How did you choose a riding discipline?

[Keenah]

Adult re-rider wondering how folks out there went about finding what style of riding is the right fit for them? For context, I rode h/j as a kid–nothing too serious, no courses, just flat work and popping over some low jumps here and there. I also dabbled in Saddleseat but it never really clicked. Now, as an adult, I’m riding h/j again and starting to get into some low jumping. But, I’m wondering if other styles of riding might be more enjoyable. Also, as I get older, injury is more of a consideration. Of course injury can happen at any point in time (on the ground, on horse back, whatever), but my own self-preservation says jumping is a little riskier than say dressage (correct me if I’m totally off base.)

So, how did you pick whatever it is you do? I know this isn’t set in stone by any means, but since I don’t own a horse at this point, I am at least at the mercy of whatever kind of lessons I can find (right now: more h/j or switching to dressage.) The biggest thing for me is that I LOVE being around horses. No huge show aspirations in the near term…just want to enjoy the time I have with horses and learn how to be a better horse woman. My eventual goal is ownership, which would give me more flexibility, but that is likely a ways off given current skill level.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

[RedHorses]

I always wanted to event. It seemed the perfect discipline to do a bit of everything. I started off taking lessons at the local stable which alternated flat lesson weeks with jumping lesson wwant, (you had to sign up for eight week blocks).

​Then I got a summer job as a trail guide, western saddles. Then bought the horse I had been riding as a guide and quit lessons. He was older and I had no aspirations to show, I just wanted to ride.

Several years later I bought a young horse. His first show was a dressage show. We did that for a bit, then I moved him to a HJ barn and started taking jumping lessons hoping to strengthen his hind end. Naturally we showed Hunters with the barn.

Then one summer another boarder asked me if I’d compete at a local dressage show with her (share trailering) and I said sure. Honestly, riding down that centreline was like coming home. I was so comfortable, confident and relaxed I couldn’t believe it. We did some more Hunters, but he had a physical issue that affected his jumping confidence and that did a number on my jumping confidence, so when my next young horse came up to showing I decided to start him in dressage.

Young horse #2 did both Hunters and Dressage, and as I got more into dressage lessons with a really good coach I found that sort of challenge appealed to me. We did do some eventing and I really enjoyed it, but my confidence never totally recovered from the previous horse.

I still love to trail ride and explore new trails, we do hunter paces (trail ride with optional jumps!), jump school at home, and of course work on our dressage. This horse can do anything I want. My show discipline of choice is dressage, but I enjoy trail riding and jumping too much to give either up completely. I would like to try Le Trek (i

[NoSuchPerson]

As a rerider, finding a compatible H/J trainer with good lesson horses proved to be an insurmountable obstacle, although I did a lot of looking. While I prefer hunt seat, right now I’m working with a western guy who is great in every way except that he rides/trains/teaches western. I eventually realized that the actual discipline was less important to me than the working relationship with, and quality of, the trainer.

So, since you don’t have big showing aspirations and it sounds like you don’t feel that strongly about discipline, I’d suggest forgetting the discipline and just looking for the right person to ride with.

[RedHorses]

CoTh is really hating Android these days - I’ll just continue here…

I think it’s called Le Trek. It’s a trail riding activity that includes several phases - trail obstacles course, pace, and an orienteering type of cross country ride.

Working Equitation also interests me, but it’s not here yet.

[Scribbler]

I rode Western as a kid, the locally popular choice, and also English. Pony was talented Western, not so much English.

Went to h/j lessons as a rerider as English was now the locally popular choice. Lucked out on finding a solid coach with good lesson horses on my first try. Drilled me in basics, very useful.

Moved lease horse closer to home, stayed because I thought new coach attached to lease horse was wonderful. Kept lease horse.

Ride her in dressage and jumping saddle. Dressage more comfy for long slow work. Jump for doing a lot of trot. May not actually get around to jumping. I am not in my youth. Casually looking for a Western saddle.

I don’t have show plans. I do want to do more trail riding. Dressage saddle will work for that.

I have to say I don’t feel a big difference in how I ride based on the saddle. I can ride loose rein neck rein seat aids Western or on more contact in any.of these saddles. A good long dressage leg feels like a good long correct Western leg to me.

My coach rides jumper, eventing, dressage, Western and working equitation and also sees disciplines as transferable.

So I feel like the horse finds you and then you find the discipline that the horse likes.

Absolutely find the best mentor in terms of riding and overall horsemanship that you can. One reason I didn’t consider Western when I returned was all the adult Western riders when I was a kid were brutal low rent creeps. But if I’d found one of the really good new style horsemanship western folks I’d probably also have had a great experience.

I’d also caution against letting any coach get you riding on very strong contact too early in your career. This can happen to beginner riders in some dressage programs. If your whole session is on strong contact to put the horse together you will develop a psychological and even a physical dependency on the tight reins, and feel insecure riding on a loose rein. You shouldn’t be riding on strong contact until you have a confirmed independent seat just as you shouldn’t be jumping until you have that seat and balance. Longe lessons with no reins and even no stirrups are great for that!

[Foxtail]

The only one I consciously chose was dressage. After a year’s hiatus from horses I decided that I really wanted to focus on improving my flatwork, putting theory into practice, and learning how to train. There happened to be a trailer near me whose philosophies meshed with mine, and it was great.

I got there via h/j and eventing. Pretty much every horse crazy little girl in the area where I grew up started h/j, unless you had a parent who rode in something different. I fell into eventing when a colleague of my mother’s offered a full lease on a horse she could no longer ride due to a bad back. The barn’s resident instructor was an eventer.

Now, looking forward, I don’t want to limit myself to one thing. Good training is good training. I suspect this summer I’ll be jumping (pun not intended) back into the hunter ring. I’d like to take some vaulting lessons at some point, and learn to ride aside as well. And I really want to complete a 100 mile endurance ride. So while I may keep taking dressage lessons, I’m not going to say that I’m only a dressage rider.

[ChasPonyCat]

I’ve always been interested in the English disciplines generally. As a kid, I had a pony with western tack, but I was insistent on taking riding lessons to a) learn to ride properly and b) ride English. I would say as a kid I dabbled in pretty much everything. Didn’t ride for a few years and when I started again became interested in jumping more. I had done like you, OP, and popped over the occasional little jump as a kid. Heck, the jumps I do now are still little but I at least string together a course on occasion

Would love to do a Hunter Pace at some point.

[ChasPonyCat]

@Foxtail

. There happened to be a trailer near me whose philosophies meshed with mine, and it was great.

I, too, find it great when trailers share my philosophies :D:lol:

[lovemytbs]

I am also an adult re-rider and myself and several friends struggle with this. As a kid I grew up showing Morgans on the A circuit, Western, Saddle Seat, Park, Harness, then in my teens switched over to Quarter horses and ran poles and barrels on the AQHA A circuit (Congress, etc) and NBHA started right around then, so did that as well. From about 17-25 I rode very little, trail rode my old barrel horse some, then got divorced at 26 and decided I wanted to learn to jump, leased a retired UL event horse, started taking some dressage lessons, jumping lessons, bought a nice TB, piddled with some dinky events and CT’s (2’-2-3" max) then met someone new (current BF and baby daddy!), rode less, had a baby at almost 30, and FEAR happened! Bought my horse of a lifetime at 31, he got Lyme and EPM (talk about UGH), was treated, then relapsed and became very neurological, so I had to euth about 1.5 years after I bought him. And I’ve spent the last 5 or so years trying to replace him as he boosted my confidence a ton! Unfortunately, the fear factor has set in even worse with some bad matches (2 buckers, 1 balky, and 1 sold to me drugged which was quite the ordeal!)

I’m vetting a new horse tomorrow and hoping all goes well. She’s shown in the 3’ hunters, and while I’ve never done hunters I think I’d like to try it. Super baby stuff at a local level as I’m a busy working Mom with a family who comes first. I sort of miss jumping, and although a lot of friends trail ride, I’m still pretty nervous about it, and feel safer in a ring. So I think it’s all in what your horse is best suited for, and your comfort level. You like being in a ring and going fast jumping, try jumpers, you like being in a ring and going slow jumping, try hunters, do you get bored easy and are brave, try eventing, don’t want to deal with entries and such, foxhunt or paperchase where you can show up as you want to and it takes less planning (but lots of riding to keep one fit!) Love flatwork and precision, try dressage, have friends who trail ride often, go try it.

There isn’t an easy answer, and I think adult re-riders are often short on time due to careers and family, but if horses offer you some peace of mind and enjoyment, take some time and try some things to see what feels right. Honestly, my only goal with possible new horse is to ride 2-3 times per week in my ring and get to know her.

[DrBeckett]

I started h/j because friends from school rode at a barn where I started as a working student. I knew nothing about horses and started there. As I got older I moved to an event barn because that’s where the best boarding was. I loved it.

[MissAriel]

First and foremost having a trainer who won’t overface you and a horse that is steady and suitable for your abilities are more reliable predictors of reduced injury in my experience than riding a particular discipline. They are also keys to riding enjoyment. I would prioritize that over a particular discipline if you have to choose one over the other. Ideally you can find both, together.

I did switch from h/j to dressage as an adult ammy. I never loved jumping - in fact I was so anxious, most of the time I would hold my breath around the course (not recommended, btw). But it was the most available lessons as a kid and I loved being around the horses.

I am a type-A, hyper perfectionist, analytical type. Either the perfect fit for dressage, or the perfect storm of OCD!

I really got hooked when I had the chance to ride a “real” dressage horse - 3rd level! with a dressage trainer for one lesson. The horse was in to sell, and he wanted to see how the horse reacted to a rider that didn’t know where the buttons were, so he used me (a h/j rider that wasn’t likely to fall off, would give some disjointed aides here and there and would take instruction) as a guinea pig. It was like driving a Ferrari! or maybe a jet - there were a lot of buttons, LOL.

I also love the idea of concrete goals and the progression as you move up the levels. I love hearing top dressage riders talk about their rides focusing on the same rhythm, balance, contact during their tests full of tempis and pirouettes and piaffes the same way my peers and I focus on rhythm, balance, contact while making our 20m circles at training level.

At each show you get a copy of your test with scores and comments. Granted there is plenty to discuss wrt how fair those may or may not be, but you won’t get that much feedback from any other discipline out there - good or bad. And with your score you can track your progress, and while it feels great to win, I have heard so many dressage riders here and in real life talk about the great ride and the improved score being the focus and the ribbons are just a bonus.

[Bluey]

@ChasPonyCat

I, too, find it great when trailers share my philosophies :D:lol:

Those are so, so very hard to find, a real gem when you come across one.

I started riding seriously in a riding center that also started horses for breeders and trained horses that were sold to other riding stables.

What I loved was starting colts and get them going enough for someone else to safely then take them on further.

Any chance I had to do some jumping, that was our biggest goal in that riding center, considering that horses were not over jumped, so we didn’t get to jump that much, it was a treat when we did.
Even today, decades later, the feeling of a horse going over a jump, even a mere ditch in the pasture, still seems heavenly.

We did some endurance riding, the standard then was 200 km in two days, half one day, returning the next.
That was ok, but not that interesting, just traveling along for miles on end.

Having a gymnast background, vaulting was easy and loved it more as some to do with horses than the vaulting itself.
Starting colts was really most of what we did with race horses.
Training and conditioning and racing is very interesting in itself, butI rather start the colts than go to the track.
Too much time standing around there and, really, much less riding time there.

Working cattle outside, not for arena competition with cattle, that is a whole different dimension to riding.
The horses are more your partner than your student once trained.
You both depend on each other’s strengths to get a job that takes some thinking by both.
You give the horse room to do his work as he sees it and you compliment that effort with your guidance of the details of the job to be done.
When you mess up, your horse knows it and won’t let you forget it.
It will puff up like the little blue mad bird in my avatar.
Also if the horse is the one at fault when things don’t go right, it will apologize and try double hard next time to get it right.

By default, the last decades, for arena work, we don’t have any real English riding around here, it is all western.
Working with a reining trainer, that is a good second choice when old.
Reiners are so very broke, even when riding without a bridle and going at speed, you still feel to have excellent control.
Reining looks so easy, but it is not as easy as it looks to do it well.

I think that any kind of cross training will enhance who we are as a horse person.
We never quit learning when around horses.
That is what makes them so wonderful to work with.

[Foxtail]

@ChasPonyCat

I, too, find it great when trailers share my philosophies :D:lol:

…goddammit. I’m not even going to change it. That’s too good.

[Sandy_M]

Started out at age 9-10 doing a sort of bastardized saddle seat on retired polo ponies!! In San Francisco. And I mean IN San Francisco, at St. Francis Riding Academy out in the residential Richmond Neighborhood, a block from Golden Gate Park ( we did get to trail ride in the park). From the man who taught my mother. It was a classic old barn with a covered arena and sand turnout pens and a farriers shop. We all cried when it succumbed to a Safeway. In high school, once a week hunt seat lessons. In my early 20s finally bought my own horse and rode primarily hunt seat for 3 years, then discovered eventing and also discovered that my Appendix mare, who was a reluctant enough jumper over fences in an arena HATED cross-country even more. Sigh. Found a good home for her with a friend who liked to trail ride, and bought a green 4 year old TB mare. Guess what? She hated cross-country too and while she had jumped small fences in good form when I tried her, she turned out to be a dangler when confronted with bigger fences. Found a good home for her as a broodmare (she had a nice pedigree, and her siblings were successful as hunters).

Then I got an eventing schoolmaster (Appaloosa) and we were off! Stuck with that for 10-15 years, through two horses (both Appies). I then bought a young Appy (2nd gen TB cross). He was happy to jump, but didn’t care for eventing - he wanted to do his 8 nice fences in an arena. When he was about 9, he had a leg fracture, from which he fully recovered, but I figured he’d last a lot longer if he didn’t jump (vet agreed), so we turned to dressage and discovered we both liked it just fine. He was also a great trail horse and we did trail trials as well. When he became too arthritic to do anything but trails in his early 20s, I retired him and bought a youngster (also Appy - I was hooked). I presently have that horse, actually an Araloosa, and he’s done well thru 2nd level, but we are rehabbing a serious injury now - so I don’t know where or what we/I will be doing next discipline wise. I’m hoping to hang in there - and hope that he will too - so we can do a Century Ride. At present, he’s 13 and I’m 71, so it’s gonna be a while, but I can hope.

[Twigster]

I started out riding Saddleseat on ASBs, then switched to H/J and got my first taste of the awesome that is OTTBs. Went to college, no time or money to ride, and came back to it when I got my first “big kid job”. I landed back in H/J, but that only lasted a couple years. I switched to dressage when I started leasing a friend-of-a-friend’s really lovely horse at a dressage and eventing barn, after riding and showing him a couple years the trainer “suprised” me with an XC school lesson one day, and that was that. Now have a greenie OTTB that is learning the ins and outs of gymnastics, trail riding and dressage. Hopefully we will school XC this summer, do a few schooling shows, maybe even an unrated even. I’m in no hurry, I just love the work.

[Mukluk]

Short version: I like galloping and jumping because I am an adrenalin junkie. I used to be a ski racer and loved going Fast on skis- I still love going fast on skis.

My first riding was trail riding on rented horses riding western. My first horse was from a western rental string. I wanted to jump so I rode english. This was all on a shoe string budget and I rode bareback for a year until I was able to get a saddle. In the schooling shows we did both english and western classes. I was not at a fancy barn and only had occasional lessons- but I studied Hunter Seat Equitation (GM) and tried to figure it all out. Had to sell my horse to go to college. 20+ years later started back with lessons at a HJ barn. It was really fun. Finally finished big degree and moved back to home state got good job and finally able to afford to own a horse. A 4 year old OTTB that had only been ridden about 13 times since leaving the track. We did lots of trail riding and horse camping. Did schooling shows all the english classes as well as trail classes. We’ve done trail trials and were on a drill team for awhile (western for events and parades). We have also done some team sorting (riding English of course). I learned about eventing and my girl (and I) LOVE cross country. Enjoy show jumping! She’s more of a jumper than a hunter because she’s a little hot. I try to appreciate dressage- it’s like eating your vegetables- good for you but not as yummy as ice cream. Due to life circumstances I am now mostly trail riding and doing some dressage. I look forward to trying eventing again. I am an adrenaline junkie and LOVE to gallop. There are many things I haven’t yet tried. I’d like to try barrel racing (probably just try it). I’d like to do more trail trials and trail classes at shows. I think it would be fun to try some Western things like cutting (I’d probably just try it). I would LOVE to go hunting- galloping over fences sounds like a total blast to me!!!

[Magicboy]

I have always had the type A almost OCD personality so started with dressage as a kid and stayed with it

[2DogsFarm]

As a horsecrazy 8yo living in the ‘burbs the only riding available to me was the local H/J/Saddleseat barn.
There is a pic of me on an obvious ASB schoolie complete with double bridle(wearing blinders! :eek:) at my very first show.
I loved jumping & back in The Day the trainers (college-aged kids for the most part) had us going over 4’ < I distinctly remember them disparaging that height “C’mon! that’s only 4’!”
They also took large (as many as 10 kids) groups of us for long trailride “lessons” that routinely included gallops & jumping the occasional picnic table.

After I discovered Boys & stopped riding around age 15 there was a ~20yr hiatus.
I came back as a re-rider at 32 & the trainer was a German-schooled rider who not only taught us Dressage, but had us vaulting on school horses as well.
Stuck with him until he moved to another (nearby) state, then switched to a trainer who did Hunters, got my own horse, showed Hunters for a while, got DH riding & eventually returned to the Dressage guy, did some lower-level Eventing & leaned more towards the Dressage as it got me thinking & helped my jumping.

After I lost DH I moved to my own farmette & did some clinics, trailrode, horsecamped & finally went to a Driven Dressage clinic that got me interested in a new discipline.
I drove trainer’s pony in a clinic, made a friend who drives & loaned me one of hers to show at Fair & now have my own mini in training.
Also have a TWH who is learning Dressage & a Hackney pony who may (re)drive some day.

[Malda]

Started jumping because I had a friend who jumped (although I never had the guts to go higher than 3’). Over the years I noticed what I really love is trail riding, I can spend hours out there. So when I finally had the money for my own horse I bought a trail horse and that’s all I’ve ever bought. But I’m glad I took lessons when I was younger.

[TwoStrideLine]

Growing up, I started lessons at the local barn which happened to be hunter / equitation oriented. Though, it was really just a beginner barn so mainly the basics. Once I got my own horse, and had surpassed what the local barn could teach, we moved to a new barn run by a German immigrant couple. There was no such thing as hunters. Jumpers it was. I never looked back.