Well, I said last year that I wanted to start again and so after 8 years of not riding I've got my first lesson booked for Wednesday at 6pm at a local riding school.

I can't believe how expensive it is now though!!  I guess because when I used to ride before and I had my own horse (which being a teenager my parents paid for) I didn't really have much of a clue as to how much lessons were (I used to work at the Stables at a weekend and get my lesson free).

Its £20 for a half hour private and £29 for an hours lesson.  That means nearly £30 a week for my new hobby - eeeek!!!!

Still, I'm really looking forward to it - I've got the old excitable feelings stirring again and I can't wait!!!!

Having said that I fully expect to not be able to move on Thursday/Friday!!!

Have fun :) Its still cheaper than keeping one of your own these days. I am lucky that I keep my 5 at home so it only costs me for feed and shoeing - but £50 a set of shoes every 6 weeks is not cheap! Not to mention insurance - ranging from £200 - £400 each for mine per year.

Id love to start riding again, I just cant find the time right now and after reading this I think I might be hard pushed to find the money (I could always cancel my Saturday night out )

blondebird88 - I've substituted my Saturday night out with a couple of bottles of vino in - its much cheaper!!  I've got the added bonus that my OH is a DJ and we've got decks etc all set up in our living room complete with flashing lights, lazers, bubble machines and the works and so I'm partying at home instead!!!  :-)

Thanks ChloeH :-)  I've already been making mental sums as to whether I'd be able to afford my own again eventually!!  I think a lottery win or a serious pay-rise are needed first though!!

I used to love riding, and horses were my passion before dogs really; I was esp. interested in the Arabian and used to collect all sorts of Arab photos, books etc. I would love my own horse - i got to the stage where the best riding school closed down and i refused to support the not so good ones - but it's just not going to happen due to time, money etc...

Good luck Charanda, hope you have fun with your riding.

Lindsay
X

I love arabs. I have a chestnut arab mare and boy is she fiery! She has also taken a liking to my new irish cob and she stands and flirts with him all day :D My passion is irish horses though - particularly Irish Draughts.

Arabs are gorgeous but my personal favourites are Quarter Horses and IDxTB's :)

i had a quarter horse x tb......i sold her. :(

I'd love to go riding again but that does seem very expensive. Before I went to uni I owned a gorgeous mare whom I gave to a lovely person as I knew I obviously couldn't take her with me :( Whilst at uni all the riding was subsidised by the club so it was only £12 per hr (though Polo was £30 per hr).

I only paid £30 per month for DIY livery for my mare, which was good :)

Like Lyndsay, horses were my *real* passion, and I even abandoned my A levels half way through to go and work with horses (palominos and PBA's) several years ago I able to earn a crust when out of work by helping out in local yards and freelance instruction, but the years have crept up and a spreading waistline has put paid to that, which I suppose is why I got into dogs....  Like ChloeH, my love is the heavier types - 'specially Section Ds :)

Have to admit - I like the welsh looks, but prefer the irish temprement. Welsh are too darn smart LOL. Theres a reputable welsh dealer nearby here and he has the most stunning youngsters....;)

Hi Charanda - have you thought about the share option? I went  down that route when I returned from a 4yr break as I couldn't face a riding school every week.  The horse I initially got was on full livery at £380 per month of which I paid £150 and had him 3 days a week and had private lessons with the on site trainer based there.  After 6 months I knew I was ready to buy another again so along came Massey.  It can be a  much better option once you feel ready without taking that financial risk of buying your own horse outright and you can always walk away if you don;t like it.  I am sure it will work out cheaper for you especially if the horse is on part dIY/Full.  I would love another but Masseys costs are like another mortgage ;D £415 per month livery, £80 - £100 remedial Shoeing every 6 weeks, £50 per month ulcer supplements - but then I did buy a High Maintenance TB and not a good doer like Chloes Irish :)

I have fallen in love with a Lusitano stallion currently at our yard, and was lucky enough to ride another one last month who perfomed Paiffe and Passage beautifully for me and even bowed with me on him!  I am so hooked on them now OH bought me a weeks classical dressage training in Portugal for Xmas with a Master of the the Portugese School of Equitation. I fly out Jan 17th and have 2 lessons a day for 6 days with the final day spent touring Lusitano stud farms.  However he is not giving me any spending money, cut all my credit cards up etc in case I bring back a souvenier!  Foolish Man - does he not realise how innovative I can be ;)

*goes very green with jealousy*

Love Lusos. Damn it, I love them all!

Lisa - look here :D

Just thought - is the stallion you rode anywhere near Tamworth way?

I used to help out at a local riding school when I was 14 years old, I'm 29 this year and still go to the same riding school!  The first pony I ever rode there was a grey welsh type called Whitsun, when I look back over the videos of me learning rising trot OMG   Sooooo embarassing!!  I have owned three horses in my time but by far the most memorable was Royal, a very fiery PBA chestnut mare and yep, you guessed it....White socks   Very beautiful and lots of fun to ride, back in the day when I would ride anything over anything I rode a very fast x-country course that took you out into the country a bit - my mare was pulling like a steam train and in the end I just let her go (trying to steer :D) it was me and her, and a rather large hedge!  But the sound of her hooves and the blowing through her nostrils was just the best feeling ever........Makes me wanna dust off my boots, haven't been since November!!   Unfortunately the dog decided to chew my riding hat up over xmas!!!!
Anyway :D  Enjoy your lesson Charanda, and if you feel like buying your own remind yourself on those freezing winter mornings when you de-ice the car that you would have had to have been up hours earlier mucking out ;)
Sarah

no mucking out - let them live out 24 x 7 :)

No Chloe they are all at our yard at the moment.  A local man imported 6 stallions earlier in the year and has now moved them all to our yard.  4 have been cut but the 2 remaining stallions have temperments to die for! The owner is in the states for 3 months however had a portugese trainer over for a week to help school them.  He was at the yard the week I had my competition and the day after it he let me ride one. They are currently being schooled in more English Dressage to appeal to a larger market audience.

The week in Portugal I will be riding stallions only, all capable of Grand Prix movements with a lesson each morning and afternoon. My current trainer's stallions (all warmbloods) would kill in an instant and yet the Lusitano Stallions are like kittens.  Best of all though it is the one breed where the predominent colour is grey! :D

Im really jealous I want to take up riding again but it is so expensive I have to say that Arabs are my fav when I was at college we had 5 arab mares given to the Irish goverment by the Saudi government and as we were the only agriculture college to do horses we got them all my fav was a chestnut with 3 white socks she was a dream to ride.
Mary

Gosh that is expensive, both my daughters ride, one does jumping and the other dressage and their lessons are £18.00 per hour. It is £10.00 for a half hour, and £15.00 for an hour private lesson. We have loads of stables here in the Isle of Man, which means lots of competition.

Anyway, good luck with the new hobby, horses are such noble animals.

Thanks everyone!!  I'm so excited I really can't wait for this evening!!  Mat (OH) bought me a pair of jodhs as part of my Christmas Pressies and I squeezed into them last night - the Xmas excess means they are a little tighter than they were when I first tried them on but it'll be nice to see me hopefully lose some weight and fit into them better in a few weeks.

Ben my old horse was a beautiful Hanoverian x TB he was a big boy for me at 17hh but was a proper gentleman in all respects.  We used to do a few ODE's but I'm not really the competitive type and more enjoyed going out on the X-Country ourselves outside of a competition environment.

I'm hoping to have a couple of  months of lessons at the riding school to get myself back into it all again and then the plan is to do a refresher stable management course.  I did my Stage 1 way back and so hope that I'll have retained some of my knowledge and will then be confident enough to look at a loan/horse share if there is any available in my area.

Anyway I'll cross the first bridge first and see how I go this evening - ooooooh I'm sooooo excited!!!!  :-D

we have just part loaned a 14.2 for our daughter its on full livery she has 3 days the other girl has 3 days and he has a day of  still costs abit around 120 amonth but a lot cheaper then what we was paying the riding school  she to is so excited tonight is her first night

Congrats on getting back in the saddle, I used to be really into horses until last year, the price of things has sort of put it out of the way until I can a stable full time job :D I used to loan the most unsuitable first pony, a 13.2 3yr old welsh cob with a tendancy to misbehave in the most dangerous of ways, but it taught to me stay in the saddle as opposed to falling off XD

Anyway have fun :)

Thanks everyone, I had my first lesson last night and loved it!!

It all came back to me in my head what I was meant to do etc etc just a shame that I couldn't quite do what I wanted to do physically!!  My instructor said that I did really well for someone who hasn't ridden for so long and that all I need to do is build up my muscles again and then I'll be fine!!

We didn't do too much, easing me back in gently just walk and trot and concentrating on my position - boy have the old calf muscles seized up over the years!!

I'm feeling a bit achy this morning but I have a feeling I'll be worse tomorrow!!

Really looking forward to my next lesson in 2 weeks time!!  :-)

Hi Charanda

I remember you saying you were going to start riding again last year when I was just starting after a long break and I'm really glad you have - it's wonderful isn't it :)  I paid £27 an hour for a private lesson (very expensive but worth it) and went at 9pm when we had the school to ourselves completely. 

I am really jealous though as I've had to give up for a long while.  The horse I was riding was spooked by something when we were cantering, threw me off (or rather I had lost concentration and wasn't good enough to stay on :) ) and I broke my back - lucky not to be in a wheelchair apparently!!  It has not put me off riding as it was a totally freak accident (although I know of two other horses who have spooked in exactly the same place funnily enough) but I am banned for at least two years and will probably have to be very careful after that!!  I just loved riding again though and I hope you enjoy it as much as me :)  Please can we have weekly updates!

All the best

Alex

SOmetimes i wonder though why we pay lots of money for so much pain! Yesterday i was thrown off when the horse spooked, sped off, bucked and did a sharp turn, resulting i me landing on my back. I ache so much now, but for some strange reason it hasn't put me off. THats only the 3rd time i have fallen off in 3 years, so i must be doing something right.

I do it for the hacking. Had a lovely time this morning - went up the bridle track, had a good canter, jumped the ditch, nearly got knocked off by low hanging branches - I love it :D

Hi Alex, you poor thing - what an accident!!  I hope that your on the road to recovery now though its a shame you've been banned for two years just after getting back into it again!!

I will certainly give you updates though unfortunately it'll be on a fortnightly basis as the stables can only fit me in on a fortnightly lesson at the moment - I have to wait for a weekly slot to become available.

ChloeH - I used to love hacking too, used to go on lovely pub lunch hacks years ago - a 2 hr ride each way but the horses used to enjoy being let out into the field behind the pub whilst we tucked into lovely lunches before riding home!!

19th Jan is my next lesson slot - its such a long time to wait!!

On my last horsey post, I was asking for terminology to use in a lesson I was going to be giving. I went and had really good fun. My now boss I felt was a bit unreasonable as he expected me to work both days every weekend. I said no and as it happens he came back to me and agreed two days a week and one day at the weekend. I have been teaching again for about 4 weeks and I love every min of it. I also have the perk of riding whenever it suits me and also free lessons for my kids. I hadn't been on a horse since just before my youngest daughter was born and god was I sore after the first time again lol. As to the post above about falling off, I was always told that the more you fall off the better a rider you become. I should really be the best rider in the country as when I was younger especially I spent more time on the ground than I did on the horse :D

Alli

when i was teaching ,a lovely lady fell off in a jumping lesson & broke her back. not too badly thank god,but bad enough for her to have a constently bad back. it was one of the worse days of my life!!!!