How can I improve my horseback riding skills?

Question

I'm feeling kind of down on myself. I'm very critical and I don't think I'm that great at riding. I don't know if it is because I expect too much in too little time or because I just suck. Anyways, is there anything I can do to improve my riding skills? I just want to be that person who people watch and say 'wow she's good!' you know?

Answer 1

;)

Hmmm....as Confuscious would say,  "It takes one to know one!"

In other words, if all you're desiring by becoming a better rider is not to make your horse love you more, but other to people to "look" at you more, then you're not going to find that approval you're seeking from the crowd you desire it from.

What makes people think someone is a "good" rider, is judged by how her horse handles under her, and also how that same rider is able to duplicate similar results in other horses she rides, in other words, it's her true ability that people key in on.  You as a rider should be "good" enough to reproduce similar to the same results in the horses you ride!

Answer 2

Riding is all about riding really often.  I used to ride twice a week, then I started riding every day... that's when I improved the most.  Now during the school year I can only ride once a week and I'm actually getting worse.  To develop your leg muscles you need to ride a lot.  So the more you can ride the better.  Maybe you can find someone who is willing to let you ride their horse once a week or more so that you can ride in addition to your lesson... maybe if they don't have a lot of time to ride their own horse, they'll appreciate having you ride occasionally.

The other thing I recommend is watching really good riders a lot.  When I was beginning I had 2 things that helped me a lot: (1) I was taking a riding class which involved both a riding and written portion... that means that I had a book describing what you should be doing with your body...  It's one thing to have someone tell you things while you're on a horse.  It's another thing to read about it and focus on what you ought to be doing.  One person can only focus on so many things during an hour lesson.  If you're not keeping your heels down, they're going to focus on that instead of reminding you about your heels, keeping your shoulders back, keeping your wrists straight, your head up and eyes forward, and posting the correct diagonal.  If you spend some of your own time thinking about your posture and your wrists and your shoulders, it'll be easier for you to do those things during your lessons... then your instructor can help you with more advanced things like doing a turn on the forehand with the horse or something like that.

(2) I had a wide variety of people to ride with.  There were beginners and some advanced riders in my group.  And there were groups of really advanced riders who rode before and after me... so I would stick around and watch those lessons to learn from them.  And I'd look at a lot of pictures from my friends horse shows to see what they looked like and what I should look like.  When I started jumping, my instructor was surprised that I had never jumped before because I knew exactly what I was supposed to do... she asked if I had watched people jump and I said that I looked at pictures of people jumping all the time... she said that she could tell because I was learning to jump so easily.  So I really recommend looking at horse show pictures online... see if you can critique what the riders are doing... the more you see what good riders look like, the more you'll be able to make yourself look like one.

I wouldn't feel too bad if I were you.  You really need to ride more often to be able to advance.  Those people who are really good have certainly been riding a lot longer than you.  And think about all the people you're already better than... there's beginners who are having trouble posting who think you're an amazing rider!