I’m not sure if I’m a re-rider or not. I had an extensive (yet modest) junior career and went pro in college. After a terrible burnout at 23 I only trail rode my old junior horse until I bought a new show horse at 29. I still rode in those 6 years but it was nothing serious.
Well I would say if you were really sore from riding the first time back, you would be a re-rider. Otherwise the riding that you did kept your riding muscles in shape. The exception would be those who are so physically fit that riding does not do a thing to them after 20 years off of a horse. My first ride after 20 years I could barely waddle (and I had been running and lifting weights). Fortunately things improved.
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Oh, man, the first lesson I had for my most recent re-riding startup, I could barely drive home. 30 minutes of walk/trot only, and I could barely move my foot from the brake to the gas and back.
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I never have seen or heard the term except on COTH. I just took it to mean in a very broad sense people who rode as a kid ( in whatever form or fashion) who came back to it again as an adult ( in whatever form or fashion).
I do think that there is sometimes a difference between people who rode as kids and people who took it up for the first time as an adult. I think this is true of anything learned as a kid ( skiing, water skiing, ballet, whatever) or first taken up as an adult. Re-riders seem to have a better sense of balance and feel, in my less than expert observation, than people who have taken up riding as adults for the first time.
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The term “re-rider” can cover anyone who went back to riding after a long hiatus. Even the term “long” is relative.
I was a Pony Clubber as a youngster and was very involved with PC, rising through the rankings,until I aged out in 1977. I rode a lot then–had my own horses on the property and took care of them and competed at Pony Club rallies. Grad school, career, and family concerns took over my life at that point, and I did not ride at all and thought that part of my life was over. I did not have any contact with horses again until my DD asked for riding lessons at age 9. At that point I was in my 40s. I got on one of of the school horses as a lark a year or so after she started. It had been over 20 years since I had ridden. The trainer watched me, remarked “you’re good,” and things developed from there. I resumed riding occasionally, and then trainer asked me to ride a horse that needed work. I brought that horse back into shape and then was assigned my first greenie. I trained several for her, showing a little along the way in our local circuit. All this time DD was taking lessons and beginning to show a leased horse. Now DD is grown and on her own, I am in my 60s and riding regularly, and I have owned for seven years one of the greenies I started. I envision the two of us retiring together.
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Dewey, I “know” you from the re-rider thread, but never knew your story Love it!
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I am new to the COTH forums and consider myself a re-rider… rode as a kid, in my teens (bought and started first horse) and early twenties, got married, had kids, sold first horse, then did minis a few years later when my horse addiction could not be cured - they were more affordable than a “big” horse at the time so I had a long break from riding.
I took my first lesson in years on a school horse last weekend since my green (chestnut) TB mare decided loading on the trailer was not going to happen (another story).
Yes, I was definitely sore after that lesson (I would not pass a soundness check this week!) but I was happy to learn my position came back and the horse I was riding was naturally bouncy when I tried to do a sitting trot on him. The trainer said he was “bouncy, more bouncy than the other school horses.” I felt like I was bouncing all over the place.
Back in the day I used to jump 2’9" to 4’ on reliable horses and my trainer friend giving me lessons in courage… she would push me by telling me “aww, it’s only 3’6” and I would jump bigger than I ever dreamed I would jump - it was only when I dismounted that I realized that vertical was four feet! Crossrails are more my speed now. 
My new hubby bought me my current “big” horse, a TB mare that never raced, for my birthday. She has a big stride that I am getting used to (along with those feel good leaps/bucks). My goal is to get her to the stable I ride at so we can take lessons and become a team like I was with my first horse.
I’m definitely a re-rider…rode until age 14 or so then took 25 years off. My kids started taking lessons and I was jealous of their fun and started riding myself. I took jumping lessons for a year or two and then realized I just don’t have the stomach for it and switched to flat lessons. I still hang out here because my kids are doing the hunter thing and I learn a lot here. I don’t post in the re-rider thread much because I can’t keep up with it.
I still read the re-rider thread a lot, but I feel bad jumping in and not keeping up with everyone, so I mostly lurk.
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I was happy when at my first lesson in 20+ years the trainer said “you just need saddle time.” I am fortunate that I am pretty athletic and I have good balance (from gymnastics and alpine skiing). I was also fortunate to find a really good barn to start at with some very good lesson horses. Then I moved back to my home state and bought my OTTB Chestnut Mare (that was 10 years ago)- I just LOVE her.
