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8 minutes

Save money on your riding lessons

by line hummel      photo charlotte fuglsang 
by line hummel      photo charlotte fuglsang 

As a teacher I naturally think that lessons are an extremely important priority. But continue reading, anyway. Maybe you can learn something about how to stretch your economy to afford quality lessons, even if you would like to save money.

READ ALSO: DIY horse treats

1. Tip - Use your money on the right instructor for you and your horse.

It is difficult not to feel daunted by the price increase on feed, wood pellets, electricity, and gas. My gas expenses rose as much as everyone else's, and that is definitely something I notice as an out-of-house instructor. 

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But do not worry, there is money to save on your riding lessons. Before sharing my advice and thoughts on this, I would like to point out that everyone needs guidance if our aim is to rise from our current position. If we could improve ourselves on our own – and become the best that we could be - then we would have already done so. We cannot expect change by continuing to repeat the same patterns.

We do what we usually do, until someone teaches us about new possibilities

I was stuck in my training, until I discovered my instructor. For a long time, I was searching for the right person, holding on to my beliefs of how this teacher should act, and I made a promise to myself and my horses regarding how they should receive training. All these considerations gave me the chance to find a teacher that was exactly right for me.

My promises to myself and my horses are:

  1. I will not resort to punishment or corrections by whip, spurs or the bit. I will find a way to avoid all these methods.
  2. I want both of us to enjoy it.
  3. I will not compromise with my wishes to work on dressage, and I want to teach my horse to move in a healthy, smooth, and beautiful way.
  4. I want the horse to cooperate with me if she is capable.
  5. I know that shows and exhibitions are my goals, and I want my horse to enjoy accompanying me there.

When trying to save money on riding lessons, the first thing you can do is to find an instructor that is exactly right for you. But you can only do that when you define your core values regarding horse training. If you, week after week, ride around with an instructor whose core values you do not share, then you are probably just wasting your money. This is money spent that does not promote your own values, regardless of how cheap the instructor’s rates are.

Making the most out of your riding lessons

Learning new things takes a lot of time. Make sure that you know what to practice on your own, following each lesson. If your teacher does not already inform you of this, then the responsibility of asking for homework is entirely yours. Ask your teacher what to practice until the next lesson. Remember, it is important to have the courage to ask your teacher for clarification. Too many riders do not dare ask their instructor what she means if she, for instance, says: "Pick up the shoulder" or "Collect the hindquarter to the forequarter". They just do something at random and hope they chose correctly. If you only understand half of your instructions, it is a waste of money. Maintain the will power to understand and insist on an explanation. There are no stupid questions when learning, only stupid answers.

About the author

With her company Hestekræfter, Line Hummel offers webinars and organises training for equestrians who wish to grow together. 

Often these are equestrians who either have a problem or want to achieve better communication. In Line's company there is no template for how horse and rider should behave. That is why Line's work is based on getting to know the equine's particularities and tailoring a course accordingly. In this article she gives advice on how you can save money on your riding lessons.

2. Tip - Have a clear understanding of what is asked of you and maintain the courage to ask for clarification if you do not.

The question of how often you should have a riding lesson is very individual. But there needs to be time to explore, practice and feel your way forward. Horse training is all about feeling and sensing your horse and this part requires a certain amount of time. The horse also needs time to build muscles and relax its body, making it more agile and smooth to work with. This part requires time for your horse as well as yourself.

When I first start training a new rider, I often start by having lessons with a two-week break. Following this period, I typically give lessons once a month. The rider is more than welcome to call, write, or send videos in the interim. I am happy to talk over the phone if the rider experiences frustrations or has something that just cannot wait until our next meeting. So, we have a constant back-and-forth communication, letting the rider feel that she is never alone with her problems.

Practice makes perfect

For a long time, I was convinced that I absolutely needed lessons once a week to improve my riding skills. I could not have been more wrong, both regarding myself and regarding the riders that I teach today. If the classes are particularly good, then you should have gained new insights that you need to work on until you meet again. Training and practicing between each lesson are one of our most important assignments if our goal is to improve. But all training must make sense. Therefore, you can save money on fewer lessons, but still have clearly defined exercises to work on between lessons.

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We often have great intentions, but sometimes the time just passes by, and then we did not train as much as we would have wanted. But throwing money out the window is on you and your horse, if you do not train your new exercises between each lesson. Because our brains prefer to revisit what it already knows, rather than spending energy on learning something new - something that we may not even fully understand the purpose of - then you must prioritize it. This is where you need to apply the competence of your teacher to tell you exactly why you need to train this. Ask them to clarify what this will result in, for yourself and your horse. This is something that can motivate you to practice with your horse.

3. Tip - Ask for homework and prioritize training.

Homework and training should never become a boring obligation

Too many riders believe that training absolutely needs to be tiresome and exhausting. But it does not need to be. Sometimes I give the following assignment to a rider: Find out what you really like to do with your horse. After that, it is my job to incorporate that into the training. Practicing something difficult does not have to be tiresome, or even something that you need to work up energy for. At that point, the horse becomes a boring obligation. That is a waste of yours, and your horse’s time and you both deserve better than that.

4. Tip - It is okay if it is tough, but the training needs to give you energy.

by line hummel      photo charlotte fuglsang  (1)

Training inside the paddock

There is a lot of free training to be had during the horse’s field-time. If you always ride your horse, then this is where the horse can exercise its body freely. But there are several parameters we will have to consider. What kind of paddock is available to your horse? Is it completely flat with just a single kind of surface? Is the hay served in a box or a net and always in the same spot? Or are you one of the lucky horse owners who have access to a paddock with grass, dirt, hills, sticks, stones and perhaps even gravel or sand, allowing the horse to use and sense its body while using its olfactory sense to search for food? In a paddock with many different elevations and of varying surface materials, your horse can exercise its body without you weighing it down. This is great and important training.

Imagine if you always had to carry the same backpack with you every time you went out. I think you would begin to build up some tension in your body. But if you take your backpack off every now and again and exercise your body in diverse ways, you will most likely have a healthier, more agile, and stronger body.

by line hummel      photo charlotte fuglsang  (2)

5. Tip - The paddock can be a wonderful gym for your horse.

Quality over quantity

When working with a horse, the quality of our work is far more important than the duration of our training. I remember a workshop where Catherine Laudrup-Dufour mentioned that she could train Cassidy for two hours, and I was thinking "Oh, my! I will never get my horses to train with enthusiasm, willingness, and spirit for a whole two hours". But my horse is not Cassidy, and even though my horses have become very good at dressage and at carrying themselves we still aren't at the level of Cassidy, and it would be completely ridiculous if I dragged them through a full two-hour dressage class. I think comparing ourselves to the World Champions is demanding too much of our horses.

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At home, I still started checking the time to see how long we were actually training. It varied from 20 minutes to an hour and a half. The priority for me is constantly moving within the borders of what my horses find exciting and fun and how long I can maintain focus myself. I would prefer to do something fun and wonderful for 20 minutes, rather than working my horses through an exercise again and again. I prefer it if my horse can always carry itself, moving smoothly without tensing up.

6. Tip - Spend quality time with your horse and trust it.

What kind of tack is worth spending money on?

That depends exclusively on you and your horse. What works for my horse may not necessarily work for your horse, or you. But there is one thing that I would like to point out, something that can make you hold back on the spending: The equipment that promises you the earth and the moon, strong posture and mobility in the hindquarters can be an expensive affair to use. Those tools work great with horses that already know how to use their hindquarters and already know how to lift their backs and relax their body during a ride, but on the other hand it may cause damage to horses that have not learned this. You also have absolutely no chances to evaluate if your horse moves properly if it wears all that tack. So, aside from spending too much money on equipment you risk having to spend even more on treatments and training.

by line hummel      photo charlotte fuglsang  (3)

7. Tip - Don't spend money on equipment that restraints, tightens up, holds you back, and inhibits you and your horse from learning the most important things within training.

The grander scheme of things

I would like to conclude with the most important money-saving tip concerning the training of your horse. Most horses' injuries occur from us wanting to achieve results too quickly. It is important to compare horse training to how you yourself would train if the aim, for instance, was to run a marathon. If you are out of shape, you do not expect to be in shape within the span of just a few months. And if you try anyway, then I suspect you would get a few running injuries.

The same thing goes for working with the horse. If we need to teach it to run correctly, meaning to use their bodies smoothly and in a relaxed fashion, lifting their sternum, it means all their muscles and tendons must improve. Some horses are completely unfamiliar with this type of movement.

If you have a situation where it is evident that the horse doesn't understand the assignment, then you must take a step back (or two) and try to find out what movement or body part is not working. After that, consider what exercises your horse can do, to correct this.

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For example, a lot of people think that all the horse must do is to lower its neck to raise its back. This is the biggest pit fall that I encounter as a riding instructor, and is the cause of numerous neck-, cranial- and back injuries. If your horse does not want to use its body and weight correctly, there is no point in lowering the neck - they are perfectly able to do that while also lowering their backs. In a teaching scenario, your educator must have a full overview of your goals, to then enlighten you in a way which enables you to take the appropriate steps. A skilled educator makes you feel safe, makes you feel competent at what you are achieving and opens new paths that you can choose to follow together. Too many people experience frustration during their lessons, feel tension or completely exhausted after an ended teaching scenario. That is not money well spent.

If your educator is skilled in the field of didactics, she also knows how to present an assignment, how every challenge should result in you becoming better and stronger, and how both your confidence and your horse’s confidence should grow. It is not the confidence of the teacher that needs to grow, it is YOURS.

Horse training needs to be wonderful, rewarding both of you with energy and wanting more, regardless of which discipline you ride. It needs to strengthen you, physically as well as mentally.

More from Line Hummel: Trainer on breaking in and self-belief: Not everyone fits into a mold

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