My wife took her first lesson in 25+ years tonight. The place she picked out has a heated indoor ring, which is good because it was getting dark out when we got there, and it is definitely getting colder. They gave her a early to mid-teens horse with one eye. I think they might use him a lot for lessons. He's pretty easy going, but I could see it in his expression he was done with work for the day and just wanted to go back to the pasture. She had a 30 minute lesson, re-learned how to walk him around, had him go through a slalom of cones, pull into a box of cones, turn around in the box, and back up a few times. She didn't get trampled, or kicked, but when it came time to get off the horse, she misjudged the height and fell down. As soon as I can find the right apps to downsize it and convert it to a gif, I'll upload it.
When she was done, she brushed him, gave him a couple of treats, and was leading him toward the pasture when the trainer's daughter said "your 5:30 is here", and they had to bring him back in. If that horse could have talked, he would have let out a F-bomb. I could tell he was pissed on the way back to the stable.
The stable offers 30 minute and 60 minute lessons, and if you buy a pack of 5 you can save 10%. They also offer boarding, and have some horses that you can lease. I'm guessing this is a partial lease, as it's cheaper to lease a horse than board a horse, and I'm hoping if the wife continues with this, that's what she chooses, at least for a few years. The leases are even month-to-month, and you can drop any time you want.
