that is not an actual photo of Foxglove.
Right; Foxglove?
Looks like a darling Morgan horse.
In fact, YES!
That is the actual @Foxglove !
I have had the pleasure of meeting her IRL.
Not sure if the horse is her lovely Will(iam Tell) or the Older Guy: W
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Thanks for the laughs
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@Moneypitt @2DogsFarm --2Dogs has a good eye --that is me in the pix, and I’m riding my old hunter W as William Tell was on loan to the superstar archer Diana Troyk at that meet. As to W’s Morgan appearance, he’s a Hancock QH which does have a Morgan look and probably a Morgan ancestor or two. While W is good at mounted archery, William Tell is better --he’s so consistent on his runs (12 to 14 seconds every.single.time) I am able to “stride count” and loose my arrows at the targets in the same place each run. That helps my accuracy a whole bunch! Here’s William Tell
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Me again. I highly suggest another discipline and most definitely another trainer. Try them ALL out. Dressage, low jumpers, tadpole eventing, lower levels of adult eq, working equitation (so cool!), fox hunting (the field that doesn’t jump big things perhaps?), and that doesn’t even touch the western/ games/ trick riding/ archery/shooting areas of horsemanship and riding. The beauty of equestrian sports is that there is so much variety to the disciplines and we all have our own journey.
I know it can be hard to access a trainer quickly, I got a bit lucky as a junior with pony club & a really phenomenal dressage foundation that helped me know quickly who is an excellent trainer vs mediocre vs bad bad bad. Ask your local network/ tack shop staff, and maybe most helpful, local vets/ farriers if you have a good rapport with them.
The time to move on is when you’re frustrated, not having fun, don’t feel like you’re progressing, and/or have feelings of inadequacy - all of which is evident in your posts. Horses as a hobby are too expensive and too time consuming to be unhappy with your involvement. Change it upppp!
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Nerdy question: What’s the draw weight of one of those bows? It looks heavy! Last year, out of a combination of covid boredom, the presence of a bunch of ancient hay bales in the field, bourbon, and rewatching Kenneth Branaugh’s version of Henry V, I decided I wanted to become a longbowswoman. But none of those namby pamby 5 lbs toy bows.they sell for medieval LARPers. I wanted the real deal, with authentic Battle of Agincourt draw weight upwards of 100 lbs. Obviously, some conditioning & training would be required, but when has that ever stopped me before? . Sadly, longbows with medieval draw weights no longer seem to exist (which is probably a good thing!) Maybe I would enjoy mounted archery in lieu of my longbowswoman dreams 
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My first thought is that you should try to distinguish between two issues: first are you frustrated with hunters in general? And second are you frustrated with all the basic, foundational work it takes to be not even successful, but just like legitimate? In reading your posts it sounds a little bit more like the latter but that’s really not for me to decide!
The best description I ever heard about riding is that “While riding is simple, it is not easy”. Which is to say that almost everything we are asked to do on a horse is not particularly difficult… And yet… Remarkably hard to do. I’ve competed in many disciplines over the years, with most of my time in the hunters, and unfortunately I can say that everything you are struggling with right now will follow you to every other discipline. Because rhythm is king and balance is queen. Without these two basic building blocks, everything is difficult. And with them everything is easier!
That said, if it turns out hunters are not your thing then don’t be afraid to try something else. I really enjoyed hunters and was more than a little bit successful over the years, but I always told myself that when I was too old to jump the sticks I would get a driving pony and drive. As I was looking for another hunter prospect, I realized that I wasn’t getting any younger and maybe I should switch to driving sooner rather than later. So I bought a pony and took up combined driving. I can honestly say that I have never enjoyed myself more. There is not a day that I do not kick myself for not picking up this sport earlier than I did. So to quote driving people, life is short, buy the pony. On the other hand, now that I’m doing combined driving and some ridden dressage, I am much more appreciative of how much harder other sports are. Don’t get me wrong, I rode hunters for years, I am fully aware of how incredibly challenging it is to find a horse that comes with the requisite skills to win, as well as the work and dedication it takes to produce the ever elusive perfect round, and I do thoroughly appreciate it. But when it comes to the balance of work it takes to create a combined driving horse, there is just no comparison! And not for nothing, it’s pretty damn hard to find a horse or pony that can be exceptional at combined driving.
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is that you Foxglove? don’t care - I am still riding with you come the Revolution - especially if you have a flask!
You are totally my hero! WOW! I want to do this -
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are you in VA?
@DMK The Traditional Asian Horse Bow (what I use, a/k/a Korean Horse Bow) is a light weight bow. Mine is 30# --might seem light to some, and many mounted archers, especially men, use a heavier draw --but I prefer the light draw. The distance one must shoot is never more than 59 feet --1/2 a course —and usually is far less than that : 20 feet to 30 feet. The name of the game is speed and accuracy --both equally important. Although I rely on accuracy to carry me (my horse is in charge of speed). If u decided to give MA a go, attend a clinic and make sure your bow is measured to fit you; and the arrows fit your draw. FYI there are people who still shoot longbow —look in the SCA websites or facebook groups. I see them practicing at the range I used to go to (prior to COVID). However, I have never seen a woman shoot a 100# long bow —I guess one could --but what I learned is that if the bow is too heavy a draw, it makes my arms sore --then I don’t practice. No practice, no success.
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@Danvers Yep. I’m riding my old hunter W in that photo. I posted one of William Tell below. Both are good horses.
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I live in Northern IN —the large hubs of Mounted Archery are AZ, CA, ID, TX and TN. We have no competitions in IN, but I travel (with another archer and her horse) to MI and OH where there are 4-8 between them. I generally do 4 a year (or did before COVID).
To me the best part about MA is I can set myself up for practice any place. Drop a target in a field (or arena) and canter figure 8s around it, shooting when I pass by. Or canter circles around it . . .all good. If it is really horrible out (I don’t have an indoor), I practice on the ground in my barn shooting down the aisle (horses not in stalls, of course). When I am preparing for ground competition (that is held all over the US --see USA Archery website) I take myself to the indoor range, where for $5 I can shoot for an hour. Better than no shooting, but I far prefer shooting with my horse!
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@Danvers --um, must relay that drinking is against the rules during competition hours. We are shooting weapons that can kill/maim people. A toast after a successful competition has closed, is common —but definitely no booze while one is holding a bow. (shudder).
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Mounted Archery (and so many unique horse things) sounds so much fun. I wish some of these fun things were more available in m part of the world (NY).
@trubandloki --with the WWW and YouTube, it is accessible to you. Would still suggest a clinic to get started (always good to know the right technique and have the right equipment before jumping in to a discipline). I find MA a good complement to fox hunting (winter sport) as MA is a summer sport.
All one needs to get going is a bow and 10 arrows (but do get the right bow for the sport --shouldn’t cost more than $200 --Traditional Asian Horse Bow —and the right arrows for that bow --feather fletched --I use carbon, some use wood --but I saw a woman who had been sold cross-bow bolts to use with her horse bow --too short! And plastic fletch will cut your hands as MA don’t use arrow rests).
Then watch a few YouTube videos on how to hold your equipment and take yourself outside to practice. I find shooting is relaxing --almost zen. And of course, great exercise as one must walk a great deal to find all the arrows that missed the target!
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It’s funny, last year right before quarantine started, I found an archery set at a goodwill. I practiced 30 minutes a day for a month, I think! Enough to shred my fingers even with the cute little fingerless glove you use for it. Sadly I was not very good at all, so I can only imagine I’d be about a million times worse on horseback. However, it would certainly challenge us to keep a regular rhythm at the canter. Maybe one day when everyone is gone to a horse show, I will give it a shot. I think my horse might really like it because he responds really well to “puzzle” tasks where he’s not the main focus of my attention, like opening and closing gates, herding small animals, or most recently, training my dog to run next to us and sit when we stopped.
ETA: How do you get your arrows back though 
That was the most grueling part of archery for me. Even with the neon colors at the end, if I missed the target by a mile, I had the worst time finding them all again. Now I’m imagining dismounting, leading my poor horse all over, scouring the ground and cursing my bad aim…
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Thanks for your perspective. I just want to add, or clarify, that I don’t underestimate the value of rhythm, balance, or any of the other foundational skills that are emphasized and rewarded in the hunters. I think some of the less charitable posts ITT assume I’m just like, “nope, not for me, next please.” What I’m coming up against is just a feeling that I don’t have those things and don’t have a good roadmap to get there, and that, at least from my vantage point and at my level, it feels like the only solutions are to ride a schoolmaster that doesn’t struggle with these things—which, fwiw, I have done in lessons, so I know there really are some horses that just apparently find a nice canter and stay there with zero rider input, and also cleanly change leads at exactly the right time with no rider input, and also find excellent take-off spots almost every time, which is very comfortable—and to hand off my horse to my trainer and take him back when he gets it, because I shouldn’t expect to DIY it, it feels very “stay in your lane and leave it to the pros” if that makes sense.
Anyway, I do really like my trainer even if I don’t feel like she always gives me all the tools to fix every problem in my riding life, and one of the many nice things about her is that she lets other trainers come teach at the facility during off-hours. So I had a great dressage lesson with an outside trainer, and she coached me through a couple warm up exercises to get my horse straighter. Even though we only worked at walk and trot, I thought I could really feel a difference the next day at canter. She was really good at diagnosing my good and bad sides and how they influence my horse. I was pretty impressed she could tell I was left handed by my riding. Anyway, suffice it to say I think cross training in dressage will help us a lot, and maybe we’ll never be superstars in flat classes, but I think we could be competitive in the 2ft division just by being straighter, more rhythmic, and generally more pleasant to look at.
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You know this but I am going to say it anyway - sometimes the road to the end goal is not the straight line that we want it to be.
Sometimes what a trainer teaches us seems like it is not what we should be doing, but a good trainer has a reason why they are doing it the way they are doing it.
Maybe have a discussion with your trainer, it might enlighten you.
I also think that your trainer bringing in outside trainers is one their ways of providing you with the tools for your tool box.
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Yes yes YES!! Dressage your hunter, and your jumper, your endurance horse, your gymkana pony! Every horse can benefit from the balance and correct muscle development that dressage work will give them. Gaining control over your horses shoulder is HUGE. Once you have a nice rideable second level horse you can cruise into the hunter ring, or whatever ring you choose, and have far more success.
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