The barn I lesson at has really been struggling to find good lesson horses recently. We have had some good ones in the past several years, but we have also had to retire several due to age. The horse I am currently riding isn’t quite ready to join the program. While the mare isn’t naughty, she is just enthusiastic about working and jumping…she TAKES you to the fence.
Currently the lesson program has 5 nights of lessons, with one night having only one group lesson that uses school horses. Two of the other nights might see a lesson horse used twice, but would have a lighter beginner lesson, and a novice lesson. Most of the more advanced riders in this particular barn do have their own horses, so there is maybe only one or two lesson horses that would be jumped above 2’6", at most twice a week.
They are outside most days, weather dependent, during the winter, plus live outside all summer. The ones that need maintenance, do get it…be it injections, shoes, pads, supplements or extra feed.
As a student, I have found that school horses KNOW what they can get away with, with certain riders. These are smart critters. They have a rider that they know won’t make them go all the way into the corner? Of course they are going to take the short cut, and cut the end off the arena. I’ve been the student that has had to get on a “naughty” horse, and pretend to be a beginner. Floppy reins, bounce on the poor guys back, catch them in the face and land on their back after a jump. It isn’t an easy job to do all that wrong, for starters…but they would be pretty much perfect, because they knew who was on them.
Of course, the ones actually being naughty, and doing something like throwing a bucking fit in, or taking the bit between their teeth and taking off is a whole different story. That’s removal from the lesson program until it gets sorted out, starting with a tack fit, and seeing if they are sore somewhere.