Technically I might qualify because I rode as a teen and was out of horses for 20+ years. However, I am a better rider now in my mid 50’s than I was as a teen (was not spectacular by any means as a teen). I think of a re-rider as someone who rode a great deal and was a high level rider as a junior who returns as an adult with less “guts” and ability due to age and physical fitness. So I am just curious- what’s your definition? If you are an adult re-rider were you a “better rider” then or are a “better rider” now? Or perhaps you are better now in some ways now but not in others?
I don’t think it’s related to ability. Just something you self-identify with.
I was definitely braver when I was younger, but better technically now. I was largely self-taught as a kid (my non-horsey parents determined it was cheaper to buy a horse instead of take lessons!) and now trying to untrain all my old bad habits.
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I rode for about 9 years as a kid - not a high level rider by any account - I think one of the last classes I showed in was 2’3-6"ish. I was hoping to move into the 2’9"-3’ when I had to quit as a teenager due to health reasons.
Had approximately a 12 year gap… Started trail riding on a friend’s horses in fall of 2016, started taking lessons in April of 2017, was very timid and scared. Purchased baby thoroughbred a month later. Fell crazy in love with baby thoroughbred, now think the world is my oyster ;-). Definitely consider myself a re-rider, but would like to hear others’ definitions, too!
Ah…a baby thoroughbred. Very, very cool. When I got back to horses I ended up buying a 4 year old TB. I still have her and she will be 15 on May 4th. She is a Chestnut Mare for what it’s worth!
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I was a good though not polished rider as teen/ young adult, took a 20 year break and returned in my 40s.
I’ve been back in the saddle 11 years, and have been riding daily for 7 years. I am now a much better rider than I was as a teen in terms of technique, though not as fool hardy.
I’ve stopped thinking of myself as a returning rider. I’m just a rider.
It’s a useful term to define that mix of mental knowledge and physical incompetence that hits you after a long time away 
but after a while you feel like you are really fully returned and up to speed.
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I consider myself an adult re-rider. More accurately a “re-re-rider,” I suppose. I was never any great shakes in my youth, mostly took lessons, sometimes had a half-lease, briefly had my own horse, from the ages of 10-25 or so. Never showed to speak of. Career and re-locations made things very spotty for about ten years, got back into it more regularly about a year before my first kid up until the second pregnancy, had a threatened miscarriage and stopped. Two little kids, shift to being primary wage earner, more relocation, another few years roll by with very limited riding. Started taking lessons again about two years ago, rapidly transitioned to a half lease that turned into an ersatz full lease that I wasn’t very happy with, and husband finally said “Why don’t you just bid on that Mustang you’ve been mooning over following the Extreme Mustang Makeover progress pages?” So I did, at the age of 48.
I’m definitely more cautious than I was once upon a time, not that I was all that brave to begin with. Fortunately my guy has the heart and soul of a 20 year old schoolie trapped in a 4 year old Mustang body so he has never done anything to make me REALLY cautious (which can’t be said for the 15 year old domestic lease horse), and I think he appreciates the fact that I am moving forward with my goal to eventually event very, very slowly. The main problems I have, though, are just strength and endurance. I need to buckle down and spend more time working on that OFF the horse. Too often I reach a point in a school where I’m losing form or can’t keep him in a nice frame just because I plain don’t have the strength to hold myself together.
I think an adult re-rider is just someone who identified as a rider in his or her youth (regardless of accomplishments or skill level achieved), didn’t ride for a period (usually a decade or more), and came back to horses and riding.
As a youth and young adult, I rode mainly at camps. College years I worked as a camp wrangler/instructor and could ride and handle all of the assorted borrowed horses. Most of them were trained to neck rein and were kick to go, pull back on the reins to stop, and hold both reins in one hand. I could RIDE them, but I had no finesse or technique - although I must have had fairly good balance and stickability.
As a re-rider of about six years now, I am a weenie eventer wanna-be, and it has been a long and slow journey towards my goal of eventually doing a grasshopper level horse trial - which is still somewhere out in the future. Not only have I had to unlearn some things, but I also bring to my adult experience the abiltiy to overthink every little thing rather than just do tem - as well as an inability to quickly bounce back from any setback.
I consider an adult re-rider to be someone who rode as a kid/teen/young adult, stopped riding for a number of years (let’s say 5+), and took it back up as a mature adult.
Skill level during any riding period is irrelevant, IMO.
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I mostly agree with @mmeqcenter with the added idea that re-riders are generally more horse-savvy than the average Ground Zero beginner.
Sure, a lot of things change over the years in horse care, but tacking up is a skill that (mostly) stays with you, along with mounting from the left, not balancing on the mouth, etc.
For me it was a near-20yr hiatus.
Rode H/J in a school program as a kid from 8yo until 15 - when I discovered BOYS & what I considered, at the time, a better use of the babysitting money that paid for my weekly lessons.
Returned to riding in my early 30s, shareboarded, bought my 1st horse & showed Hunters, then discovered Dressage and never looked back.
It has now been 30+yrs & I see no end in sight.
Sadly, since I lost my TB after 20yrs I have not had one that jumps, but have considered lessons just for the fun of it.
Taking that back: I had a WB former GP Jumper for 5yrs & did lesson on him once just for fun. Lost him before we got solid.
Also sadly, I am now in an area where decent H/J barns, let alone trainers are few & very far between.
My biggest piece of Luck has been finding a great local Dressage trainer who is willing to come to my place for the sporadic lesson.
I recently added Driving & am having more fun than s/b legal.
After 20 years out of the saddle, I was amazed at how much less elastic my body was in my mid thirties, rather than as a teen. Now, roughly ten years later, my knowledge base and skill level have passed what I had as a youth, but I still miss the ability to bounce back quickly from exertion or injury.
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To me, the term “re-rider” only has value in the early stages of the re-riding. It is best used as a short, easily recognizable explanation for having a greater degree of knowledge and experience than one’s current ability might suggest. For me personally, it was a way of saying that my instructor did not need to explain the mechanics of the canter or where my legs ought to be, she just needed to help me achieve in practice what I already knew I was supposed to be doing.
And at this point, even though I did have a long period of not riding seriously, I’ve mostly stopped labeling myself an adult re-rider because I don’t think the label has any value. I’ve been back in the saddle long enough that lack of skill on my part is due to old age and too much time spend sitting behind a desk, not the gap in my riding career.
And sometimes, I feel like the term “adult re-rider” gets used as a way to achieve some status level or paint yourself as superior to those who didn’t start riding until they were adults or those young whippersnappers at the barn who may ride better than you, but you’ve been there, done that before they were even born. And that makes me a little uncomfortable about using the term.
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I’d agree with that. As kids, we all have had different experiences. Some have had a bunch of formal training, pony club, etc., and others whose parents “saved money” by buying a horse! :lol: Unfortunately for me, my mother knew how much horses cost, day-to-day. She was raised on the ranch.
I never had formal lessons as a kid, but got loads of guidance from the old retired cowhands who hung around the stables where we rode. These were guys who worked cattle in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s in Arizona and were the real deal. I still remember – “One hand for the reins, one hand for your rope, and ride with your seat!!!” If I grabbed horn, I got called on it. Horn grabbing was a big NO, because it meant I wasn’t using my seat.
Never did get to the roping part, but I do have an innate muscle memory that tends to western position (one hand on reins, and the other down at my side on the rommel), and I can still get a horse to stop thinking about bucking, if I catch him early, and he’s not too serious about it.
As an adult, I’m learning more of eastern ways, and becoming more eclectic. Also, I try to be more careful. When I was a kid, I’d just go for it, running, jumping logs on a horse who hadn’t jumped before, trailblazing on shale where the horse slipped and I fell into a prickly pear – all sorts of stuff that go with the invincibility of youth. That’s pretty much gone.
I’d agree with this- I felt very much a “re-rider” when I first got back in the saddle after 7ish years away, but a couple years later I’m now a much better rider than I ever was as a kid. At this point the only label I go with is proud ammy
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Interesting. I had an almost 5-6yr gap (had a 6 month half lease in there) but didn’t consider myself a re-rider because I kept myself immersed in horses and learning, just not physically riding. I looked like a sack of s*** when I started back, despite being in my best shape of my life, as I lost all my riding muscle memory. But my knowledge helped me with that gap, it just took time (almost a year) for my body to catch up to my brain.
I guess I don’t consider myself a re-rider because I kept immersed in the sport by reading/watching, I never really “left” but my body “skill” set took a while to recover. I have far exceeded my ability as a youth now, but that only makes sense with experience.
Definitely agree with the first sentence, although two years on, I still feel like I’m in the “early stages.”
I guess I’ve never heard the term used to “achieve status”, more as a “I know I said I’ve been riding since I was ten, but I look like garbage because…”
I think of a re-rider as an adult who rode previously (whether as an adult or a junior), took a 5+ year break, and has come back to riding. While I agree that I don’t really associate it with particular skill levels, I do think of it as someone who had achieved at least some level of comfort and confidence, and is now having to attempt to get back to that baseline comfort and confidence!!
I rode some as a junior, took a long break, took it back up in my late 20’s, and then took a 7 or 8 year break after my adult hunter was injured and ultimately had to be retired. So I’m very in touch with what it feels like to be a re-rider :lol: When I was doing the adults with my mare, I was pretty darn brave, but now I’m finding it so much harder to get my nerve and confidence back, even though my current horse is saintly and is always going to safely jump. Even though I know that I know how to do this and have done it before, for some reason it is just so much harder this many years later to get back to the same comfort and confidence level!!
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Thanks for everyone’s comments (and any more to come). The hardest thing about coming back to riding after 20+ years was that I could no longer sit the trot :(. I was so frustrated, but eventually I got it figured out.
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It might be the horse… When I was looking at my mare to buy, what got me was how nice her trot was. No trouble sitting it. Other horses I’ve been on can feel like a jackhammer every time they put a hoof down.
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Same here!! I agree it isn’t skill related at all. You are a re-rider if you used to ride, quit for whatever reason, and now you’re back. You know horses, you know mechanics, just need to lock the dust off!
I hadn’t heard the term until I basically became one.
