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Women Who Started Riding at 50 or 60

Off Course
#1

I returned to riding horses for fun last year. I made a living working on a small horse farm in NJ in my twenties. Now, 56 years old, last year started taking riding lessons again. I keep meeting women who are doing the same thing.

I am curious to hear from women who started riding for the first time at 50 or 60 years old. I wonder what motivated you to take up this sport? It’s clear to me why I did, I needed the right circumstances for motivation, plus $$ and time.

I decided to write a feature article on this topic for a course I am taking in journalism. I would love to hear about your experience. What’s your goal? What fitness benefits have you noticed since you started riding? How often do you ride? Why not golf or tennis, why riding horses?

I’d also love to hear from riding instructors as to what an older adult beginner is like to teach.

I appreciate your time and hope to have a few responses.

#2

The Villages, the big mega-retirement community in Florida, has a social club called the “Horse ‘N’ Around Club.”

This link is to the list of social clubs:

http://www.districtgov.org/images/ClubsListing.pdf

The list provides contact info for each club. You might get in touch with that group to see if they have any members you could interview.

Many years ago, the wife of a former boss took up riding after they retired to The Villages. Last I knew, she was riding with a dressage instructor and owned half of a horse. She had just always wanted to ride, but never had the time, money, and opportunity all at the same time. (You know how that goes - when I had the time, I didn’t have the money, once I had the money, I didn’t have the time.)

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#3

Tory, tell your mom that some random 62-year-old said she is my hero! I sure hope to still be riding and look as good as her when I am her age!

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#4

@chaserider she is a lot of people’s hero (especially mine). You should see her on our Segway, she has incredible balance.

Besides horses and farm chores (which I refer to as the “senior activities program”), she swims, does yoga at least 3x a week, walks and rides her bike. Although she does admit that her cross country course walk pace has slowed down a bit:)​​​​​​

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#5

I came back to riding at age 52 after 25 years of being away from horses. I had to give it up at age 60 for financial and other reasons, but I keep hoping to get back to it one way or another.

If that counts, feel free to PM me if you want to. :slight_smile:

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#6

Hi, Thanks for the replies. This will be very helpful in putting together this article. There’s so much to say about women and horses enjoying life together. Everybody has a story to tell and I am so grateful to have replies :slight_smile:

#7

May I contact you to follow up on this reply? This might be the person I am hoping to focus on. Amazing woman!

#8

Sure, send me a PM. My mom is pretty darn amazing.

#9

:yes: Add a random 66yo to that list!
I hope to be doing my Century Ride at 76!

While I never stopped riding altogether, I did take a 20+yr “hiatus”, starting again in my mid-30s.
Then at 54yo I took a Giant Step & moved from the Big City I lived in for 40+yrs to a 5ac farmette,
Now nearly 13yrs (next month!) later I can’t see living any other way.
I credit my Barnchore Aerobics program with keeping me in better shape than a lot of my contemporaries. :encouragement:

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#10

I rode some when I was a kid, but not enough to qualify myself as a re-rider. I got back into it again volunteering at the local therapy center, which was at the time a nice walk from my condo complex. Thanks to the BO I was able to get on a nice old QH mare named Lady Lou. That was how it started. I was 51 (I think) at the time.

We found a stellar 7 y.o. Paint gelding for me in 2001 whom I still have. He is going on 23, I’m almost 69, and we are planning on our Century Ride in about 4 years. One of the greatest benefits to me was that the BO is a certified Centered Riding instructor, and had regular clinics which really were of tremendous value along with lessons. Horse’s one weak spot is that he is spooky, and before I had a good balanced seat I spent quite a bit of time mid-air wishing I could bounce.

I’m the oldest rider at our barn, but there are several of us over 60 and we enjoy leisurely strolls around the hayfield and adjacent trails when the weather is okay. I did give up cantering quite a few years ago, but have a teenager who has been riding him for me for almost 6 years, and he loves her. He gets all excited because he can run plus do a little jumping occasionally, both of which are favorite activities.

I think he is the more likely of the 2 of us to make it to a Century Ride, but I still ride 6 days a week, including daily before work, and intend to keep on going until the right leg won’t swing over in both directions.

4 Likes
#11

I rode as a kid and seriously, professionally into my late 20’s. Then I took 25 years off for the usual stuff – urban living, career, lack of the sort of funds it takes to ride if you live in a major metro area. In my late 40’s I started volunteering at therapeutic riding barns again. Then I started riding w/t lesson horses. Then I retrained for a new career, bought a farmette, slapped up a barn and adopted a retired harness race horse and two minis for him to chase around all day :).

My goals are 100% my own at this point – no more shows, no more trainer, no more hotheaded horses. I love to trail ride in sneakers and plan to adopt a youngster to do some endurance riding with in another year or two. My fitness is interesting – not skinny, but good lord am I strong from all the hauling. I’ve had to learn to protect my back by being a bit more careful! I love golf but have no time for it ;). I turned my life upside down to do this and feel very, very lucky. I plan to ride until I drop. Oh, and teaching adult beginners – I did not love that when I was a young instructor. I found adults fearful, stiff and stubborn!! Now of course, I am all of those things myself :eek::lol:.

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#12

I rode a very little bit when I was younger, and then, stopped thinking about riding. I lived in a large urban area for quite some time, so the thought of riding almost never crossed my mind. Then, I moved to a rural area and had a chance to ride a family horse on trail rides through the woods a few times.

I finally went back to riding in a serious way after my much-loved dog died; I knew that I could not get a dog for awhile, but wanted to be around animals. I started at a hunter barn about 5 years ago, at 52.

In the beginning, I compared myself to the little kids I rode with; I have wised up since then. I still ride, only in lessons, and accept that little Susie will leave me in the dust in about a year. I am slowly, very slowly, climbing up the skill levels for riding. I am a very timid, adult ammy, but I still keep showing up. It is the best part of my life.

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#13

I love horses because my mom loved horses. She gave me all her breyers when I was a kid, and ready me horse stories she loved herself. Marguerite Henry and The Black Stallion filled my childhood. But for all her love of them, mom never got to ride a real horse. She loved them from a distance, soon replace with motherhood, and me.

So, for her retirement present after 30 some odd years as an elementary school teacher, I got her a gift certificate from my trainer for $200.00 worth of lessons on my mare. Mom is not the most confident rider- she may never canter at all, but she loves it. And my Bonnie takes care of her. When they started together Bonnie was 4. Mom was 54. This march she turns 10, and mom will be 60 in the fall.

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#14

I returned to riding st 50…now I’m 69 and still competing every year. I still wake up in the morning and am thrilled that I get to ride that Day! My PRE and I are showing 3rd schooling 4th. At the last show, a young mom came up to me and told me her 12 year old daughter said she just wanted to have as much fun as that old lady on the gray horse. Ah well…

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#15

Thanks for the responses. It’s curious something is going on with my riding at the canter too. There doesn’t seem to be a category on this forum for basic riding questions. I started taking riding lessons last year in June. I did have back problems partially from overuse and returning to riding on a bouncy mare. She has big gaits and I was really out of shape. I’ve been riding steadily every week and changed riding instructors. This was a good change, the quality of horses and instruction is better for me. At $50 an hour, I am riding a Dutch warmblood or a QH both athletic and good teaching horses. I do a lot of exercises off the saddle, stretching, yoga, walking and strengthening. I walk with my toe out naturally so that’s a problem in the saddle. That’s an old problem and partly the way I am put together. But, I am struggling with feeling comfortable at the canter. It’s a problem of giving clear aids and me still being a passenger. I ride dressage and I struggle sometimes with not breathing or feeling a little scared as it feels like we are whirling around too fast. Is that something to do with being 56? I cannot afford a horse of my own. I have hopes that might change somehow. Even leasing might be too expensive for me. At some point, I’ll have to decide why I am riding, is it just fun? Is it a health benefit? I think it is. I feel stronger all the time and enjoy being with the horses.

#16

Hmmmm… so cantering feels out-of-control for you?
Not so much age I’d think, as the loss of being the one directing the ride.

Can you ask your trainer to longe you on the horses you are riding?
Taking away the reins (& possibly stirrups) will help you develop a balanced seat & that, in turn, will make you feel more secure cantering.

My current trainer is a bio-mechanics person & has helped me develop a secure seat & Less Is More approach to riding transitions.

Breathing is important, so do remind yourself to not hold your breath.
Breathing In lifts your diaphragm & lengthens your core.
Breathing Out aligns your Center of Mass - makes you sit deeper.

My WB was a former GP Jumper & had an {ahem} “electric” canter depart.
Maybe great for getting on course & on the timer after the bell. For dressage: not so much.
If I tightened up in response, he got worse & would also get light in front. At 17+h this was not a pleasant thing.
Learning to adjust my seat with breathing fixed this & we ended up with a lovely, soft depart that felt like I just thought “Up” & got it.

Riding a variety of horses is a Good Thing.
You will learn to feel movement better and fine-tune your riding skills so they apply to anything you throw a leg over.
As for why you ride, that is highly personal & you will have to discover your own answer.

Enjoy!

1 Like
#17

I’ve had horses for 40 years and did some “trail” riding on country roads while our daughter competed in Morgan classes. Then one of our babies showed a talent for carriage driving and despite starting with no driving experience at all, I trained him and showed him until he died of complications from Cushings at age 16. I got a 2 year old who, as it turned out, was adamantly opposed to driving and riding (took a broken harness, smashed carriage and later a broken arm to rule out those activities with him) so I got a western horse. I was 60 when I really started to ride. I am now 70 and despite a myriad of healthy problems, cardiac and diabetes, I ride several times a week. I take lessons when I can and compete in western dressage at schooling shows. I love my barn time, the exercise and the “one-ness” that I have with my boy. I clean stalls a few times a week, wrangle the 3 horses in and out and hope to continue for another 20 years! I think staying active and outside has kept my health issues to a minimum. When I’m on my horse, I am ageless, young and healthy again. I never want to give that up and hope I’m never aware of when my last ride is.

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#18

2dogs…I thought I’d do my Century Ride the hard way…on a 3 year old. :wink: Also, to the OP, I’m on my 3rd horse since I said I was on my last horse.

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#19

A 62-year old here. I rode for a few years when I was young (~ 9-12) but had to give it up when I ended up at a boarding school with no riding program. Didn’t ride for ~ 40 years and started back very slowly in my late 40’s/early50’s as my kids got old enough for me to pursue a time intensive hobby. Started with once a week lessons in a recreational program — leased and then purchased a quiet QH lesson horse as my first horse and started riding a couple times a week. Eventually got the dressage bug and bought a couple lower level dressage horses and started taking lessons from a dressage trainer – riding as much as I could while still working full time with teenagers still at home. Fast forward a few years — retired 5 years ago and decided to focus on improving as a rider. Bought a talented warmblood gelding and started training seriously with a trainer who is an excellent instructor as well as a good horse trainer. Got my USDF bronze medal and have 4th level scores towards my silver. Last year I bought an upper level warmblood gelding in the hope that he can be my silver medal horse. For me horses and my horsey friends have been an important part of my life – my DH passed away unexpectedly 3 years ago and coping would have been much more difficult without my own passion – and the friends that come with it.

4 Likes
#20

:lol::lol::lol:
Good idea, but I don’t want to wait that long :concern:

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