal with my other horse (19 y. o. QH mare) becoming very upset when we ride off.
I will build my and Jewel’s faith and confidence again, because there is nothinglike the feeling of being one with a horse out in nature.
November 29th, 2012 at 4:56 am
An inspiring article for many who like the idea of riding. There are of course many opportunities to get involved with horses for those who don’t fancy riding straight away. Such as racehorse yards and other equestrian facilities which require a lot of hands on staff which don’t necessarily have to ride the horses but to help care for them. If you love horses and enjoy the fresh air then this can be a great way to get involved without needing to be a competent rider.
November 30th, 2012 at 7:42 am
So proud if the young ladies that replied to the article for getting back in the saddle. I still have my 27 yr old barrel horse from high school. Ive keep riding after I married and moved, but when my daughter turned ten a couple years ago she wanted to start riding. I had to shop for the perfect fit for her because the two I had were too much and too big for a beginner. We thought we found one, but he was too much for her. Finally found her a precious Qtr paint mare that was a pasture ornament. While we were working on training her new paint mare, my daughter was able to ride my 27 yr old mare and place in local shows and went to state championship this September. My old mare with age on her was slowed down enough for my daughter to get her confidence level up. She can now say she trained her paint mare. Since my daughter is showing, she wants me to show again. I sold my gelding, offspring from old mare, in January. Ive found two grey aqha mares that I thought were a fit for me, but they didn’t fit me. I need one like my old mare so my daughter and I decided to find a young Hancock/Blue Valentine filly. She had it all like my old mare. I’ve only had her 4weeks and she is a joy to ride. We have mastered riding bareback, carries the American flag, crosses ditches, plows through brush in woods, and can chase a cow, loves the barrels and poles. She looks to be my all around performance horse. Im hoping she will be a replacement for my old mare.