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Old 01-24-2007,
 
 
 
mablisaki
Junior Member
mablisaki is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 3
 
 
Default Looking for a lesson barn in VA/MD

I'm looking for an h/j good barn in the Nova/MD area for myself to take lessons at. I live in Arlington and I'd like to keep my travel time to no more than 1 1/2 hours each way. I'm really not familiar with the barn scene around here so I don't even know where to start looking

A bit of background.... I’ve ridden for 15+ years, shown A circuit, etc but over the past 5 years or so have just ridden other people's mostly green (and often evil) critters. I've been riding horses for a friend lately, but the pony I'd been riding sold and I've been limited to riding a horse that I really don't feel safe riding...we mostly hack in fields and on the road and said horse is about as phobic as they come and that makes my rides no fun at all. His response to his phobias is to run like hell or ricochet himself off of trees and fencepost, which isn't fun. I don't enjoy fearing for my life when riding is supposed to be my stress reliever. I've noticed that I tend to panic a lot easier than I should and riding just isn't all that fun for me as it stands right now. My confidence is pretty shot. I really miss lessons, jumping and doing normal h/j related things, which I haven’t' done in a while.

So after a pretty damned adventurous (okay, scary) ride on Saturday I've decided I have two options:
A) Find a good barn to take lessons, get my confidence back, and remember why I like to ride
B) Quit riding for a while because my nerves can't deal with my current equine option anymore

I don't like option B, so if anyone could point me in the direction of option A, I'd be very, very appreciative.
Like I said, someplace no further than 1 1/2 hours from the Arlington area. Also needs to be someplace that is used to adult schedules and preferably does weekend lessons. Fun, relaxed atmosphere would be good too (someplace where I'm not going to feel like a weenie).
 
 
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