My Ride With a Pro: Al Dunning of Team H&R

At right: Team H&R's Al Dunning gives me a riding lesson at his ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photo by Cappy Jackson.

June's issue of Horse & Rider includes an article about my opportunity to take a riding lesson from Team H&R's Al Dunning, at his ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. One of our blog-buddies inquired about what it was like to ride with Al, so I'll share a few things.

As an instructor, Al is PRESENT. You get his full attention, and he mentally rides with you, and coaches you, at every stride. He puts a lot of emphasis on the technical aspects of your riding skills--in particular, body position and balance. He can spot little things in an instant, like the fact that I tend to ride with a few more pounds of weight in my left stirrup than in my right, a result of my being stronger on the left side than the right. (I was not aware of this until Al zeroed in on it.)

Al assumes that you are there to RIDE, and to get better at it, not to talk, socialize, or theorize about riding. He does the talking (instructing, that is), you do the riding. He's not afraid to yell at you if your mind starts to drift, but he's not abusive about it--and he's generous with praise when you've earned it.

During my lesson, I rode a horse of Al's that I had never been on or around before. I was a tad tentative about that at first, but pretty soon I was so occupied by keeping up with Al's running-commentary style of instruction that I forgot all about the fact that I was on a horse that was new to me. Once I got home, I found that the improvements I got from Al translated very well to my own horse, Riley. I'm sure he would say "thanks, Al!" if he could!