A bit far-fetched?

[megnum]

My friend used to ride a bit and I encouraged her to start again, she did and loves it. She has had a couple of goes on my 11.2 and trotted over little poles but needed a lot of teaching etc, about 6weeks later she moved up a class into jumping . 1st week in this class and she told me that she had trotted cantered bareback and trotted backwards and next week she was jumping bareback and then 2 weeks later she told me she had jumped 3ft 3. Is it just me or is this far fetched or do some riding schools actually do this sort of thing as IMO it is odd

[rummi]

a big pinch of salt needed methinks!

[indibindi]

Yeah, they do. Doesn't mean the rider is a good one, or is balanced, or has the right seat, or has good hands though... just means she's daft enough to do it..
I\m sure some riding schools let folk do what they want to keep the business....

[mudlark]

I'd imagine most riding schools would be too terrified of the insurance liability angle to allow novices to jump 3'3" bareback or anything like it!

[horsey123]

yep it ture riding schools do that stick a 3`3 jump up in the school and say leen fallword and there u go they think they can jump

[Sue & Tinta]

So I take it that when she next rides your 11.2 you will see a marked improvement in her riding then ...............

Wonder if she would appreciate it if you offered to go along with her to her next lesson as a spectator as you are really interested in how she is going on and would love to see her in action .....

You could just smile and say that is wonderful and leave her with her dreams !

[lindaandrascal]

Well Brambles rider was saying only last night that she has to plead to get a jumping lesson because the owners of the (bhs approved) yard are terrified of people falling off, i cant see one letting them do all that, i think a pinch of salt is called for as well!

[Oranges]

Riding school i used to go to had one bloke jumpin by the end of his first lesson then at a sjing comp week after, well he stuck on nice enough thanks to poor horses mouth, if i remember rightly only lasted about a month before hitting the deck and giving up. If your friends doing all that stuff i doubt she'll have learnt basics.

[Amanda Dolby]

Never mind the jumping - Its the trotting backwards!!!!! Is she riding high school horses?
It is difficult with people that live in their own world to help them realise that down to earth and tedious is an inevitable reality of real life and learning a new skill.
Tread carefully here as she may not take well to being found out or may not cope with the embarasment - would be a shame to lose a friend.
You could just ignore the stories at the moment ask her if she would like to ride your pone again and then just have a laugh about the tall tales.

good luck

[bhpride]

I was just going to say how much I thoroughly enjoy riding backwards, everyone should do it! lol ;D

[ba]

If she is tellling a little fib why does it matter to you? she is probably just trying to impress you.

[buntybits]

How do you trot backwards then? I'd like to see that!

[MirandaSophie]

was she sititng on the horse while it trotted, or was the horse trotting backwards ?! * nervous laugh *?!!

jsut smile and be plesent. if she's fibbing, something will catch up with her, if not... erm... well, there ya go ! lol !

[geeup]

I feel sorry for her, shes clearly trying to live up to you or is either insecure or being dissilusioned by everyone else. All of us know theres no quick fix in riding it takes years of practise. Try not to go down to her level by reacting to it, you have to be the wise one here as you know better. Shes probably in for a big bump when reality strikes, if it is the riding school, think how she will feel when reality hits home.

[Vic]

Some riding schools may have let her pop over a cross pole i suppose....it's something that i've been bumping into a lot recently though that people have very vague ideas about height....I've done it myself, jumped a fence and gone 'wow, that's massive' and when i've actually gone and stod next to it its about 2'9"! Equally i've also been told by someone that they have been jumping 4'3" fences and when i actually see these fences they are more like 3'0", this person was not deliberately trying to mislead me, its just she was obviusly very proud of herself and had overestimated what she had jumped!!!! So maybe your friend has jumped a fence that she found scary but actually was not that big??? Its actually not that difficult on a good schoolmaster to jump a single fence if you have a good nerve and decent balance, the difficulty in showjumping comes from stringing fences together, the turns and the distances etc. (not that i'm saying that it is a great idea as a beginner mind!!)