Riding with other horses in the arena

[Horselover21]

I’m having trouble while riding in the arena when there are a lot of other horses in the arena at the same time. One or two other horses and riders I can ride with just fine, but any more than that and I’m having trouble with steering around the other horses, giving them enough room, etc. I’ll admit that I get nervous when a bunch of other people are in the arena at the same time as me. The worst is when there are up to eight other horses in the ring at the same time as me. I’ve had a couple of near collisions with other riders and horses, and I’m afraid that I’m pissing other riders off at my barn because of it. Part of the problem is that the new horse my instructor has me on is difficult to control to begin with, so I’m struggling just to keep him contained a lot of the time even without other horses around. But then adding other horses and riders into the mix makes the work double for me, as I’m trying to control a harder horse AND I have to watch out for other riders.

What should I do?

[ChasPonyCat]

Okay, a bunch of follow up questions:

Have you talked to your instructor about it? How far along are you in your riding? Why did she put you on the hard to control horse? Is your instructor okay with you riding with 8 other people? Is there only one arena/area to ride?

[Abbie.S]

You ask a few riders if they wouldn’t mind scheduling a few sessions to ride with you and you practice.

We have a free group ride night at one of the barns that I teach at. Quite frequently, this is one of the most common complaints, that riders feel anxious riding around other horses. It is a problem that has sprung from Pony Club and other more populist riding movements where safety morphed into bubblewrapping. You end up with both riders and horses that never learn how to manage themselves in busy arenas. It also has created - and this is my opinion - environments where collisions happen or near-hits happen and instead of offering to help the rider who is struggling, the other parties involved snub the person and they become the subject of barn gossip or, as you say, end up “pissed off” at them.

So you get some folks you’re comfortable with you and you each go about your rides and you practice keeping your horse with you. I’m not sure what you mean by “difficult to control” but my guess is the horse is missing some basics in allowing the rider to guide their feet and you don’t know how to help him learn those basics. You need to ask your instructor for help with this and if they don’t know how, you need to find someone who does.

[Edre]

Oh, arena traffic! It’s a bit of a beast-with-many-heads situation, because of the different components involved, but here’s some ideas that may help you.

1. I assume everyone defaults to pass left shoulder to left shoulder - like driving on separate sides of the street. Same directionality.
   In the event a rider is doing something that would change left shoulder to left shoulder passing, they’re responsible for calling out that directive “I’ll be turning down center line at C” “10m circle at K” etc (also, don’t be a jerk about it - if you see fifty million people working in that space, don’t waltz in and say “LEG YIELDING HERE!” and expect them to give ground - but if the space is free or projected to be free via rate of travel, call it out and go to town.)

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate! Like in the example above where the rider calls out what they’re doing? Get into this habit frequently! “On the inside” “Cantering at X just so you know”.

3. Determine who has the right of way. It’s pretty standard that if a lesson is going on, they’re the priority - everyone else has to work around them. From there, it seems to vary more by barn (“Experienced riders work around/otherwise are responsible for navigating around people with less experience or having more issues with their horses”, “people at lower rates of speed stay on the wall”, are both fairly common ones I’ve seen, but check with your barn on this.)

Honestly?
Talk to your instructor, too. Identify what arena policy is (who has right of way, can they push to ask for people to be better at communicating where they’re going), and express your concerns. It’s great that you’re conscientious about this and trying to be mindful of being a good arena citizen! That’s a great first step, and your barn owner/manager/instructor (one or all of the above, depending on set-up at your barn) should be a great resource to have this discussion with. I’m sure they’d be overjoyed to hear someone is thinking about this, and would be happy to guide you!

(Likewise, if you end up riding with the same people routinely…talk to them about it! “Hi, I know I’ve been having trouble with Horsey and I’m afraid of getting into people’s way - I’m going to try to start calling out where I’m going to try to eliminate some of that, it would be great if you could let me know what you’re doing so I can do my best to stay out of your way as well!”)

After so long in boarding barns, everyone will run into the Arena Princess (or Prince) at least once in their life - who swans in, assumes they have the right of way/that everyone will yield to them, or is otherwise just an inconsiderate dumpsterfire to ride around due to lack of consideration and just being self absorbed. As a boarder myself (who has been both the person yielding to others, and the person asking others to yield to me) I would be really, really forgiving of someone who came to me and actually had a conversation to let me know they were thinking about this issue/concerned about it/wanted to work to make sure that it wasn’t becoming a problem.

[Horselover21]

@ChasPonyCat

Have you talked to your instructor about it?

No, I have not. I was hoping that I could come here for advice and not have to bring it up with my instructor at all. I’ll admit that it’s ego that’s preventing me from talking to her about this, so if I just need to suck up my pride and admit this to her I will.

@ChasPonyCat

How far along are you in your riding?

I have been riding for 10 months now. For the first six and a half months, I only rode once a week but for the past three and a half months or so I’ve increased my riding to twice a week.

@ChasPonyCat

Why did she put you on the hard to control horse?

Because she had me ride him instead of the other horse I used to ride one day and thought that I looked good on him, and because she’s trying to get this horse used more often since he’s hardly ever ridden by other students since he’s difficult to deal with.

@ChasPonyCat

Is your instructor okay with you riding with 8 other people?

I would assume so if she’s continued to allow it. I guess I could ask her though?

@ChasPonyCat

Is there only one arena/area to ride?

No, but there are only two covered arenas at my barn. There’s the main big arena that I’m riding in, there’s another covered arena but often times it’s being used by a therapeutic riding program we have at my barn at the same times I ride (especially on Saturday), so we can’t use that one since they have first dibs on it. Then we have an open dressage arena and jumping arena.

[Where_sMyWhite]

I would agree that talking to your instructor about the challenges you are having with riding with so many other horses in the arena and work out solutions with him/her.

It can be hard as a less experienced rider to ride with more experienced riders. I did ride dressage and yes, I’d be challenged often when even one upper level dressage riding was also riding. Communication was part of what was missing because I’d get frustrated that whatever I wanted to work on… even if it be simply like a leg yield or 20m circle would be almost impossible if I kept yielding to the more experienced rider.

I boarded for a few years in a mixed discipline barn. Forgive me but the western pleasure riders were almost the worst as I’d never know when they were going to stop and back up with very little or no warning :eek:

Usually my favorite people to share the arena with were either my instructor (not during a lesson) or the reining rider who kept her mare at the barn. She would work her mare on her patterns but was also respectful of both my sometimes ‘timidness’ as well as what I was working on. Loved her little chestnut mare and, at one point, I got to ride her and do a few low speed spins; for me, fast but for her, slow. That was a blast She was such a push button horse and so easy to ride.

[MissCoco]

I think a lot of people have good advice here!
When I started my first lease I had pretty good control over my horse, but I was still a very new rider (about like you actually!) so I would sometimes lose confidence and just make bad choices when I was stressed about a lot of people in the arena.

There were several people who I would often be riding with when I was sharing the arena, and over a couple of weeks I mentioned to them that I was a pretty new rider, and that I would try to pass left-to-left, and keep well to the inside if I was doing a walk warm-up or cool-down, but that I’d always be happy if they shouted out where they were going, and to let me know if there were any other “rules of the road” at that barn.
Just by letting them know that I wasn’t super confident riding in a group really improved communication, and also I noticed that people became a lot less annoyed if I ever did anything “wrong” or had to throw in an awkward circle or whatever.

I also told a trainer who sometimes taught a lesson when I was riding that I was pretty new, and if she ever wanted to just tell me where to be, I’d be happy to do that. She was teaching a young student, and I think she appreciated knowing that even though I was an adult, I might not have been quite as good about being in the right spot as a more experienced rider. That also helped since she would be at the barn at night even when she wasn’t teaching, and was an authority figure, so a few times when she was just passing the arena and noticed people weren’t communicating well she could remind people to tell each other where we were going!

[Chall]

I found the following stress-reducing:
Practice half circles a lot so you get comfortable doing them when necessary
Ask your trainer, or good friends to play “leap frog”. This is quite fun and its amazing how I could screw it up.
In a line of horses the first in line trots forward and then circles around and joins the back of the line. Next person at the front does the same. After a few rounds of that, the horse that is last in line trots up past the all the others and becomes first in line.
The leap frog game is great for both the rider and the horse, as some horses object to being passed & others dont want to pass.

At the barn where I boarded longest, the instructor would call out when someone on a green horse came in “okay, everybody is going to give Dobin clearance”. So that nipped problems in the bud.

[Scribbler]

@Horselover21

No, I have not. I was hoping that I could come here for advice and not have to bring it up with my instructor at all. I’ll admit that it’s ego that’s preventing me from talking to her about this, so if I just need to suck up my pride and admit this to her I will.

I have been riding for 10 months now. For the first six and a half months, I only rode once a week but for the past three and a half months or so I’ve increased my riding to twice a week.

Because she had me ride him instead of the other horse I used to ride one day and thought that I looked good on him, and because she’s trying to get this horse used more often since he’s hardly ever ridden by other students since he’s difficult to deal with.

I would assume so if she’s continued to allow it. I guess I could ask her though?

No, but there are only two covered arenas at my barn. There’s the main big arena that I’m riding in, there’s another covered arena but often times it’s being used by a therapeutic riding program we have at my barn at the same times I ride (especially on Saturday), so we can’t use that one since they have first dibs on it. Then we have an open dressage arena and jumping arena.

You need to have clear and open communication with your trainer. Ego has no place around horses. Ego is what gets you killed around horses.

You are a total beginner rider at this point. I don’t know if the horse is truly difficult, but clearly you don’t have the skills to feel comfortable on him in a crowded arena, and apparently he is too difficult for other students as well. This is not going to improve without some intervention from your coach. You need to tell you coach.

Otherwise your coach is going to think that things are going along just well until you have a crash and get hurt, or horse spooks or bucks and you get hurt, or until you crash into another beginner and they get hurt.

You need to discuss this with your instructor and ask for specific suggestions for how to get this horse to listen to you. There may be some specific techniques that can completely change the situation. Or your coach may have made a big mistake in putting you on this horse. But coach won’t know until you tell her.

Anyhow without seeing a video of you and horse navigating the arena, we can’t possibly tell what you need to do.

If you were a more experienced rider with a green horse, the obvious solution is to ride at less busy times, and that’s what the trainers at my barn do. They don’t take a nutcase OTTB greenie into the arena at 5 pm on a weekday and try to naviagate around the beginner group lesson program in the after-school time slot.

Anyhow, like I said, ego in any rider but particularly in a beginner rider can get you killed. You have a coach you are paying for expertise. Go to that person. If your coach is an idiot, get another coach.

[Horselover21]

@Scribbler

You need to have clear and open communication with your trainer. Ego has no place around horses. Ego is what gets you killed around horses.

You are a total beginner rider at this point. I don’t know if the horse is truly difficult, but clearly you don’t have the skills to feel comfortable on him in a crowded arena, and apparently he is too difficult for other students as well. This is not going to improve without some intervention from your coach. You need to tell you coach.

Otherwise your coach is going to think that things are going along just well until you have a crash and get hurt, or horse spooks or bucks and you get hurt, or until you crash into another beginner and they get hurt.

You need to discuss this with your instructor and ask for specific suggestions for how to get this horse to listen to you. There may be some specific techniques that can completely change the situation. Or your coach may have made a big mistake in putting you on this horse. But coach won’t know until you tell her.

Anyhow without seeing a video of you and horse navigating the arena, we can’t possibly tell what you need to do.

If you were a more experienced rider with a green horse, the obvious solution is to ride at less busy times, and that’s what the trainers at my barn do. They don’t take a nutcase OTTB greenie into the arena at 5 pm on a weekday and try to naviagate around the beginner group lesson program in the after-school time slot.

Anyhow, like I said, ego in any rider but particularly in a beginner rider can get you killed. You have a coach you are paying for expertise. Go to that person. If your coach is an idiot, get another coach.

Thank you for saying all this. I needed to hear this. I texted my trainer a few hours ago regarding my troubles and haven’t heard back from her yet. If she doesn’t respond to it today, I’ll for sure talk about it with her tomorrow before my lesson. I’ll take your advice to heart for sure.

[retiredhorse]

I agree, talk to your instructor. If you’re not comfortable on this horse or in crowds, they should know, so they can work on your skills to be better at both, or find you a more suitable horse or lesson time. Depending on the size of your ring, 8 horses can be a lot/too many. I prefer when it’s quieter, especially with a green horse.

What level are the other riders at?

In some cases, there are arena rules where less experienced riders stay “outside” or the rail and experienced riders pass on the inside, regardless of direction – but these things should be stated upfront AND out loud during the ride, to prevent crashes. If everyone is beginner, then perhaps everyone going in the same direction will mitigate some passing issues, but I imagine that they’d all be under the trainer’s supervision.

Generally, more experienced riders should look out for and give way to less experienced riders/horses, even when generally using L-to-L rule.

I won’t say it’s ok to cause a crash, but if you do get a little in the way or pass unsuccessfully and cause another person to pull up*, say sorry and try to be more aware of the other horses, but don’t obsess over a past mishap. Just try to prevent a future one. Keep your eyes up and look where you want to go, use peripheral vision to see where the others are. Your ears can help too, you can hear hoofbeats or horse breathing, as well as riders calling out where they’re going.

*And I would think if you’re in a lesson, your instructor should see this and help you deal with it or possibly remind others that lessoners have priority (unless you’re at a barn where they don’t?). Also, their instructions should be loud enough that the others can hear too, like if she wants you to ride a circle or across diagonal or something, so the non-lesson riders can watch where you’re going as well and stay out of your way.

[Horselover21]

@retiredhorse

What level are the other riders at?

Most of the riders at my barn have been riding for a few years at least, so they’re intermediate to advanced. They’re almost all intermediates or advanced riders in the arena during the times that I ride at on the weekends.

@retiredhorse

If everyone is beginner, then perhaps everyone going in the same direction will mitigate some passing issues, but I imagine that they’d all be under the trainer’s supervision.

As stated above, most of the riders riding at the same times I ride are not beginners. Also just to clarify, I’m paying for private lessons, so I’m not sharing my lesson with any other people during my ride times with my instructor.

@retiredhorse

*And I would think if you’re in a lesson, your instructor should see this and help you deal with it or possibly remind others that lessoners have priority (unless you’re at a barn where they don’t?).

I’m not sure about this TBH. I’ll ask about this as well. This has never even crossed my mind.

[stryder]

@Horselover21

Thank you for saying all this. I needed to hear this. I texted my trainer a few hours ago regarding my troubles and haven’t heard back from her yet. If she doesn’t respond to it today, I’ll for sure talk about it with her tomorrow before my lesson. I’ll take your advice to heart for sure.

Scribbler has offered excellent advice, and it’s connected to this: I became a better student when I realized that my instructor could not see in my head. If he gave instruction that was not clear, it was my responsibility to speak up. If I was becoming anxious about something, it was my responsibility to speak up. He was always ready to offer a different explanation, or break the exercise into smaller pieces that I could grasp. Taking a lesson is a two-way thing, and studying and learning are active.

Good luck.

[atr]

Something else to bear in mind…

Beginner riders can be hard to ride with because you can’t “read” them.

If I, as an experienced rider, am riding around looking out for you out of the corner of my eye, and you start a 20 meter circle, say, I’ve then gauged that if I continue on my trajectory and you carry on doing what you are doing all will be well.

If you then abort the movement because you’ve freaked out that I am riding towards where you currently are, rather than where you will be in 15 seconds, someone (probably me because I’m the experienced and therefore responsible one) is going to have to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. And that will, indeed, piss me off.

So if you are riding with other people, be disciplined about maintaining the line or figure that you started on, and let me know if you are doing something that you feel you might need more room for–I’ll gladly give it to you.

We’ve all been there. Certainly tell the people you are riding with that they might need to give you a bit more space, and that you aren’t just being oblivious, and they will generally be kind to you. None of us want to crash into you or frighten you!

The above is doubly true if you are in a lesson. If that’s the case, then I’m listening to what your instructor is asking you to do and acting accordingly, as it’s your right of way and my job to stay out of your way and not scare the crap out of you.